Mussels

If things were the way I wanted, I'd have posted the pic I took an hour ago in my kitchen, of a giant bowl of steaming mussels in the sunshine, next to a crusty loaf of bread from French Laundry. But *girly, electronically-challenged titter*, I haven't gotten a new up-to-date computer yet. I know, I'm totally pathetic.

But really, today is the first time I have ever cooked mussels before. Very easy. Dunno what took me so long. We used the recipe from the April 2005 Food & Wine mag: Steamed Mussels with Pesto and Tomatoes. If you have pesto already made *does superior dance*, which I do, then it's even faster. Yes, it's a lot of shells and not much meat, but these little morsels are fun to eat. And the broth in the bottom of the bowl is awesome. That's why crusty bread is essential. To go with it, we deviated from the recommended wine, and had a Belgian beer. A Fantôme saison style, from an artisanal brewery in the Ardennes forest. A friend of Tim's managed to get a few cases imported from Belgium to his store ( Cloverleaf ). We stopped by yesterday, on our way to Kuhnhenn to enjoy a long-promised Creme Bruleé Stout ( review ). I can't say I'm really crazy about Belgian beers, but the tanginess of the Fantôme went well with the pesto, white wine and tomatoes.

Orange Wino, I followed your example and tossed the shells out into the gravel part of the driveway, to be recycled into our property.

What's on the agenda for the rest of the day? Take a Naprosyn (my elbow is on fire, as a result of vacuuming all the carpeted areas of the house without bothering to wear my irritating brace); Work on some fic (my slowness at writing astounds even me sometimes); work on some e-mails (Astara, I actually started #50!); rethink my life.