BBQ Pulled Pork Quinoa

Last night I made up a new recipes - BBQ Pulled Pork Quinoa. It turned out delicious and it was very filling. I already had the pork ribs thawed, but I wanted a side to go with the ribs. We have been having potatoes so often that I thought rice and then saw quinoa in my cupboards. Well that settled it! So I decided to cook the quinoa and then mix in the delicious cooked pulled pork, along with the leftover BBQ sauce.

I cooked the pork ribs in my crock pot during the day, so that way all I had to do when I got home from work was to cook the quinoa and then mix everything together! So easy! I also added some diced green onions and cheddar cheese too.

Look What Came in the Mail Yesterday...

OUR MAGIC BANDS. I LOVE getting packages from Disney. Hard to believe we will be there so soon. And there is still so much left to do! This weekend - pullout all the summer clothes and put the winter ones away. Then I can start planing my vacation outfits - woot woot.

Almost Three Weeks Away!

I can't believe how quickly time has passed between our last trip to Disney and our next one! It seemed like the countdown was three digits and now all of a sudden we are a little more than three weeks away from sunshine and Mickey Mouse.

Our itinerary has changed a bit over the last couple months, especially with the various new experiences Disney has come out with. Here is a summary of how our vacation looks today:

Day 1: Epcot and the International Flower and Garden Festival. Fast Passes at Test Track, Mission: SPACE and Spaceship Earth (which we will probably change). Dinner reservations at Tokyo Dining (a first for us!) and we booked one of the new Epcot experiences - Epcot After Hours Wind Down at the Rose & Crown Pub (England).

The Epcot After Hours Wind Down is a new special experience that requires a separate ticket. The ticket includes the additional park time after Epcot closes, 1 alcoholic beverage or beverage flight (whatever is being offered at the location) and small plates of appetizers. Our fingers are crossed for a whiskey tasting :)

Day 2: Magic Kingdom Day. We were lucky recipients of the Be Our Guest Fast Pass + selection, so we will be having lunch there. Our other Fast Passes include Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain. We are hoping the new Seven Dwarfs Mine Coaster is open by the time of our trip, so we will swap one of our Fast Pass experiences for that.

Day 3: Rest Day. We have breakfast plans at Kona Cafe (can you say Tonga Toast! We are so excited to try it) and then nothing else is planned. Crazy, right? With our premium annual passes, we have the luxury to try out one of the water parks (fingers are crossed we get in) or we can just lounge by the pool at the resort and enjoy the BoardWalk.

Day 4: Day 2 of Epcot. We have Fast Passes for Mission: SPACE, Soarin and Living with the Land (which we will probably change). A nice day to relax and wander the park.

Day 5: Day 2 of Magic Kingdom. Our Fast Passes are currently for Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin and Peter Pan's Flight. We have dinner reservations at 'Ohana (inside the Polynesian Resort). I am so excited to try 'Ohana - so many people have recommended it.

Day 6: Hollywood Studios. STAR WARS WEEKEND festivities. We are excited to take it all in. Although there are no celebrity autographs or character pictures we have to get, we want to see what this festival is all about! We may or may not have special shirts to wear - you will have to wait and see. Our Fast Passes for this day are for Tower of Terror, Toy Story Midway Mania and Star Tours. We also have dinner reservations at Mama Melroses.

Day 7: Hollywood Studios - Day 2 of Star Wars Weekend. We booked the special event breakfast for Star Wars Weekends at Sci-Fi Diner and Drive in - we are very excited about that! Our Fast Passes for the day are for Rock n Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror and Star Tours.

Day 8: Rest and Relax day! Maybe do some shopping before we head home? We shall see what the day brings!

And of course I cannot forget to pack my Disney Parks Cards! I just love how they turned out. You can get your very own set on my Etsy site. The whole set if $25 - you really can't find a better deal, especially when it comes to Disney.

Easter 2014

Another holiday is in the books for the Musialowski family. It was a wonderful day spent with family. Our house was up unusually early to celebrate. EB did not disappoint. The Easter bunny brought little Marv some of his favorite raw hides and bacon treats.

Christopher received a basket with craft beer, a new garden hose, chocolate covered espresso beans, drink mix, jelly beans and some other stuff.

EB remembered me this year! He sent me on a scavenger hunt with lots of clues hidden all over the house. I found my prize in our renovation space! He gave me a HUGE (literally HUGE) blue hydrangea plant for our garden and some of my favorite chocolate Reese's eggs.

We then had our annual breakfast together, including the smoked polish sausage we got from the Broadway Market. After breakfast and some R&R, we headed to Rizzo's Banchetti's meet up with the Leutze clan. We had a wonderful brunch there, filled with lots of laughs and delicious food.

After brunch we went back home and enjoyed some of the wonderful sun. Marv loved being outside and playing around. We then packed up the cheesy potatoes and drove over to the Musialowski's for dinner. Mom Musialowski cooked a fabulous Easter dinner.

It was a lovely day and...I am still full from all of the delicious foods.

Wy-Guy

Last Saturday I got to watch my favorite God son Wyatt for a bit. We had a blast. He is at such a fun age right now where he loves to draw, play with blocks, dance, bounce and read. And we did all of the above many times over on Saturday.

I learned that:
- he loves Disney, especially Toy Story, Monsters Inc and Cars
- his favorite color is orange followed by purple
- he can draw lines and dots very well
- he loves to repeat what you say (good thing I watched my mouth!)
- towers are only good if you can knock them down (obviously)
- he is an excellent snuggler

Oh to be a kid again!

Danny is off to the Navy

Our nephew Danny has joined the US Navy. We are so proud of him - he will do well and is very determined. We said our goodbyes and good lucks in February before he left for training. Hard to believe that two months have passed and he has graduated from training!

Both Christopher and I were off last week Friday and were able to watch the ceremony live through the internet. Danny has joined the choir and we were able to see him very well when the choir sang at the graduation. It was very special.

Chet, Pam and the girls all went to Chicago for it and it sounds like they had a great time. Danny is now off to San Antonio!  Good luck in your next adventure Dan!

Danny is in the top row, 2nd from the right 

Spring in Finally Here :)

Spring is finally here in Buffalo. And little Marv is loving it! He is loving our walks (and so are we) and it is so nice to see everyone coming out of their homes and moving about. It is not quite ready to start planting, but I started to clean up the yard and the garden beds.

This year we are going to see what came back from all of the planting we did last year and probably just plant some annuals here and there to add a bit of color. Looking forward to spending more time outside!

Renovation - DEMOLITION

Every renovation project has to start somewhere, right? Well ours started with demoing the current space.

For those who have not heard us talk about his project (although the project has evolved, we have been planning this for a year now) we are putting in a master suite complete with a new bedroom and full bathroom, library/office space and additional storage. This is all going upstairs in our "spare" space which he had been using as storage. The spare space has no plumbing, no heating/cooling, super old insulation and very old, barely there electrical. So a lot of work needs to be put into making the space livable.

For demo purposes, we had to tear out the existing walls which consisted of really thin, cardboard like material that is used in trailer homes. Then rip out all the insulation, which was old and non-existent in some parts. We removed the ceilings and non-weight bearing boards.

Phew - it was a lot of work. We split up the work over a whole week. We were blessed to have help from our dads and friends Jonathan and Reese. Our goal was to have the whole space demo'ed and garbage removed by Sunday, April 13, as it was our neighborhood's bulk trash pick up that week. By having the demo done by bulk trash pick up day, we would be saving a ton of money by not renting a dumpster.

We made our goal! It feels great to have this step done! Pretty soon we will be meeting back up with our project coordinators and general contractor to start the work! As of right now, we will be completing the project in three parts:

1) Putting in the framing, electrical, heating/cooling and insulation.

2) Completing the bathroom

3) Finishing up the rest of the space with final touches and completing the library.

Marv's Graduation

A couple of weeks ago, our little "Marv"elous graduated from his first session of agility training. We were not really sure how he would like or take to the training, but it was something fun to do with him during the cold winter months. Well...he LOVED it and does really well with it. I think we (Christopher and I) need more training than he does.

His teacher gave him a special doggie cake treat and a rope toy

Because he did so well with the first session, we decided to invest in another session. He was able to move up a level, but they were in the middle of their session, so we are hoping into the middle of what they have learned. Our first lesson in the new session was a little intimidating because the dogs were well versed in the course as they have four weeks on us, but Marv did fantastic. He even went into the "big" boy ring to do a course and did well. Me on the other hand - not so much. I apparently need to practice more than he does lol.

CHS GAMBIT 40

This past weekend we attended Canisius High School's 40th GAMBIT fundraising event and dinner. It was a blast! We hosted a Musialowski table this year - Chet & Pam joined us for the first time, as well as our friends Dave & Abby. Christopher's parents also sat at the table and we were even joined by a priest friend - Fr. Tom Colgan from Canisius College. We all got dressed up for the event. Everyone looked so handsome and beautiful.

We "won" several prizes this year. Christopher won me this fabulous black leather Kate Spade bag. I won an autographed Newt Gingrich book and a cute Dooney & Burke Wristlet. I totally made out this year and actually feel a little selfish because the autograph Christopher wanted we did not win. I should have been more aggressive about it. Lessoned learned for sure!

Chet & Pam won passes to the US Open, which they are so excited to gift to Pam's parents for their 60th wedding anniversary! How sweet.

Dave & Abby won an annual pass to the Greycliff Conservancy and 8 weeks worth of dance lessons, which will come in handy for their wedding next year!

I am not sure what mom and dad won - I will have to find out from them.

Dinner this year was fabulous! In the past couple of years dinner has been so-so. They served this nice colorful spring salad, dinner was a duet plate with baked chicken and a perfectly cooked steak. Even the green vegetables were tasty. But dessert was the best - they served a salted caramel mousse inside this cute white chocolate cup with a crispy caramel disc on top. MMMM I wish I could have bought a second one.

All in all it was a great time! Already looking forward to our next black tie event - Canisius College's Regents Ball. Rumor on the street is...the Buffalo Bills are going to donation two passes to the Super Bowl :)

Baked Scallops

Last night I decided to get back into trying new recipes. It has been tough the last month with Christopher unable to drive. This means we get up extra early in the morning to get ready and leave so we all can get to work on time and it also means that we do not get home until later. So dinners have been relatively quick and easy.

I found this recipe on Pinterest and decided to adapt it a little bit to our tastes. I found some small bay scallops on sale (now is a great time to find seafood with Lent underway) and needed to find a fun recipe to try them.

Bay Scallops Gratin (Serves 2)
4 tbsp butter, at room temp
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp onion powder
5 slices of Turkey Bacon, chopped small (I use our poultry scissors to cut it up into small pieces - I find this works better than trying to slice it with a knife)
2 tbsp parsley
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup panko
2 tbsp dry white wine (we used a dry riesling)
8 oz bay scallops

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Use a gratin dish or a shallow baking dish that would fit all of the scallops in a single layer. I used a shallow 9x9 square dish.

To make the yummy topping, place the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer (like a Kitchen Aid) using the paddle or rubber paddle attachment. If you do not have an electric mixer, use a hand mixer - it is much easy to cream the butter with the ingredients using a mixer than by hand. With the mixer on low speed, add the garlic, onion powder, bacon, parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper and mix until well combined. With the mixer still on, slowly add the olive oil. Then fold the panko in and set aside.

In the dish, pour the wine in the bottom of the pan. Prepare the scallops for baking by removing the white muscle and membrane of each scallop and discard. Distribute the scallops in a single layer in the dish. Spoon the garlic butter mixture evenly over the top of the scallops. Bake for 10-12 minutes. To get the topping browned and crispy, turn on the broiler and broil the dish for another 1 to 2 minutes. The topping will brown quickly, so do not leave the dish unattended. Sprinkle with a little extra parsley for garnish (if you wish) and some additional lemon juice.

We served our scallops with some sauteed asparagus. Enjoy!