First Friday of Lent

For the first Friday of Lent, Christopher surprised me and made dinner. Ooo lala! He made a homemade fish fry and french fries. They were delicious and satisfied my craving for a fish fry, because we certainly were not going to go out in the sub zero weather.

In trying to fulfill my lenten promise, I have started to organize small areas, but that have a large impact. The first area I tackled was our side counter in the kitchen. This is usually our dumping area for the mail, lunch pails, laptop bags, anything we are holding, miscellaneous pantry items, etc. It was so nice to go through and put everything area in its right place. The key to this though is trying to keep it clutter free! It is a good exercise to really understand what we are receiving in the mail - can we stop some of the offers? the catalogs? Can we reduce waste?

I think this weekend I will tackle our two "junk" drawers. Wish me luck!

Buffalo Scallops Recipe

Who doesn't love anything Buffalo? I saw this recipe on Pinterest a while ago for Buffalo Scallops. At first, I was pretty hesitant because I wasn't sure how seafood and buffalo sauce could possibly mix. But I put my brave girl pants on and tried it for dinner the other night. And it wasn't all that bad. I honestly thought the seasonings used in the recipe for a little much and made the scallops a lot hotter than I would prefer, but with a little tinkering with the recipe, I think we will make this again. Christopher thought the same thing and wondered why I would follow the recipe if I know I can make it better - next time I guess.

I will share with you below the recipe that I used, but eventually if I make this again, I will repost the changes made.

1/2 lb bay scallops
1 tsp Cajun seasoning
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 1/2 tsp olive oil
1/8 cup bread crumbs (it is so crumbly in the picture because I accidentally poured more crumbs than needed - oops - definitely do not do that)
1/2 cup Buffalo sauce of choice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, combine the spices, olive oil and bread crumbs. In a greased 8x8 Pyrex dish, layer the scallops in a single layer and sprinkle the bread crumb mixture over the top of the scallops. Drizzle 1/2 of the Buffalo sauce over the top of the scallops & crumb mixture. Bake for about 12-15 minutes or until the scallops are cooked through. Toss with remainder of the Buffalo sauce and serve.

I served ours with a side of green beans.

Parmesan Crusted Tilapia

Christopher LOVES fish. I surprised him last weekend with a great dinner. Lately - not going to lie here - I have been getting really lazy with dinner. We are talking, sandwiches, Pizza, soup, pasta & sauce, etc. So...he was thrilled when I made him a "real" dinner. 

This dinner was a real winner too so I thought I would share it because it was pretty easy to make.

Parmesan Crusted Tilapia

Serves 2

2 Tilapia filets

3/4 cup grated parmesan

1 tsp paprika

1/2 tbsp parsley

1 tsp garlic powder

Salt & pepper to taste

Mix all dry ingredients into bowl. Literally press the cheese mixture onto the fish to coat it. Place the coated fish on a plate, cover and place in the refrigerator for 20 minutes to set. This way, when we go to cook it, the "crumbs" will stick better to the fish. 

Get out your frying pan and a little coconut oil (I used 1 tbsp coconut oil but you can use your oil of choice) and let the oil melt and get hot. Cook the fish on each side for 2-4 minutes each depending on thickness of the fish. The fish should easily flake apart when finished. 

I served our fish with sauteed green beans and a garlic parmesan risotto. The beans were fantastic but the risotto sounded good but was less than stellar. Which was okay because the fish was a knock out! Christopher is already begging for me to make it again.

Lunch with some of our Favorite Musialowski's & Friends

Friday, August 15th was a busy day for us Musialowski's. Christopher had his pre-op appointment for his Lasik procedure. And - he was approved for two out of the three types of surgeries! Needless to say, he took the next available appointment and had the Lasik surgery performed on Thursday, August 21st (more to follow on this).

Right after his appointment we met our Mike, Michelle and the kids for some lunch at the Liberty Hound on the waterfront. Tim and Melissa also joined us for some lunch time fun. The kids were so wonderful and we had a great time. Max and Micah wanted to check out the big naval ships so they stayed longer and toured the ships on the waterfront.

On top of all the fun we had, I had the most delicious grilled cheese sandwich ever! A grilled cheese and lobster sandwich! See the HUGE pieces of lobster below! Crazy good. Christopher and I LOVE this restaurant - not only for its great location, but also the delicious drinks and food.

Yep - family group picture did not work out so well...but the outtakes are pretty funny.

Afterwards, we said our good-byes and Christopher and I took a leisurely stroll around the park. The Erie Basin Marina is where Christopher proposed to me 4 years ago. It is amazing to see the transformation of the park and waterfront in just those 4 years.

July Summer Fun

Us Musialowski's were quite busy in July (not sure when we are ever not!). My cousin Lindsay and I went to see Justin Timberlake in concert! It was amazing. He is quite the performer and put on an amazing show. I think we both feel very "Justified" with the concert - especially since we had to wait after it was postponed.

Our backyard garden has really come to life! It is so great to see our hard work and three years worth of digging and planting really take root (haha). 

In July I also went to see Sara Bareilles at Artpark with Reese. Sara literally took the stage and it downpoured...the WHOLE time. Reese is lucky I love her because I would have headed straight to the car. We were soaked to the bone but Sara put on a great show for all who stayed.

Our friends found out they are expecting baby #2! We are thrilled for them and look forward to meeting their new bundle of cuteness (and celebrating baby#1's birthday in August!). To celebrate, we had pizza and cake!

 Our little Marv is also enjoying summer and spending oodles of time outside. He has us pretty well trained as he now refuses to poop in the backyard and demands walks several times a day. Yes - he has us wrapped around his little paw.

Speaking of little paws, at the end of July we watched our neighbors TWO dogs for a couple of days. They were all a handful but had so much fun playing together. Marv was happy to have some playmates but also excited to have us back to spoiling only him.

I was also spoiled in July as Christopher surprised me with a Disney Vera Bradley bag to use in anticipation of our December trip to Disney :) I am a pretty lucky girl.

One of the things I love about summer is cooking out on the grill. Christopher and I spoiled each other this time and splurged on some lobster!!! (future note: never take Christopher shopping unless you are willing to splurge!) Christopher selected these two bad boys that totaled over 6 pounds! But they were delicious. Totally worth the splurge!

And that is about it for July! August is going to be a really busy month for us as well. Birthdays, cocktail parties, go live for my system conversion, J's golf outing, family visits, etc. Looking forward to the craziness of it all!

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!