First Time Cooking Mussels

I love mussels! When I went to France last fall, I was a woman on a mission!  I wanted moules-frites.  There are restaurants in DC that serve them, and they're great.  But, there is nothing quite like eating my weight in moules at a cafe in Paris.  Unfortunately, Dave doesn't share my enthusiasm for the marvelous mollusk.  But, he isn't here!  I'd never cooked mussels before.  A lot of the recipes in my cookbooks called for tons of liquid and a steaming basket.  I've got a small steamer, but it only works if there's an inch or less of liquid.  So, those recipes were out of the question.  I decided to go with the most simple recipe I could find. I whipped out my Larousse and read the entry on mussels.  Not only did it have important information about How Not to Cook Mussels That are Already Dead, it had some simple recipes that didn't call for a steamer basket.

I made moules à la marinière!  It had relatively few ingredients and didn't take long to cook.