Mussels, not Muscles.

We had a good friend over last night. A friend who is about to get married {so exciting!!!}It was our first person to have over to eat on our brand new rockin' dining table, so we wanted to go all out on food. The easiest way to do that...make mussels. They're not too pricey, they look good, they're fun to eat, and they taste delicious. So here's another recipe for you friends...

First things first. Get the ingredients :)

two cups of halved cherry tomatoes

two shallots and a couple minced cloves of garlic

two cups of chardonnay

a quarter of a cup of heavy cream & ten tablespoons of butter

a few sprigs of thyme 

two dried bay leaves  

a handful of fresh parsley

and of course...the mussels

{INSERT MUSSELS PICTURE HERE}
i somehow lost it. you need 4 pounds of it. 

Notes on Mussels:

Before you chop up anything, you'll want to clean up those mussels and get them ready for cooking! In Texas, most of the mussels you buy will be farm-raised, cleaned, and the mollusk will already be debearded. If there is still a mollusk on the mussel then you will have to debeard it and then scrub down each mussel with a vegetable brush.

After they are all cleaned and debearded, you'll want to go through each mussel to see if it's still alive and kickin. If the mussel is closed then it's good to go. If the mussel is open, give it a little love tap on the side of the bowl. If it stays open then it is no longer alive and you can trash it. If it begins to close then you're good! 

Once you have all of the mussels cleaned and sorted out put them in a bowl and put a damp cloth over it. You can store them in your fridge for up to two days or you can use them right away!

Now the cooking begins...

Sadly, I also don't have any pictures of the actual step by step cooking. I was planning on taking some shots of it, but the wonderful hubby went ahead and cooked everything for me {which was so great}. So, I'll just chat about it on here! Once you have the ingredients you will want to prep them all. I like to put everything in little bowls to make it easier for cooking.

Bowl # 1 -- Dice the 2 shallots and mince the garlic. Put it on in. 

Bowl # 2 -- Make sure the cherry tomatoes are halved and put em in. Add the thyme and bay leaves on top.

Bowl # 3 -- Measure out 2 cups of Chardonnay.

Bowl # 4 -- Measure out a 1/4 cup of Heavy Cream.

Bowl # 5 -- Chop up the handful of parsley and put it in.

Step 1.

Put 4 tablespoons of butter in a dutch oven or BIG pot over medium heat. Add Bowl # 1 and cook for about 3 minutes.

Step 2.

Throw in Bowl # 2 and Bowl # 3.  Put the burner on high and heat it up until boiling.


Step 3.
Add the mussels and cover the pan! Cook for around 5 minutes until the mussels open up. Use a spoon to move the mussels over to a large bowl. Sprinkle on half of the parsley you have.

Step 4.
With the juices still in the pan, discard the bay leaves and the thyme. Place the pot on heat and pour in Bowl # 4 and the rest of the parsley. Cook that until it gets a bit thick and then throw in the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter. Stir and then pour over the mussels!

Step 5.
Place this beautiful dish on the table and serve!

Delicious! We love to serve it with bread to soak up the juices!

 And that's a little bowl. Don't you worry. I refilled that thing multiple times.

I really wish I had more pictures of this! We were just spending time talking to Reece and I didn't want to be that person who took pictures of everything. 

On another note - I GOT A JOB OFFER to teach at Trinity Classical School. They'll probably be a blog all about this school in the future.

Happy Monday everyone!