This Year's Garden

With Spring and warm temperatures finally here, we figured it was time to get the yard and garden in shape. Saturday I picked up all of our plants (FYI - Hi-Way nursery is the best! Their flowers looked amazing) and then got out all of my planters, hanging baskets, tools, etc to get the job done. I ended up weeding the ENTIRE back garden and got all of the planters and hanging baskets in. Plus the vegetables planted - phew. I am exhausted just thinking about all of the work that I put in.

Then on Sunday, Christopher picked up extra seed, Scott's Spring Turf builder and some Preen for me and he started to work on the lawn. Before brunch with our mom's, I weeded the front bed and completed ALL of the planting. Let's just say, I relaxed the rest of the afternoon :)

So glad to have all of it done. I am so pleased that our hard work last year in planting lots of perennials paid off. Most of the plants came back! We are happy because this winter and spring have been so rainy we were afraid that some of the bulbs and root systems would drown. It is definitely something we have to keep in mind when planting. In previous years the water has not been as bad in the back.

Looking forward to posting more pictures as the garden blooms and grows!

Mother's Day 2014

Yesterday we celebrated Mother's Day with both sets of wonderful momma's! Christopher and I took our Mom's out to Bonefish Grill for brunch (who knew they served brunch!). The food was delicious and the endless Mimosa's and Bellini's were tasty too. I splurged on this meal (like really...splurged) - Stuffed Creme Brulee Grand Marnier French Toast! It was so melt in your mouth delicious. My mom ordered the same thing and my mother in law ordered their Oscar omelet with crab, asparagus, mozzarella and lemon butter. It looked pretty good too. 

The mom's loved their gifts. We got them a monogrammed note card set, gift card to Disney (for next springs trip) and then a journal with ideas for stories so that they can write down all of these memories and we will have them to treasure someday. It was really fun reading some of the questions or themes and hearing the stories. I look forward to reading through it completed some day. 

Fun Take on Bubble Pizza - Buffalo Chicken Bubble Pizza

This past Sunday was a lazy day for us Musialowski's. We slept in, read the newspaper, puttered around the house, did a little shopping and then did a whole lot of resting. Needless to say, I did not feel like cooking anything elaborate for dinner. I had a real craving for pizza, but we did not have  pizza sauce (should have thought of it when I did the shopping...lazy brain too I guess). I did find we had like three bottles of buffalo wing sauce, so I figured something like buffalo chicken will do. That is when I got the crazy idea...why not buffalo chicken bubble pizza. 

My mom's recipe for bubble pizza is pretty amazing and one of the most popular posts on this blog, so why not change out the beef for chicken and pizza sauce for some wing sauce? It was a successful experiment and super easy to put together on our lazy Sunday. I really got lazy and even used canned chicken. 

Buffalo Chicken Bubble Pizza

Serves 3

1 can refrigerated can of biscuits (like Pillsbury)

1 can of chicken breast

1/4 cup hot or buffalo sauce of your choice

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Optional garnish: sliced green onions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Quarter the biscuits. Lightly spray a 8x8 pan with non-stick cooking spray. Arrange the quartered biscuits on the bottom so that the whole bottom of the pan is covered. Strain the canned chicken to remove the water and then dump the chicken into a medium mixing bowl. Combine the buffalo/hot/wing sauce with the chicken in the mixing bowl and mix well until all of the ingredients are combined.  Sprinkle the sauced chicken over the biscuits in the prepared pan. Try to cover the biscuits with the chicken mixer as evenly as possible. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes. Take the pan out and add the shredded cheddar to the top. Put pan back in the oven for another 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and bubbly. Let the dish set for about 5 minutes after taking it out so slicing and serving is easier. I added the sliced green onions when the dish was setting.

Canisius College's Regents Ball

This past weekend, Christopher and I attended the annual Canisius College Regents Ball. It is their annual fundraiser for the student scholarship fund and they present a distinguished citizens award. This year's recipient was Russ Brandon, CEO of the Buffalo Bills.

We had a wonderful time. We started off the event by having some pre-event beverages at the Hofer's. Then we headed over to the Hyatt to continue our cocktail drinking and to try and win some of the amazing raffle items. They had everything from a trip to Disney, Hilton Head, Keuka Lake, Ellicottville to Buffalo dining packages, Elmwood shopping package and the best one...a fully stocked liquor basket. Unfortunately, Christopher and I won none. We will get 'em next year!

Russ Brandon was a fun speaker and I enjoyed his speech. John Murphy, the "voice of the Bills," was our auctioneer for the night and he did a great job. They auctioned off three Football related items - Super Bowl package, Hall of Fame weekend package and a suite and on-field passes for a Bills home game. I think Christopher drooled over each one.

Then of course there is the dancing part. I even got Christopher out on the dance floor for a bit. Overall it was a fun night spent with friends new and old.

Fun Facts about the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival

With our trip about 2 weeks away, I thought I would share some fun facts about this year's Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival. I am so glad that we will be able to enjoy at least a little of the festival before it closes out for 2014. All of these fun facts were provided by Walt Disney World through their Disney Blog.

I also included some pictures from the 2011 Festival when Christopher and I went down for vacation.

-          30 million blooms blanket the park throughout the festival

-          1,000 native butterflies represent up to 10 species at the expansive Tinker Bell’s Butterfly House

-          At 13 ft tall, 4,300 pounds and 4,000 small plants, the garden’s Sulley Topiary is one of Disney’s Largest

-          The festival’s front-entrance "Spring is in the Air" topiary scene comprises three character topiaries – Donald, Daisy and Goofy on a butterfly spotting excursion and more than 15 varieties of flowers, plants and other garden materials

-          Mike & Sulley’s Monstrous Garden is one of the largest festival gardens created at near one-third acre

-          At least 25 different plants, grasses and mosses of various colors are used to create and define facial and other features of festival character topiaries

-          More than 500,000 plants, trees and scrubs are planted for the festival, 250,000 of those are annual blossoms installed for the festival

-          Festival plants include 60 different species of trees, 47 types of palms and 48 varieties of bedding plants

-          150 hands on gardening demonstrations and seminars will be presented

-          Thirty “flower towers” of several varieties of blooms and plants line Innoventions Plaza

-          225 floating mini-gardens each three feet in diameter of multi hued impatiens provide splashes of color on two ponds that border the walkway between Future World and World Showcase

-          700 container gardens of flowers, herbs, plants and vegetables in clay pots, barrels and urns enhance the landscape throughout Epcot

-          400 WDW horticulturists are needed to install the festival landscape, topiaries and many exhibits

-          100 Epcot horticulturist maintain topiaries and other festival displays

-          It takes more than one full year and about 24,000 cast member hours to prepare for the annual festival

Spring Blooms

It is hard to believe that it is already May 1st! And I am wearing a turtleneck! At least my spring time bulbs are breaking through despite the cooler temperatures.

Hopefully in a couple of weeks my irises will bloom.

Happy Spring!

Spaghetti Carbonara - Quick & Easy

Last week for dinner I made a classic Italian dish - Spaghetti Carbonara. I forgot how delicious, yet quick and easy this dinner is to make. With only 5 ingredients taking 15 minutes, dinner was done in a flash.

Spaghetti Carbonara

8 oz spaghetti
2 large eggs
3/4 cup grated Parmesan
4 slices bacon, diced
4 cloves garlic, mined
salt & pepper to taste
Optional: garnish with parsley

Instructions:
In a large pot of boiling water, cook pasta according to package; reserve about 1/2 cup water and drain well. In a small bowl, which together eggs and Parmesan and set aside. Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add bacon and cook until brown and crispy (should take about 6 minutes) and remove fat. Stir in garlic, about 1 minute. Stir in cooked pasta and egg mixture and gently toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste. If the egg "sauce" is too thick, use some of the reserved pasta water to thin. Eat immediately with added parsley garnish (optional).

Voila! And you are done!