More on Mussels

I love watching Throwdown with Bobby Flay and making any recipes that beat Bobby sounds like a fun challenge to me! My boy brought over some mussels and we found a recipe that beat Bobby and we were off! He brought the New Zealand Green tip mussels, a new realm for both of us. These mussels are slightly larger than the black mussels we're used to cooking with. They do cook a little differently and it was a learning curve for us. We sauteed shallots with bacon in the bacon fat, threw in the mussels, some white wine, salt, pepper, lemon, and the show stopper- roquefort and throw this over a bed of steamed spinach.
They were pretty good! I really liked the bacon and roquefort flavors and thought this was a nice variation on mussels.

What do lemon bars and mussels have in common?

Ahh yes, Valentine's Day. Lovers everywhere hurry out to book reservations at their beloveds favorite spot. Not in my book! This past Val-Day, we stayed in and made a delicious bowl of mussels of fettucine with bruschetta and lemon bars for dessert! Sure I'm biased, but these mussels rival the best of the best. They are THAT good!

We start with chopped onions, garlic, parsley, shallot, some thyme, and as much wine as you like.. whatever you don't use for cooking, you get to drink while your broths boils up.

Mussels require timing. It pays to take the time to prep ingredients so when your broth is aromatic, you pop the mussels in and they are done as soon as they open.
A good crusty loaf of your favorite bread is mandatory. You don't want to leave any broth behind.

And then we dine!


As a treat for my man, I made lemon bars the night before. I also picked up some chocolate covered strawberries from Whole Foods (Not worth the trouble to make my own when I only wanted 2.) Lemon Bar recipe here, courtesy of Joan's on Third. These are heavenly!


Great dinner! Last year's v-day menu was a really good burger. No pics of that, so I guess I'll need to make it again. Includes a chipotle mayo, balsamic tomatoes, arugula, gruyere and blue cheeses, ground chuck on onion rolls. It's not the Father's Office burger, but it's a good one!