Mussel Mondays

I wonder if there is a disorder where people only eat foods beginning with the first letter of the day each day? Monday mussels in Muscat wine with Mezze penne and miso soup.. mousse for dessert:)

New Blog idea? Maybe.

Well, here's my take on what I would call a typical Parisian mussel dish served with a fresh baguette and a chilled bottle of wine.

You will need:

1 kg fresh mussels (1 bag would do for 2 hungry people)

2 -3 finely chopped onions

1 red pepper, diced

1 jalapeño pepper, finely chopped

1 clove garlic finely chopped

120 ml fresh cream

1 cup dry white wine

1 tablespoon butter

Start off with washing the mussels and de-bearding them. I just scrubbed them with one of those hardcore metal scrubber things. Discard of broken shells or those which are already open- they died.

Let the mussels sit in cold water while you chop the veggies.

Its pretty much up to you which veggies you use in the sauce, but onions and garlic are key. I used red pepper and a jalapeño pepper to spice things up.

Fry the veggies in butter , then add a glass (or more) of dry white wine. Let it simmer for 30 seconds and add a cup of cream.

Add the mussels and cook on med-hi heat for about 5 minutes until all the mussels have opened, which means they are cooked.

-Avoid overcooking as it makes the mussels tougher.

-Do not serve the shells that did not open!

I like my mussels in a bowl with lots of sauce, a crispy baguette and a glass of wine with it:)

Delicious no-skill required platters

Just a quick post of my two favourite SUPER EASY arrangements.

First one is a fruit arrangement. The first time I served it at a summer BBQ, a friend asked " is that from Edible Arrangements"? So I looked them up and here it is: http://www.ediblearrangements.ca/ Basically just fruit arrangements with delivery. It would cost you $234 for a party platter. Or you can just make it yourself and spend $30 on a variety of fruits!

In this one, I used half a melon as a base and just stuck the skewers in it until the whole area was covered. You could get super creative and make tiers and levels, you can also cut pineapple circles in shapes of flowers...just look through the edible arrangements website for ideas and save your money:)

The second one is a tomato-spinach-bocconcini toothpick skewers. Very easy to make and taste delicious. Easier to eat than a salad and looks great as well.