Our 3rd Anniversary

Christopher and I celebrated our 3rd Anniversary this week. So far it has been incredible. We had an amazing private tour of the Ralph Wilson Stadium given by Sammy Watkins (See earlier blog post on our fabulous tour).

We went out to dinner on our actual anniversary to Russell Salvatore's restaurant and indulged in delicious steaks, seafood, dessert and champagne. When we came home, we were surprised to find some chocolate covered strawberries waiting for us from my in-laws, Christopher's parents!

We spent the rest of the night relaxing at home with our pups. For our anniversary, Christopher splurged and bought us Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party tickets for our December Holi-Dis trip. I made our annual "yearbook" for our collection and got Christopher a portable bluetooth stereo speaker.

Our 2nd Anniversary

At the end of September, Christopher and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary. It was such a nice night. We celebrated at Russell's Steaks, Chops & More. After dinner, we both agreed that this restaurant is our new favorite! You could literally cut the steak with a butter knife it was so tender. Christopher also surprised me and had champagne delivered to the table. We had a wonderful, intimate night together.

Before we went to dinner, we exchanged some small gifts. I made Christopher our 2nd year picture album. He loved it! I ended up having to make TWO books - we had a very exciting and busy year!

 Christopher gave me a beautiful bracelet and earrings set, a gift card to Disney and beautiful roses. I am very spoiled!

It is hard to believe that another year has passed. It has been a beautiful two years. Looking forward to the lifetime to anniversaries we will get to spend together. Not to mention all of our Disney trips!

Just a Little Dinner on the Weekend

So in typically Ellen fashion I had a whole to-do list for this weekend of everything I wanted to accomplish. Well...it is Monday and most of it has not gotten done. Which is actually okay because I was able to do many other things. One of them being trying a new recipe!

I LOVE goat cheese. Actually I love ALL cheeses, but right now I am on a goat cheese kick. So dinner Saturday night I decided to make some grilled chicken with roasted tomatoes (this was a fail) and goat cheese. Kind of like the Chicken Bryan recipe from Carrabbas. It turned out pretty good. I served the chicken with sauteed green beans (in the lemon garlic sauce I made for the chicken) and leftover Truffle Tortellini from our dinner at Salvatores (total cheat here - but it went pretty well). Christopher LOVED it and it was fairly simple to made too.

Grilled Goat Cheese Chicken with Butter Sauce
Serve: 2

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, halved lengthwise
salt & pepper, to taste
olive oil
2 ounces goat cheese
2 roasted tomatoes, chopped
2 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
4 tsp onions, minced
4 tsp garlic, minced (I think I added a little more - I love garlic)
1 stick of butter
2 tbsp lemon juice

Prepare the chicken: brush chicken on both sides with olive oil and season to taste with salt and pepper. Grill chicken until done. While chicken is cooking, prepare the butter sauce. Saute onion and garlic in 2 tbsp butter for about 2 minutes. Add the lemon juice and reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes to reduce. Add remaining butter until it melts and looks nice and creamy. Add chopped roasted tomatoes and basil and heat through. Top the grilled chicken breasts with 1/2 oz (or 1/4) of the goat cheese. Cheese may soften and melt a little. Then spoon the lemon butter sauce over the goat cheese and chicken breasts.

Roasted Tomatoes - I sliced up the tomatoes earlier in the day and roasted them in olive oil and minced garlic. Well...I forgot about them and they burned quite a bit. Not having the canned stuff I decided to use them anyway and they were not totally bad, but their taste was a little more potent.

Past Weekend Fun - Buffalo's Italian Festival

I love Buffalo in the summer; our city is blessed to host many festivals, carnivals, parades, etc in the summer time. Every weekend there is always something different going on. This past weekend was the Italian Festival, which is one of my favorites! Who cannot resist the pizza, sausage, cannolis, meatballs, pastas, gelato, etc. We are lucky enough to live fairly close by so we are able to walk to the festival. We went almost every day and was able to try a little bit each time. My favorites were:

Campi's Pizza - they offer this HUGE pizza slice and is always piping hot
Salvatore's Italian Garden - I LOVE the Mozzarella Stuffed Meatball and the Sausage Loaf
Gelato Gypsy - who doesn't love Gelato??? They offered 6 different flavors to try. My favorite was the Tiramisu, which had actual espresso soaked lady fingers in it
Lombardos - Arancine with Fontina Cheese; totally going to try to make these. Right now I am obsessing with Risotto...maybe swap out and use quinoa??? Who wants to test taste with me??

It was a great weekend to enjoy the festival too. The weather was perfect everyday.

Experiencing New Things

It has been a little while, but much as happened. My promotion took effect and I am learning so many new things about my new role. I have a list going of all the things I want to change, update and keep the same. I feel very exciting about this role and I feel like I can really make a difference. My in-laws surprised me with flowers at work! It was such a nice gesture and they are still looking beautiful today.

Beautiful flower from my in-laws

Since February 11 (my last blog post), Christopher and I celebrated Valentine’s Day. On the 14^th, we had our pizza making contest. I made Christopher’s choice pizza of broccoli, peppers and cheese and Christopher made my pizza – a regular cheese and pepperoni pizza. We put the pizzas to a vote (thanks to Facebook) and Christopher won. I guess I will have to perfect my pizza making skills. Then on Friday, we went out for dinner to Salvatores to celebrate. We dropped Marv (our Sheltie) off at Nan & Papa’s house and spent the night at the Marriott. It was a great, relaxing and romantic night out.

Who do you think is the winner?

Then on Sunday the 17^th we celebrated my brother in law’s (J) birthday. We went back to Salvatores and had brunch. They were doing a chocolate themed brunch and it was absolutely wonderful! It included chocolate themed food items, a long stemmed rose for each lady and a strawberry champagne cocktail. The service was wonderful (as always) and we had the same waiter as Friday night. For anyone who loves going to Salvatores, ask for Karl – he is absolutely a delight!

On Thursday I went to our second splurge party group. My friend Tori won this month’s splurge pot. Our hostess Andrea put out a fabulous spread and has a lovely home. Fingers are crossed that I win next month…my list of splurges keeps getting longer!

This past weekend I attended my friend Jessica’s bridal shower. She is seriously the nicest person I have ever met! Her shower was lovely and held at Rizzo’s Banchetti’s. We all did crafts and received little heart measuring spoons as the favor. She and her fiancé Jason were so blessed with wonderful gifts for their future house. I ended up making a gardening basket out of a watering can. Inside were a pair of gloves, 4 packets of seedlings, a set of organic moss pots, trowel, hand shovel, a garden sign and garden flower stake. I included a picture below of the finished product. This worked perfectly as all invitees were asked to bring their gift unwrapped and I still wanted to make my gift look cute and presentable. It was super easy too to find all of the supplies as Spring is right around the corner.

Bridal Shower Gardening Basket