White Wine Mussels and Garlic Broccoli

Last night my friend Laura and I cooked dinner together.  It’s been so much fun catching up while she’s been in town - she’s living in Vermont right now so I don’t see her much!   

The mussels recipe was adapted from my friend Leslie’s blog, Blain Goes Blogway, and the broccoli came from The Kitchn. 

Both were super simple to make.  Here are the recipes:

White Wine Mussels

Ingredients:

·        1/3 cup flour (only if your mussels haven’t been cleaned and debearded yet)

·        2 lbs fresh mussels

·        2 T extra virgin olive oil

·        1 cup chopped green onions (the original recipe called for shallots – I mistakenly got scallions instead but any onion will do)

·        1-1/2 T minced garlic (5 – 6 cloves)

·        1 can stewed tomatoes (mine had basil, garlic, and oregano in it)

·        1/3 cup chopped flat leaf parsley

·        1 T fresh thyme leaves (or 1 tsp dried thyme)

·        1 cup white wine

·        Dash of salt

·        1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Our mussels came from Publix and were already cleaned and debearded.  If yours have little threads coming out from the shell, you’ll need to prep the mussels first before moving onto the next step.  See Blain Goes Blogway for instructions.    

2. Pour olive oil into a large stock pot.  Once it heats up, throw in your chopped green onions.  Cook for about 3 minutes, then add your garlic and cook for another 3 minutes. 

3. Pour in your tomatoes, parsley, thyme, wine, salt, and pepper.

4. When the mixture comes to a boil, add your mussels.  Stir them up to coat them in sauce and cover with a lid. 

5.  Boil for 8 – 10 minutes, stirring half way through.

6. Spoon the mussels into serving bowls and cover them in the white wine & tomato sauce.

7. You can enjoy them with French bread if desired.  We actually saved the leftover juices to marinate more pork chops leftover from the previous night’s dinner. 

Garlic Broccoli

Ingredients:

·        1 pound broccoli

·        1/4 cup olive oil

·        6 cloves minced garlic

·        1 tsp salt

·        Dash red pepper

·        Juice of half a lemon

·        1 tsp basil

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 450.

2. Chop the broccoli into bite sized pieces and throw into a bowl.

3. Add in the remaining ingredients and toss to distribute over the broccoli.

4.  Spray a baking sheet and spread the broccoli evenly out over the sheet. 

5.  Roast 12 – 15 minutes until the broccoli gets toasty.