Well we got our first Spring Break in the books.  The first time the kids were old enough to officially have a Spring Break at school.  I was thrilled!  We were going to Disney World, Sea World and were going to build a sand castle on the beach the size of Cinderella’s castle.  I was going to lay out in my new floral tankini I got from Kohl’s and have some drink with an umbrella in it.  Memories for miles and a nice tan to go along with them.  We are going to take a new family photo on the beach.

Wait, no we weren’t, not even close.  We didn’t even realize it was Spring Break until about 2 days before it started.  When I picked the kids up from school actually and the teacher told me to “Have a nice Spring Break!”  Wait, say what?  A nice what?  Holy balls did we drop the ball on that one.

So, what are you to do when you are stuck in Chicago and the weather is nearly below zero, there is still a foot of snow on the ground.  You fear your TV may shit out at any minute because it is on about 18 hours a day.  Thank God that DVD’s don’t have a specific number of views or I would have a stack of Disney DVD’s that would make lovely coasters.

Well, we decided to make the best of it…..we kicked it off with bowling and Build-A-Bear.  The trip to Build-A-Bear cost about as much as a flight to Florida.  We probably could have gotten a real live Koala bear imported and draped in a gold shawl for a new family pet for the same price.  The important thing is the kids had a great time and we did it together.  Sweet memories…but for the record, the “Bears” they built that have underwear, shoes and outfits are nowhere to be found.  L.A. also wanted his to sing a ONE DIRECTION song for 7 dollars but I put my foot down.  I relented on the 3 dollar SPONGEBOB theme song instead.

If you notice poor Abbott’s bear only got underwear.  Oops.

Bowling was a blast though.  We went to this great place on a rec from a friend, Pinstripes.  It was like a fancy bowling alley where people had all their teeth and and you did not worry that the shoes were going to give you gang green.  My pals loved it.

The best part was the time spent with their dad who works a billion hours a day to make sure they have every opportunity to enjoy life and succeed.  This was my favorite part.  Sometimes life gets so hectic that you forget what really matters.  Watching our kids smile ear to ear and roll the bowling ball down the alley with they daddy changes all this.  Blessed is an understatement.

Awesome day with my favorite people on the planet…..from there we decided to head North to my favorite place in the whole wide world – Green Bay, WI.  We needed some Nonie time but not before a pit stop for lunch in Milwaukee at Cheesecake Factory with some aunts and cousins.  We slowly ate our way up North….one chunk of cheese at a time.

Green Bay was so damn cold….colder than a witches tit really so we did not do much there.  We did make brownies and there is nothing wrong with that.  Making brownies with your Nonie pretty much tops the “awesome things to do” list.  Nonie lets you eat half the batter and stay up until 10:00.  She also lets you sleep with her.  Good times.  I remember begging to sleep with my Grammy and loving every second of it.  Talk about memories.  Grammy was an awesome lady who made you feel like you were her only grandchild even though she had about 57 others.  My mom does the same thing with my pals.  They are so blessed.  Always hopped up on sugar, but blessed.

After lunch out at my favorite place in GB, Margaritas for mexican, we headed back down to make our way back home and needed one last pit stop – Milwaukee.  Nothing better than Milwaukee because the Cahill’s live there.  One of my best friends from college and probably one of the funniest people you will ever meet – Auntie Ei….along with her gang who we all adore.

All of the kids are very close in age so we rolled in and they played – out of sight while we put some cheese and wine out of sight.  We laughed till it hurt and bitched about some of our problems like why Costco ONLY carries lime LaCroix and the fact that we still have our identical North Face jackets we got in college.  Damn, those things really do last!

It was a perfect end to Spring Break 2014.

There was NO sun, NO sand, NO beach and no Minnie Mouse sighting….but there was wine, good friends, the best family and lots of memories made.  As we say now, “We don’t need no stinkin’ beach.”  Well, at least for the next couple months.

You know when something plays out way better in your head then you got to do it in real life and it is a shit show?  This happens to me quite a bit when it comes to my kids.  I always give them more credit than I should.  It’s true.  Simply because in my mind everything plays out like a storybook and I think my 3 year old’s are going to like to do things that are really suitable for 7 or 8 year olds.  I forget it was just a mere year ago that they shit their pants.

Tonight was one of those nights.  I ordered model cars online for my pals to do with their dad.  Sure it said it was suitable for ages “6 and up with adult help” but they are VERY advanced 3 year olds.  Just yesterday, L.A. wiped his own butt.  True story.  They were figurines from the Cars movie so I figured it was even better.  We got Mater and Finn McMissle.

My husband opened the box and it was about 853 tiny pieces of molded plastic that required an exacto knife, a box of band aids to deal with all the tiny cuts and some extra sanity.  A cocktail could have come in handy too.  Basically what they did was build a matchbox car from the ground up…and it was ALL my idea.  I thought it was a great “project” for them to do with their dad.  After Arno (the big one) was getting frustrated, I offered to step in and help and my son, L.A., said to me – “Mommy, you cannot do this.  It is too hard for you.”  Ouch.  Double ouch.

I have a list of things that I have done like this that seem so much better in my mind that also regularly plays circus music.  Me and Homer Simpson.

Going to this place seems like a piece of cake.

What is the big deal, right?  Let the kids run around and play games while you have a salad from the salad bar, right?  NOT EVEN CLOSE.  You run around like a bat out of hell, trying to keep your eyes on both kids while lugging a giant baby who is giving you herniated discs but God forbid you set him down or you will hear his lungs in Toledo.  You get a migraine from your eyeballs darting back and forth across the room so fast trying to make sure noone pulls a gun on them.  Then after you spend 80 bucks on tokens your kids stand at that God awful “ticket muncher” (could they come up with a better name?) so your kids can feed the nubs of tickets in ONE BY ONE only to redeem all their hard work for a tootsie roll and a plastic spider ring.  All the while in their mind they are taking home one of the giant stuffed animals suspended from the ceiling.  Not even close.  You need a bout 45 trillion more tickets and your Mommy needs a lot more sanity…and wine.  Wine will help.

What about sledding?  SAME EXACT THING.

You get everyone all bundled up and spend a good 30 minutes doing so.  The first ride down the “hill” turns into near nightmares.  In your mind it was something from the 1950’s.  I truly pictured us on a toboggan, snuggling in a choo-choo train sitting situation,  sipping hot coco as we went down the hill.  It was more like screaming to get her on the futuristic spaceship sled, while I kicked the thing down solo with my foot while blood curdling screams echoed all the way back to 1950 I am sure.  And to make matters worse, after I changed her wet soggy clothes, I learned she does not like hot coco.  But what 3 year old likes piping hot liquids?  All my fault….played out way different in my head.  An amazing memory, just not the one I pictured.

Another good one that I learned my lesson on a long time ago – Thank GOD, is making cut-out cookies.  You know where you make the homemade dough roll it out, take the cut-outs and make all the different shapes?  Hell. No.  I have fallen for that one about 7 times and this year I wised up and it was brilliant.  I bought those logs of sugar cookies, cut off circles, baked them and let the kids frost and decorate those.  The clean up was a beast but they got the same enjoyment and I did not want to rip every hair out of my head and chin.  It was easy in the grand scheme of things.  Some would call me a cheater but I would just call me wise.

Their favorite shape is a circle too so hey, how can you argue with that.

One last one was this Christmas.  “Mom, I got an hour break, I am going to run the kids to the mall and get their holiday pictures taken “real” quick.  I am thinking we just go in there, get a cheezy Christmas backdrop with snowflakes and the three of them smile ear to ear and we are out of there in 5 minutes.    Right?  Totally do-able.

NOT. EVEN. CLOSE.

Who knew there was going to be a sled?  And 2 VERY naughty 3 year olds.

So many things that you think are going to be a piece of cake that are the opposite.

-The grocery store/Costco.  This ends up costing you WAY more because of all the extra crap you buy that they throw into the cart.  At some point a normal human gives in.  I admit that I do pretty quickly.  One point for my pals.

-Church.  We last about 2 minutes.  Maybe 3.  Then we need constant entertainment and end up driving everyone bonkers.  We have put a hold on this indefinitely, simply because it is not fair to the other church goers.  Why lug them to church with their ipads.  Defeats the purpose.  I would much rather tell them stories at home and teach them to act in the way that they should.  We say our prayers every night, so that is a step in the right direction.  Although, Miss Eden does pray for Minnie Mouse first every night.

The list goes on and on….and it will continue to because we constantly do stuff.  “Projects” as we like to call them.  Tomorrow we have a bowling project on the books.  It is Spring Break 2014 and it is going to be one for the books.  I picture L.A. bowling a perfect game and getting carried out on his dad’s shoulders.  Eden should win a crown for prettiest girl there and Abbott will take his first steps right down the bowling alley and win us a free pizza for being the first giant baby to do so.

I will keep you posted.  I have a good feeling about this one.

My tiniest pal, who is not so tiny is just begging for stitches.  Fingers crossed and knock on wood, we have never had stitches in our house.  Abbott has zero fear, especially of heights.  He thinks he is King Kong and his high chair is a giant black building.  He has tumbled down the hardwood stairs and rolled off the bed onto hardwood floor more than I care to recount.  You seriously cannot turn your back for a second or he is off…..or up…..or out.

This little turkey can worm his way out of high chair in about 2.2 seconds flat.    The best part is the look he gives me after he does it.  “Yeah, I did it Mom.  What are you gonna do about it?”

On a side note, where are his pants?  Why are my pals always half dressed?  Can anyone answer this?  My boys in particular DO NOT like pants.  The best part is that the other day I came downstairs and Abbott had his pants off – just diaper.

“Where are your brother’s pants?!?”   L.A. – “I took them off because boys don’t wear pants.  He needs giant underwear too instead of those diapers.”  Well hell might freeze over before I put my 1 year old in a giant pair of underwear.   Cleaning is most certainly not my strong suit and I know what a one year old in underwear would do.  Poop slithering out of giant leg holes on Batman underwear is not in my future.  Give me at least a couple weeks, I mean years to come to grips with this!

Before he poops out the side of his brothers giant underwear, he needs to see what is going on outside.  He is VERY curious and simply cannot miss out on anything.  If he hears something he thinks he might be missing out on, he puts his head down and crawls as fast as he can to get there…..He is usually relieved to find out I am just folding laundry but God forbid I load the dishwasher w/o him.  Holy hell.  That is like his dream appliance.  His eyes light up and he gets an extra pep in his crawl when he sees that thing come down.  He lifts his weight up on that thing and surveys that dishwasher like he is going to give it a total redo.  Those giant peepers go back and forth, back and forth, before settling on…….the sharpest thing the little guy can find.  ALWAYS.  “Here mommy, I grabbed this giant jitsu knife that you put in the way back and I found it is 2.3 seconds.”

Yama Mama.

He wanted to look out the window the other day and needed a boost…..just a tiny boost.  The boost about the size of a wheel.

Then after he gets done with his daredevil ways, he likes to chill out…….

Chill WAY out with his bottle.  Just make sure he has a pillow.

When did St. Patrick’s day turn into a real holiday?  I always thought it was just an excuse to go buy a new cute green shirt and get shit faced for the day.  You could start drinking early and just go all day.  Apparently there is more to it now.  There are leprechauns that need to be caught so special traps need to be made.  Your food and milk need to be green….it is quite a production once kids are involved.  I had no clue until my pals came home from school all excited about building a leprechaun trap.  Don’t get me wrong, it is right up my alley. I love doing crafty, creative things with my pals.  Not because I am super mom but more like super nerd.

So we started by naming the Leprechaun that we were going to catch after he slid down the chimney like Santa.  Apparently Santa is friends with all the Leprechauns, who knew?  We named our guy Leonard and we got to work getting ready to catch the little critter.

There were a few tears shed over the creative direction of the trap.

Then we also had a few tears shed when we were setting up our trap.

A certain someone wanted to eat the skittles that we used to make a trap to catch Leonard.

We tried to catch the little sucker but he was just too quick.  He did leave behind some treats though because he felt bad that we couldn’t catch him.  When we lifted up the box the next morning, we were hoping to find a one foot tall guy with a white long beard but instead we found bubbles, sidewalk chalk and some green candy!  We would have preferred finding Leonard under that box because I was ready to get him going on my 8 foot high pile of dirty laundry.  I have heard leprechauns are great workers and God knows I could use an extra set of hands.

So just when we thought we were in the clear, my pals went to use the bathroom and found out that Leonard whizzed in our potty and did not flush!  That little shit.  This got the kids wondering why he didn’t poop too because they have never seen green poop.  I have seen green poop more than once in a diaper.  You know when you open it up and get a poop surprise?  You sit there mentally trying to figure out what the hell the kid ate to turn it that color.

Then it was time for some of our favorite pals to come over for Guinness, green noodles, rueben pizza and corned beef and cabbage.

We turned the noodles green by adding about 10 drops of food coloring in the noodles before we added the noodles and cooked them as we normally do.  They were so fun and we will for sure be doing this again with other colors.

So we had the traditional corned beef and cabbage but I also thought about doing something different so as I was tossing and turning with my insomnia a couple nights ago I thought of Reuben pizza.  I bought Naan at Costco and made a homemade thousand Island dressing (2/3 cup mayo, 1/3 cup ketchup, about 1/2 cup chopped dill pickles, about 1/4 cup onions, 3 cloves freshly grated garlic and salt and pepper to taste).  I layered the dressing then topped it with a mix of cheese – swiss and munster, then sauerkraut then the corned beef.  It was awesome.  I will certainly make this again.  The key is making the homemade sauce.

It was a great day that I got to get my crafty nerd on and celebrate with some good friends.  My tiniest leprechaun pal even got in on the green action.

Up next, Easter.  We are psyched to have a real yard this year to do an easter egg hunt.  Last year we did it in the house and it was about as lame as Star Jones.  Now I need to get out there and pick up all the dog shit.  If I would have caught Leonard, he would be out there doing that job too.  Damnit.  There is always next year.

Wow.  My Friday nights sure have come a long way from wearing hotpants and closing down the bars to playing Cootie and making dumplings.  I really would not have it any other way although I could do without the grease burn I got after my pals and I friend up 80 chinese dumplings on Friday night.  Yes, Friday night.

My pals absolutely LOVE to cook with me which I adore.  Everything takes a bit longer, well more than a bit, and the clean up can be out of control but it is always a great time.  So on Friday, I got a recipe from my friend Nicky for her famous chinese pork dumplings, kind of like potstickers.  It took the entire night to fry these babies up but I have to say it was worth it.  We made 80 and they were gone in less than 24 hours.  I am still not sure how this is even possible but it happened.

First we chip chopped everything.

Eden was mesmerized by the green onion for some reason.   She thought it looked like a laser.

We used the premade wonton wrappers which made things pretty darn easy.

Abbott did not appreciate when we put one on his head like a hat.  We thought it was awesome.

Eden did an awesome job sealing up the wontons.  We used a mix of eggs and water to seal those babies up.  She was very serious about this…..I loved her concentration.  She is very precise.

We fried them up in batches about 12 at a time and I had 2 frying pans going.  The boys were in charge of supervising this step.  They did a darn good job, I must say.  (They are on the back burners so they cannot reach the pans)

I got distracted for a second….or 5 minutes.

Don’ think we didn’t eat them….even burnt to a crisp, they were damn good.

So if you are feeling adventurous, go ahead and make these.  You will not be disappointed.  Your kids can help stuff and seal them and they are so darn good they are like eating potato chips or Thin Mint cookies.  You just keep eating them and have zero control.  We mixed sesame oil, green onions and soy sauce for dipping and I bought sweet and sour and hot mustard from the grocery store as well.  Damn good stuff.

RECIPE:

I have a love – hate relationship with you.  Yes, you are amazing.  I will give you that.  You let me buy disgusting amounts of cheese at one time and no one judges me.  Your gas is 3.65 a gallon.  That in itself is worthy of a quick make out session.  Your hot dog and soda combo is 1.50 and more importantly, your “Fat Free” chocolate twist yogurt that tastes like it was churned by Swiss Miss and  a Keebler elf.  (On a side note, this is a Seinfeld episode waiting to happen because there is NO WAY IN HELL that this yogurt is fat free.)  It tastes like the creamiest sweet treat you ever had.  I know, I have had fat free yogurt before and you might as well be licking on the side of a paint can – an old paint can.  You know the kind that is dusty and contains spider webs.  Anyway, I get distracted.  Costco, I love you….until my very best pals enter the building with me because as soon as I cross that threshold, I hate you with every fiber of my being.

There is a level of “showing off” that my kids truly do extend when we get out into large public places like this.  There was some name calling and running wild along with throwing VERY unnecessary things in the cart.  WAY too many treats and LA took it upon himself to “carbo-load” because he put 7 packages of ravioli, tortellini and pasta in there.  I kept ONE.  He was hysterical.  He needed to have them all.

My sweet Eden helped me guide the cart and be my go-to gal.  I always tell here that we have to stick together because we are going to be the only girls in our whole family.  Even the dog has  a weiner……no nuts, but still the tubular dong.  I am out on that.  The 2 times a year it pops out I have a nervous breakdown.

The sad thing is that I don’t even buy anything good…..300 dollars for about 19 kinds of yogurt, some Guinness, a rug for the back door, 4 cases of Lacroix, some K-cup coffee’s, 6 cartons of milk, bananas, orange juice, one giant genoa salami, refried beans and some kirkland brand vodka.  That about sums it up.  Absolutely nothing fun.  Damnit.

So I love you and hate you all at the very same time, COSTCO.  I am hungry so I may just get a pitchfork to open that giant 17 lb can of refried beans I bought.  You know I have a stock pile of Taco Bell sauces…..and vodka.

Holy balls!  It was 48 degrees today!  I know it does not seem like much but when we have been doused with sub zero temperatures for a record breaking amount of time, it feels like paradise.  I am talking kick back with a margarita and chips and salsa paradise.

I was tempted to bust out my swimsuit, you know the standard issue fat mom swimsuit?  This body will never ever see a real bikini again so I cheat with the tankini.  You know you have hit middle age when you own a tankini or better yet, have the word in your vocabulary.

We were outside today for over an hour on the swing set.  It was brilliant.

I actually had to shovel under the swings at at the bottom of the slide so they could be used to their full potential.  Shoveling the grass, that’s a new one.

Miss Eden wanted to master the monkey bars but it looks like she might need a little help.  She dangled there like a trapped salami.

After looking at the photos too I realize that it might be time for a new pair of snow pants.  Or maybe I bought capri snow pants on purpose.  We don’t mess around with fashion over here.

The swing suited her a little bit better, after I shoveled a path of course.

We even busted out their cars and let me tell you, pushing these things through a foot of snow was my workout for the day.  Holy hell.  My arms feel like limp noodles right now.

L.A. gave his a little tune up before we hit the road.  He wanted to put those naked lady silhouette mud flaps on his car but I had to draw the line somewhere.

Poor Butters was inside snoozing so he missed all the magic.  On a side note, what did we do before these video monitors?  It is crazy how convenient they are.  I played outside with my pals and just kept the monitor in my pocket so I could hear him if he got up.  Brilliant.

All in all it was a fabulous day.  We loved the sunshine and officially are ready for spring.  Ready or not…

It was the weekend of birthday parties……one for a 40 year old and one for a 4 year old.  One of my dear friends from High School turned 40 and a classmate of the twins turned 4.

One of the major differences in the parties was this –  the old ladies lined up to take a picture like this:

And the 4 year olds got on a giant hot dog suspended from the ceiling that swung back and forth to take a picture like this:

I don’t know about you but I would much rather have been on that hot dog…that was swinging fast, so fast in fact that poor Eden could not decide if it was so awesome or so terrible.  The best part for Eden was that she had her main squeeze, Wolfie, snuggling up to her during the salami ride.

How in God’s name we got to be 40 years old, I will never know.  I still remember when my mom turned 40 and I was 9 years old.  Keep in mind she had 6 other kids.  My Dad threw a surprise party for her.  It was a  50’s themes and I remember thinking it was so cool but I also remember thinking that 40 was old.  Holy balls, was I wrong.  I am nearly 40 and I feel like I am still going to get in trouble if my mom catches me doing something naughty.  I mean, how can we be 40?  I still think farts are funny and I love Taco Bell.  I just feel like I am so young….and I know I am not the only one.  40 really is the new 30 or 20 or 19.  Wait, as long as it is the new 21, I am good.

I went to a girlfriend’s 40th birthday party and it was a trip.  So fun to see some great friends that I have not seen in years.  That is the pretty cool thing about when you get older, almost turn 40.  You really learn who your real friends are and you realize that you do not have to talk to someone every week to consider them a good friend.  If you have true, real, deep friends – you really can go months or even years and pick up right where you left off.  I have been blessed with awesome friends who put up with me as I unintentionally push people to the wayside and focus on my 3 pals.  It is certainly not intentional at all but sometimes real life just takes over.  This is why I have an open door policy and I LOVE the pop in.  Remember the Seinfeld episode where he talks about hating the surprise “pop-in”?  Not me.  I love visitors, even surprise ones.  As long as you don’t care that our house may look like a tornado just rolled trough and most people won’t be wearing pants – come on over.

So back to the 40th birthday party…besides the fact that I need a new hairdo (and this is because I cut my OWN hair…..and dye it too), I think we look pretty damn good.  We are all pretty much as thin as we were in High School….and way cooler.  I bought a size 4 pair of jeans the other day and my jaw dropped.  Wow. Having 3 kids and working and living life just keeps you busy and non-stop on the go…..and apparently lets you sneak into a size 4 pant….now, my top on the other side – XXL but that is another story.

Until then, I have realized that the world is full of cycles and we are deep in the midst of the 40 year old and kids birthday parties.  I remember 15 years ago when we had a wedding to go to every weekend.  These have turned into the modern day 40th bday and 4 year old bday which we now go to every weekend.  And I LOVE them.  There are not many things that you invite Arno and I too that we do not show up too.  As my friend NI’al says, “I’m like a bad penny, I show up everywhere.”  We are kind of the same.   And my dad too….we hate to miss out. If you invite us, we are there, usually “with bells on”.  If you have an open bar, we have more than bells on, we have the whole symphony on.   See you soon.

Trying to do 18 things at once, including cook dinner on this particular night, led me to the question, “Where’s your brother?”  I noticed some muffled tears along with the shit eating grin on L.A.’s face……you know this grin.  This particular grin means trouble.

It gets me EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

So, for about 2 minutes (which felt like about an hour) I ran around the house screaming, “ABBOTT!  ABBOTT!”  I was on the verge of a panic attack because the crying had ceased and he was nowhere to be found.  Then I noticed this, my laundry basket.

Perfect size for a buttery little guy.  “Is your brother in there?!?!?”  “Maybe.”  Well, that means yes.

The giant baby is no dummy, L.A. let him out and he crawled out of there like he had dynomite in his diaper.

He may be scarred from doing laundry for the rest of his life.  Which gets me to thinking, maybe one of my older sister’s did this to me when I was little because I despise laundry.  I let it get to the point where it is about to take over and then I do about 12 loads in a row.  Then I promise myself I am never going to let it get that bad again…..fast forward to right now.  We are running low on underwear and socks and the pile of clothes at the bottom of the laundry chute resembles a mountain, or that garbage dump from Fraggle Rock.  Who remembers that thing?  Why did it talk?

More importantly, why is it wearing glasses?!?!

Ok, I don’t post a lot of recipes but when I get a good one that all my pals will eat, I like to pass it on.  If it is super easy like this one, it is even better.

You can get this to the table in 15 minutes or less so it is a winner all around.  Serve it with salad and garlic cheese bread and you just made dinner worthy of company.

Carbonara can take much longer than this but I take shortcuts when I can and suggest you do too.  This recipe freaks people out because it has raw egg in it but essentially the egg is cooked when you toss it on the hot pasta so you really have nothing to worry about…..promise.

Ok, here we go.  Here is what you need:

And noodles of course, any kind you want.  I do fusilli or tornado pasta as my pals call it.

Now a word about this packaged bacon – it is brilliant.  It is located in the grocery store by the salad dressings and fake bacos but this is the real deal.  It is real crumbled bacon and it is about 3 bucks.  I always have it on hand to toss in omelettes, scrambled eggs and pasta.  It is much easier than frying up bacon or prosciutto that the original recipe calls for.

This makes enough for our entire family with no leftovers.  I cook exactly half the box of pasta which according to the package is 8 servings.

Ok, back to the details:

2 eggs

1/2 cup parm cheese

1/8 cup milk or cream or half and half (whatever you have)

1 cup of peas

1/2 – 3/4 cup of the bacon

1/4 -1/2 tsp salt  (I just do it to taste)

few dashes of pepper

3 tsp butter

Now down to business.  Beat the 2 eggs in a bowl then add the cheese, milk and salt and pepper.

Set aside and boil your noodles in salted water.  Throw about 1/2 tsp of salt in there at least….tornado pasta in our house.

Drain the pasta.  I usually do it half ass on purpose so I have a couple teaspoons of the starchy water left in there.  Add the butter and let it melt.

Then throw the bacon in there.  The piping hot pasta will melt a little bit of the bacon fat and make it nice and smokey and bacony without adding drippings like all the original recipes call for.  Now take your cheese and egg mixture and pour it on the hot pasta.  Toss it up real good and it cooks and coats the pasta as you do this.  Don’t dick around and get distracted.  Do it right away so the pasta is hot enough to accomplish this.

After tossing this for about a good minute, throw in your peas.  You can throw frozen peas right in there as the residual heat will also cook these little babies right up.  I LOVE peas and I put them in everything.  Peas.  What’s not to love?

Now you can eat it right out of that pot if you want or you can put in a fancy dish like this…..

Top it with a little more cheese and you are good to go.  This is one of those dishes you will make again and again because if you keep the bacon on hand and peas in the freezer, you should be able to make this on one of those nights when you have no groceries and are short on time to make dinner.

Give it a whirl.  You will not be disappointed.  I promise.  Everyone in my family loves this one – even the giant baby….and the dog.

Remember, just don’t dick around or your eggs won’t cook on your hot pasta.  You have been warned.

Enjoy!