Supper all to myself, part deux.

So, the significant other had to work another evening shift, so I had the kitchen (and couch) to myself. After my disappointing experience with mussels, I couldn't decide whether I wanted more seafood, or something totally different. I ended up getting a bag of frozen shrimp, and a bottle of sundried-tomato alfredo sauce, as well as a carton of mini portobello mushrooms. To this I added, obviously, some fettuccine I had at home, as well as some frozen peas, and at the end I added some grated asiago and a chiffonade of basil, to celebrate the planting of my little mini herb garden (cilantro, oregano, flat-leaf parsley and basil). The sauce went AMAZINGLY well with the basil and the last of my retsina, which made me pretty happy!

Tomorrow: I'm cooking some of my buy-one-get-one-free pork sirloin chops. Question is, what to do with it? Some sort of curry? Maybe just fry it with some olive oil and drizzle lemon on it? There are about a million things I could do with it...

Mussels from Sobeys - not a good idea.

So, yesterday my boyfriend had to work a late shift, which meant I would be alone for supper. This meant that I could actually eat seafood for once (yay!), and my thoughts turned to mussels. I had some about a month ago at my parent's place, where my father BBQed them and they were sweet and smoky and succulent! I took the left-over uncooked mussels home and cooked them the following day with some garlic, parsley and either wine or beer, I can't really remember now. Point being, it left me hungry for more.

So I headed to Sobey's after work, not remembering how many mussels I would need. First I asked for half a pound, then when that didn't seem like much, I asked for a full pound. Content, I purchased my little friends and headed next door to the liquor store to find some wine to cook them in. I wanted a small bottle, but they didn't seem to have any...so I went with some retsina, since I know that I like it and it was ridiculously cheap ($10-$11). I kept the mussels with me while I was in the store, since I didn't want to leave them in the car (remember this part for later).

Once I get home I assemble my ingredients: retsina, garlic, and coriander. Almost Greek, but not quite. I can't help it though because I love coriander and it really worked with the retsina! After taking my pictures, I ripped open the bag and began inspecting the mussels...you keep the closed ones, and tap on the shells of the open ones - if they close that means the mussel is still alive, or at least he will be until the retsina starts to simmer! If they stay open, that means they've already died, and they go in the garbage. Here are the good mussels:

And here are the bad ones:

I found this to be a bit of a dissapointment - over half of the mussels I bought, in the garbage! I should have known, they were cheap and there were a LOT of them there at the counter...


So, I cooked my little friends, and they were tasty, but I had the heat too high and cooked them too fast for the juice to taste like much more than retsina. Still, very delish! Although certainly not the best I've ever made...