I’m delighted that the folks at food52 have chosen another one of my recipes as a finalist. This time, my Mussels for One (or Two) is competing in the “Your Best Home Alone Dinner” contest. Please check it out – I’d love your vote.

This is all Amy‘s fault.

From the moment I laid eyes on this, I knew I had to try this recipe. How could I not? See, my favorite food in the world next to cheese has got to be potatoes in any form, and when I saw those crisp, delicious looking beauties, I developed a craving for fries that just would not go away. My first thought was to make steak frites, but since we’ve been going so heavy on the meat lately, I decided on moules frites as a lighter option.

I followed the recipe for the fries pretty closely, substituting olive oil for canola because we didn’t have any on hand, and dividing the potatoes over two half-sheet pans. One pan (the one with more wear on it) turned out perfectly crisp, beautiful fries and the other… well, not so much. Those fries stuck to the bottom of the pan, to the sides of the pan, to each other, to anything they could stick to. They were pretty mangled and fugly after I finally turned them all, but I pressed on.

I ended up leaving the fries in the oven for an extra 10 minutes (for a total cooking time of one hour), and when I pulled them out, I had one tray of perfect specimens, and a second tray of perfectly cooked fries that were not going to win any beauty contests, but were just as tasty as their more attractive brethren.

The garlicky topping, I must say, is genius. If you make these fries, do not skip that step. And if you like fries, do try this recipe, because even though my go at them wasn’t all smooth sailing, they were worth the frustration, and I definitely plan to make them again and again.

While the wind and rains whipped through our fair city yesterday, I was not curled up at home with a glass of wine and a lapful of kitties; no, I was on the 52nd floor of a midtown office building, hard at work at The Job That Pays the Bills. Mike offered to take care of dinner, but since he had been editing all day (as well as putting together a batch of brown chicken stock, whose divine aroma greeted me when I walked in the door), I told him that I would handle it. I had something simple planned anyway, and though I was bone-tired, I knew that putting our meal together would do me good. I’ve got more long, busy days ahead of me this week and I don’t know how much time I’ll be spending in the kitchen, but at least I can say I finished last night on a high note.

Ale-Steamed Mussels with Bacon

2 pounds mussels, scrubbed and debearded
4 slices bacon, sliced into thin batons
3 large shallots, sliced
1 1/2 cups Belgian-style Ale (I used Ommegang Abbey Ale)
2 teaspoons Colman’s mustard powder

Place bacon into a hot, heavy bottomed pot and cook over medium heat until well-browned. Add shallots and saute until they are beginning to caramelize. Add ale and mustard and stir well to combine. Add mussels, shake the pan a few times and cover. Allow the mussels to cook several minutes until they are opened; discard any mussels which do not open.

Serve this with plenty of crusty bread or rolls to soak up the rich broth.