Fourth of July Desserts

For the 4th of July, we celebrated with Christopher's extended family on the 4th and then with my family on the 5th at our house. For Christopher's family's party, we brought two desserts and an appetizer. I am kicking myself for not taking a picture of the app - Firecracker Chicken Roll ups. Basically it is similar to Buffalo Chicken dip only spread on a tortilla and chilled, then sliced for easy consumption. Mmm making me hungry as we speak. 

For the desserts I made mini cherry and blueberry pies and Firecracker cookies - no worries - no remnant of the buffalo chicken - just shares the same name ;)

I will post the three recipes, but sadly I have no pictures of the chicken. Have no fear - I believe in this recipe as all 30 chicken roll ups were consumed with 30 minutes of us arriving there. It is a winner!

Firecracker Chicken Roll ups

Makes: About 30-36 rolls (depending on thickness sliced)

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup hot wing sauce

1/4 cup ranch dressing (can sub blue cheese)

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions

1 lb chicken breast (or 2-3 cans of chicken - quick and easy)

5 large flour tortillas

In a bowl, beat cream cheese on low and add in sauce, ranch, cheese and green onions. Beat until blended. Stir shredded chicken into mixture by hand. Spread approximately 3/4 cup of mixture on top of one of the tortillas. Roll up tortilla tightly, but without shifting the mixture too much. Repeat with remaining tortillas. Place rolled tortillas on a plate and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 2-4 hours. Remove and unwrap. Slice each rolled tortilla in half and then each half into 3 slices, discarding the ends. Place pinwheel slices on a serving plate. I stuck a toothpick into each of them for easy grabbing and eating. 

Firecracker Cookies

Makes: 4 dozen cookies

1 box of 4th of July Funfetti cake mix (sold seasonally)

1 tsp baking powder

2 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, mix together the cake mix and baking powder. In a small bowl, mix together the wet ingredients. Add the egg mixture to the cake mixture and stir to combine. Drop by spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes until golden. Wait about 1-2 minutes once they are out of the oven before moving to a cooling rack. 

Mini Pies

Makes: 5 dozen mini pies

1 box of refrigerated pie crust, thawed (should contain 2 crusts)

1 can of Cherry pie filing

1 can of blueberry pie filing

1 egg (for egg wash)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease at least two 12 cup mini muffin pans (I only own two - if you own more - grease them all up!) and set aside. Flour a smooth, clean surface. Unroll 1 of the pie crusts. Using a small glass or circle cookie cutter about 2" wide, cut out as many circles as possible and gentle push each circle into one of the mini muffin pan openings. Form remaining dough into a ball and re-roll out using a rolling pin. If dough is sticking to pin or surface, add some additional flour. Cut out as many circles as possible and push into the pan. Continue doing this until all of the dough from both pie crusts are used - should yield about 60 mini crusts. 

Next, create an egg wash by breaking the egg and adding just a little bit of water to the bowl with the egg. Using a pastry brush, brush each crust with the egg wash. Next, open up the cans of pie filing. Using a teaspoon (like actual teaspoon, not a measuring spoon) scoop out a little bit of the pie filing onto each crust. Once you have two pans set, bake in oven for about 25 minutes until the crust appears to be golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool for about 2-3 minutes before removing from the pan to a cooling rack. Repeat until all crusts are cooked.

Note: I did wait a couple extra minutes after removing the pies from the tins so the tins could cool some more before making the next dozen. I also split my pies evenly between cheery and blueberry.

Date Night with Christine :)

I had the pleasure in June in joining Christine and her family to a Paint on Tap session! I had not had a date night with Christine in a long time, so this was so exciting. Plus - I have wanted to try one of those wine and paint parties anyways - double score!

We all went out to dinner beforehand and then went to the studio. We went to Paint on Tap in Williamsville and it was wonderful - highly recommend this company. Everything was set up when we arrived and we were all able to sit together. And our instructor for the night was someone we went to grammar school with - Dan! The place sells the wine and beer for some liquid courage. We needed it and finished two bottles :)

It was a fun night and ended with great painting and froyo! Can't beat that!

Annual Scleroderma Walk!

The annual Scleroderma walk was also held in June this year (busy summer, right?). This year's walk was held in the Eastern Hills Mall in the Food Court area. 

Every year we are blessed by having so many friend and family come support my mom and raise funds for Scleroderma. And of course - there were tons of basket raffle prizes! And our team Kathy's Krew won many of them again!

This year, my mom wrote AM Buffalo (Channel 7 in the Buffalo area) to see if they would promote the walk and Scleroderma awareness and...she was asked to go on television! She did such a wonderful job promoting awareness and the walk. You would not even know she was nervous! Great job Momma!

As of the morning of the walk, our Buffalo chapter had raised over $14,000! 

Thanks to everyone who came out to support this wonderful foundation!

 

Michael's 50th Birthday Party & Family Visit

Also in June, we went down to visit Mike, Michelle, Micah and Maximus. The plan was: fly home from Puerto Rico, land at 2 pm, get in car and drive to Charlotte and arrive by 1 am. This would give us plenty of time to sleep and wake up refreshed and play with the kids. Well...that did not go according to plan. My first flight from PR to DC was cancelled at 1:30 in the morning. I rescheduled it at 3 in the morning for PR to Orlando about 2 1/2 hours later than the original flight. So..not horribly later. Then I land in Orlando and a HUGE storm rolls through - like HUGE. Sky to Ground lightning, power went out inside the terminal, flights couldn't land and were diverted, etc. Unfortunately my flight to Buffalo was diverted to another airport! Therefore, by the time the flight landed in Orlando, we waited for our crew to land on a different flight and then took off around 7:15PM!!!!! I did not land in Buffalo until almost 10 pm!!! Three hours short of when we should be arriving in NC. Needless to say, it was a long night of driving to Charlotte.

But we made it! We had so much fun catching up and hanging out with family. And Mike's party was fun too. Michelle threw a casino themed party and had several table games going. I did very well at roulette. Too bad it was only fake money :(

For Mike's birthday, he wanted to do a NASCAR driving experience with his dad and brothers, so they headed to Charlotte Motor Speedway to race in actual NASCAR cars. Christopher said the experience was awesome. The guys are already talking about doing it again!

Work trip to Puerto Rico!

Alright - say I am behind posting is an understatement! Back in mid-June, I went down to Puerto Rico on a work trip. The trip was fun, but more work than play this time. I am upgraded to a lovely room that was HUGE! I stayed at the Hilton Condado and it was very nice and the rooms were recently renovated. 

For this trip, I gave a training on export compliance to the accounting and logistics group. I love giving these trainings because you really get to dig deep in our businesses processes and then figure out ways to improve our efficiency. Everyone was really friendly and I hope to go back down there in another year!

I've Got that Holiday Feeling

Is it weird that I am already excited for the holidays? It is that time of the year when I create my holiday plan - checklists, to-do lists, menus, and planners oh my! And it makes me so excited. I know- I am a loser.

Typically, I start my holiday plan about 12 weeks out from Christmas; this year starting the first week in September.

I have started to prepare my list and check it twice. But no worries - you have all been nice this year ;)

Springtime at the Musialowski Residence

I LOVE spring. One of the many reasons is that I spend more time outside and in my garden.

I also love to garden, including pulling weeds - weird, right? I love the planning, the colors of the flowers, the smells,etc.

Here are a couple pictures of the garden right after we did our spring planting. I hope to post more pictures as the flowers start to really take and bloom all summer long!

Day 8 - 2014 Trip to Disney - Time to Say Goodbye for Now

It was a our last day in Disney paradise. One of the many things I love about Disney is their customer service. Our boarding passes were printed and delivered to our hotel room! They also emailed us a copy of our hotel bill for our records and quick check out - score! We got everything cleaned up in our room and went to check our bags with the concierge and with the airport check in at the resort - another fantastic perk! They weighed our bags, tagged them and had them delivered to the airport for us. Sweetness!

Then it was onto the pool. We laid out for a couple of hours to catch some last minute sunshine. Then we had lunch and drinks at the pool bar. I was not feeling to well from the heat, so we walked around the shops on the Boardwalk and people watched.

Clouds then moved in and we walked outside around the Boardwalk and decided to check out some of the other resorts along Crescent Lake. We walked over to the Yacht and Beach Club. The pool over there is amazing. It is a sand bottom pool which looks so cool! Also over at the resort was a Pearl Factory. So Christopher treated me to a pearl. I picked the ugliest one and inside was a beautiful white/silver pearl! So excited to add it to my collection. Someday I hope to make a pearl bracelet from all of the pearls I have collected from our various trips.

We then walked back to the resort, gathered our things and waited for the Magical Express. Once we boarded the bus, it started to rain! Must have been Mickey's tears since we were leaving. Luckily we were arriving in Buffalo where the temps were in the 70's (all our Buffaloian family and friends - you are welcome!).

Our flight was delayed an hour :( But our vacation was literally perfect. We caught all of the buses and really didn't have to wait much, so we really can't complain about a delayed flight home.

Disney - we will see you real soon in December! Looking forward to having new experiences and memories at Disney!