Mussels a la Late Night - Part I

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I have been to Paris. Granted, I was 20 and broke, but I was in FRANCE! EVERYTHING is better in France, right? I even thought that the clearance wine, stale bread and smoked meats wrapped in plastic sheeting for sale at Monoprix (the French equivalent to Shop Rite) was DELICIOUS. I think it is because that is all my college roommate and I could afford. I mean, who would want to waste valuable booze money to taste the essence of the ocean in each bite of Mussels a la Mariniere? The gentle nuttiness and smooth mouthfeel of Escargots in garlic butter, liberally sprinkled with baby sprigs of the freshest parsley curls (my favorite dish, by the way). Chocolate croissants, hand shaped by Parisian grandmothers, or crusty baguettes from Poilane? Nope, nope and NOPE, not us! We did get to sample crepes oozing with warm Nutella from a sidewalk cart outside of the Lourve. Nutella?!?! I love sneaking spoonfuls of its silky goodness at midnight as much as the next housewife, but this was FRANCE, not ITALY! (Side note - Nutella stuffed crepes are an excellent hangover remedy, just in case you ever need one. Not that you would. This is a no judgement zone.)

So, nary a cooking day goes by in my household where I don't dream of heading off to France. (It is probably facilitated by the fact that I have gorgeous (faux) French (made in China) tiles in my kitchen with words like "La Boucherie", or "La Rotisserie" or "La Poissonerie" written on them. For you non-Francophiles, a translation is: "The Butcher Shop", "The Chicken Grill" and "The Fish Shop" Oh, who am I kidding. I know what they mean because each one has a cow, a chicken and a fish stamped beneath their title. Anyway, tonight we were going to go to France by way of Mussels a la Mariniere. I went to White Gate Farm and paid $10 for organic, hand-cultivated lobes of garlic and a fistful of just harvested baby shallots. I went to my local fish store for gorgeous, briny, East Coast mussels. I hand picked parsley from our garden. I bought a bottle of Marseillan Noilly Pratt Dry Vermouth (no cheap twist off top Chardonnay for THESE mussles). We were going to FRANCE tonight, baby!

Well...

I just found out that my husband is working late tonight. Thank god for the world wide web. I just looked up "How long can I keep mussels in the fridge?" on Google, and fortunately there are 199,000 results for me to peruse while I wait for him to get home. But will make cannelloni for the kids...