After all the food preparations last week-end there has not been much time to play in the kitchen, rather than heating leftovers, wooops, I mean rather than redesigning food ;-) So I woke up yesterday morning filled with anticipations. A friend has for a long time talked with so much love about her husband and the fantastic mussels he prepare, I knew it was high time to make some myself. Marta is not very keen on mussels, but she was invited to a friend to stay over night and it was going to be one of those rare nights when Terje and I would be home alone. Something which has almost not happened in 28 years!.....no I am NOT exaggerating!
I wanted to do the mussel dish properly, with the alive stuff, and to do that I needed to go downtown, to the fishmarket or to Solsiden where there is a grocery store where you can get "all this real stuff". Looking out our windows in the morning made me leave the whole idea.....almost. Well, you saw the photos yourself. So much show had fallen during the night, alot more were still falling.
It was monday morning though, I was at home, not travelling around the world somewhere, and I wanted to go to my café for writing. I thought back on the two South Kensington, or was it Knightsbridge, ladies I met in London, I thought of dear Kelly and the challenges she has been fighting and winning the past weeks and I knew I would make it. I would fight the snow, I would go downtown......for writing and for grocery shopping. And not only for writing! Finally I would start working on my travel book!
The mussels turned out great. Five different types of "onions", and here comes my lack of English.......hvitløk/garlic, purre/leek, vårløk/spring onion, løk/onion and sjalottløk/?????, alot of pepper, salt, apple juice, white wine, fry the onions till they are soft and the fragrance starts seducing your man, making him come down from his office to prepare an avocado starter........add the fluids, damp the mussels for a few minutes. While doing all this the spaghetti, which is not called spaghetti in Italian, they are more flat and I never remember their name, boils in water and salt.
We started with the starter, just what a starter is for.......and then it was finally time for the mussels.
And now the words are leaving me. How can I describe the meal? The pasta was perfectly al dente (sometimes it just happens), the mussels out of this world, the wine dry and with the exact taste of fresh lemongrass and herbs (??????), the foccaccia the best one I've ever made. The company around the table perfect. No need for a dessert, or may be our love for each other can go for that? Oh no, our love is the whole meal, with its preparation, with doing the dishes together afterwards, it is not just the dessert.
So, what has books and a booktalk to do with this love meal? I know you are asking yourself the question :-)
Here is the answer: The Food of Love by Anthony Capella. Have you ever read it? No????? Then run over to amazon or wherever you buy your books and see if you can find it. It is all about love and Italian food and how to win the heart of your beloved though the food....... I have read it several times and will read it again.
Happy Sunday!
Happy Reading!
Happy Eating!
.....what's on your menu today?
......I must go now, Terje has made breakfast for two........
Recent Comments