Sisterly nuptials, Part the first.

When a friend gets married, it's one thing. The preparations are all very exciting and the wedding itself great fun. But when one's only sister gets married -- that's something else entirely.

And so it was with my dear sister last weekend. She married a lovely, lovely man and, even though I'm not the kind who "always wanted a brother" (I was fine with just one sister, thank you very much), I'm very happy he's joined our family.

As the only sister and only bridesmaid to this particular bride, it fell to me to plan a number of fun things. First (and foremost), I helped the Bride plan the wedding. Second, I planned the Bachelorette party. Third, I planned and hosted the Bridal Shower.
So, when it came time to plan these events, I went way overboard. (At this point, it's appropriate to thank my long-suffering husband, who put up with a LOT on the bachelorette/shower weekend.) For the bachelorette party, I cooked a big hangover-prevention dinner and made some nice cocktails before the girls headed out to Cuchi Cuchi for a night on the town. (If you find yourself in Cambridge, in need of a cocktail, go there.)First: the cocktails. We're still working on a kicky name that has something to do with my sister's name or interests, but for now it's called the Mango Sunset.
Ingredients:

• Mango Juice
• Grenadine (I used homemade - recipe below)
• Tequila

Mix the tequila and mango juice, then pour grenadine down the side of the glass so that it settles at the bottom and only slowly infiltrates the mango juice, hence the Sunset.

Homemade Grenadine is EASY to make and SO much better than the processed crap. Just make a simple syrup, but use pomegranate juice instead of water. Equal parts pom juice and sugar. Bring to a boil, boil until sugar completely dissolves and syrup forms, remove from heat. Done.

Then: The Pizzas.
Unfortunately I didn't photograph the best of all the pizzas - the one for which I'm generously going to give you the recipe (which by all rights I should keep SECRET). I made three pizzas - a veggie pizza with Turkey Bolognese, a Three-Cheese Pizza (with the same Bolognese), and a Potato Pizza recreated after Number 5 at Cambridge, 1.

Potato Pizza (Yes, it sounds strange, but it is the most delicious starchy thing in the world).

Ingredients

• 4 potatoes, peeled and washed; 2 sliced thin, 2 cubed
• Dollop Sour Cream
• 2 T butter
• Fontina cheese in small slices
• Part Skim Ricotta
• Garlic
• Big bunch fresh rosemary
• Olive Oil
• Pizza Dough (I bought some from Bertucci's, because I felt lazy)

1. Cover the 2 cubed potatoes with water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Generously salt water and cook until very soft.
2. Meanwhile, preheat oven to about 400. Slice the remaining two potatoes very thinly
3. Drain water from cooked cubed potatoes and mash with rough-chopped rosemary, butter, and dollop of sour cream. Set aside.
4. Roughly flatten pizza dough on a well-oiled pan (or pizza stone, if you prefer). Brush top of dough with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle finely chopped garlic over dough.
5. Place potato slices on dough.
6. Randomly drop dollops of ricotta (goat cheese would also be DELICIOUS) onto the dough. Distribute fontina slices across dough.
7. Sprinkle more rosemary over the entire pizza.
8. Bake at 400 until dough is golden brown and the cheese has begun to bubble and brown. Be sure potato slices are cooked through.

Note: Do salt very generously. The pizza will be bland with all that starch without enough salt.