Peas Bonne Femme from JoAnne and Dick

Today was a very special day for Joanne and Dick, my husband's sister and her husband.  Today after many years of a beautiful, wonderful and strong marriage, they had their marriage blessed in the Church.  Such a very spiritual day especially since it is also the 1st anniversary of my husband's father's passing last year.

Still love birds after all these years.

In celebration of Dick and JoAnne's special day, we made Dick's very special Peas Bonne Femme from the family cookbook.  The first time we had these many, many years ago my then future husband and I thought it was such a strange way to make peas and had never seen anything like it.

I am here to tell you that anyone who claims to not like peas, after they have had these, they are a lifelong fan of them.  After all these years, this dish has definitely turned into one of our "go to" side dishes.

Peas Bonne Femme
Celebrating JoAnne and Dick

3 to 4 green onions
1 bag (regular size )frozen peas
2 to 3 tablespoons sugar
1 to 2 teaspoons Lawry's seasoned salt
2 to 3 red leaf lettuce leaves

Saute the green onions in a skillet with a tablespoon of butter.  Once they have softened, empty the frozen peas into the skillet with the onions.

Sprinkle the sugar and salt over the peas.  Place the lettuce leaves on top of the mixture.

Cover with a lid and simmer for about 20-30 minutes, until cooked through.  Discard lettuce and serve.

Birthday Party - Chapter 1 - Pottery and Painting

Since our girls were born just 3 days after Christmas it is always a little challenging for birthdays.  The good news for them is they typically score on gifts for a week straight in December.  The difficult part is school is on break and they will never know what it was like to have a classroom birthday party and most friends are out of town on Christmas vacation with their families.

The challenge is when to let them have a fun celebration...it varies every year. Sometimes it's right after the new year, other years it has been late January.  Well, this year we picked right in the middle.

We decided to change it up a little and venture out.  Us girls (yes I consider myself to be quite the cool and hip mom) started our afternoon at The Pumphouse Restaurant in old town.  We took over the upstairs dining room and had a beautiful sunny view of Main Street.  In typical teenager fashion, we had an appetizer frenzy.  (Not a good time for my PMS either).  I think I inhaled more than the girls did.

Before the food coma kicked in, I had to keep this party moving.  We walked down the street to our local hands-on pottery studio called Crackpots.  I had reserved a room for all the girls and set them free to pick out their favorite pottery piece that they could then paint.

It was the best two hours.  The girls got their phones out to play music and I watched the creativity begin.  They chose mugs, owls, kittens and fish to paint.  Crackpots has a phenominal selection of pottery and paints to work with.  You pick your piece, paint away and in 5 days after they have prepared and fired your works of art, you come pick them up.

They even let me paint special memorable custom birthday plates for each birthday girl that all their friends signed before we fired them in the kiln.  They turned out absolutely precious.  The girls have decided that they want to eat their birthday cake every year on these special keepsakes.

Since we were gone most of the day, I took the easy route for dessert....party sprinkled cupcakes from your basic boxed cake mix.  Nothing fancy, but very "girly girl" colors inspired from our painting excursion and really yummy.  Cupcakes just seem to always hit the spot, especially on my hips.