Savoring the Weekend

Happy Monday, lovelies! And Happy August! Hope you all had a fabulous weekend. I can't believe it's August already. The summer seems to be flying by. Guess that's what happens when you're having fun.

And having fun is exactly what I did this weekend. We had a great time Saturday in the Hamptons at my friends birthday party. We ended up coming back to the city Saturday night because the forecast for Sunday called for clouds and rain. It didn't turn out to be a beach day after all. I have to say I wasn't sorry to change plans and come home. We have spent so many weekends away this summer that a day in the city with nothing to do sounded like paradise to me.

We ended up having the perfect Sunday. Slept in late, hit the farmer's market, went to brunch and then I decided to tackle cooking mussels for the first time ever. I saw some delicious looking tomatoes, mussels and parsley at the farmers market and decided why not give it a shot? It was a little intimidating at first...it takes a lot of effort to clean those babies!...but it was well worth it in the end. The meal was absolutely delicious! Definitely dinner party worthy. Can't wait to invite some friends over to try it out on them.

Here's the recipe if you're interested:

Spaghetti with Mussels and Tomatoes

• 2 lbs mussels
• 2fl oz dry white wine
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 5 cloves garlic, very finely sliced
• generous pinch of red pepper flakes
• 1lb cherry tomatoes, seeded and roughly chopped
• 1lb spaghetti
• 2 tbsp roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley
• extra-virgin olive oil
  

Clean and debeard the mussels. Put them into a large saucepan with the wine. Cover and cook over a medium heat for about four minutes or until the mussels have opened, shaking the pan a couple of times. Remove any mussels that haven’t opened.

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan, add the onion and cook until soft but not colored. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and turn the heat up. Sauté until the onions and garlic are pale gold. Now add the tomatoes and cook on a low heat for about five minutes, until the tomatoes are soft. While this is happening cook the spaghetti in plenty of boiling salted water in a very large pan (one that will contain the mussels).

Now strain the mussel cooking liquor into the tomato pan. Simmer all this together until the mixture takes on a sauce-like consistency (it should be able to coat the spaghetti) then stir in the parsley. Drain the pasta, put it back in its pan and quickly add the tomatoes and mussels. Toss everything together gently with a slug of olive oil and some salt and pepper (you might not need much – the mussel liquor is quite salty). Serve immediately.

So now here we are at the start of another week. I decided on Monday mornings I'm going to start thinking of what I have to look forward to during the week to help motivate me to get out of bed. This week I have dinner with my cousins on Wednesday and vacation on Friday! Can't wait! A whole week at the beach! That thought alone should be enough to get me out of the house today :)

So what did you all do this weekend? And what are you looking forward to this week?

Images: 1 - Petra Van Raaij, 2 - via Pretty Stuff, 3 - via Black Eiffel, 4 - via here, 5 - via From Me To You