Sweet Peas and Potatoes

I got home from work last night in a foul mood. When I walked into the dining room I saw flowers on the sideboard. I smiled and started to thank Ernie and he said, "No, they're not from me; they're from Owen." I immediately said, "ohhhh" and got the expression I do when the boys do something sweet. They ridicule me for it of course. They say I look like the muppet Beaker and start saying, "meep, meep, meep" when I do it. I called Owen downstairs and gave him a long hug. He patted my back and then pulled away and looked in my eyes, saying, "and honest Mom, I didn't do anything bad. I just wanted to get these for you." 

I watched the news and then a bit of a DVR'd The Chew before I dragged myself into the kitchen. The night before I had started making a tomato sauce with olives and capers for some cod. After a bit Ernie said he wanted potatoes with it so I had the brilliant idea to just throw the chopped potato into the tomato sauce. MISTAKE. The potatoes wouldn't soften and wouldn't soften. I googled around and found that there's a reason I never do this...the acid in the tomato sauce doesn't let the potato soften as it would in water or oil. We finally gave up and ate leftovers but last night I was determined and we cooked it and cooked it and cooked it. Finally it was relatively soft. I ended up making a cod stew out of it all. Tasted pretty good, I'd been craving olives, but lesson learned...cook the potatoes first!