Labor Day Seafood feast............And a mussels marinara recipe!!!!!

I know I am behind in my writing and I have about 6 other things to write about before this, but this weekend we had a meal that I had to share.  I hope that t inspires you to do the same one day.

Our friends Jim, Judy, Michelle and our kids all met at Bill and Rachel's house for a seafood feast that we had all dreamed about all summer long.  We originally talked about going to a place on the water in CT called "The Place" where you get to enjoy a real New England down and dirty lobster bake.  But it is close to an hour away and I said we can do it better.  We not just did it better, we knocked it out of the park.

While the kids were running all over the yard we nibbled on some chips and salsa and had a great selection of beers and probably one of the best bloody mary's I have had in a long time.  We also had a great drink made with lemonade, cucumber infused vodka and fresh mint and lime juice.  Very refreshing on a late summer night.

The meal started out with steamer clams.  For those of you outside of the New England area, steamer clams are a soft shell clam that has a stem sticking out that allows the clam to propel itself when it's in the water.  To cook the clams, you take any vessel you have that steams and add water, olive oil and lemon juice.  But in reality, you can add anything.  Even a little beer.

After steam starts to lift from the top of the pot, put the cleaned clams inside.  There is no science as to when the clams are done.  After all, many of us love raw clams on the 1/2 shell.  But I kept them in there for about 10 minutes.  many of them open up when they are done.  but there is a thin membrane that keeps many of them open but not widely open.  So after they are done, you take them out and then you take out the broth and place it in a bowl next to a bowl melted butter.  this night we added some sprigs of fresh herbs to flavor the butter.  As if butter needs more flavor, but it was a nice touch.  After opening the clams and peeling the membrane off the clam, clean them in the broth and dip it in the butter and enjoy.

We took a nice small break after the steamers and I heated up the mussels marinara.  This is a great dish that anyone can make.  You can even take jarred sauce and add mussels to it and you have the dish. But I like to make my own from scratch.

Start off with one cup finely chopped onion and 1/2 a cup each carrots and celery.  For my usually marinara sauce I don't add celery and carrots but for this I did.  At first I thought it was a mistake because the carrots added a lot of sweetness to the sauce but in the end it was ok.

Take a large pot and add olive oil to it and warm it up. when it's warm, add the onions, carrots and celery and saute till they are all soft.  I made a large batch so it took time.  When the veggies are all soft, add a table spoon of chopped garlic and saute till its very aromatic.

At this point, add in a 28 oz. can of either chopped tomatoes, puree, or sauce to the mix.  Now all of those ingredients are very acidy.  So you have to add some sort of sugar to balance it out. I usually add a 12 oz. can of diet cola.  Then add 1 Tablespoon of salt and 1 Tablespoon of Oregano.   Mix all together and let it cook for about an our uncovered so it reduces and thickens.   After about an hour, add the mussels and keep them simmering for about 15 minutes.  This will allow the mussels to open up and cook in the broth.

Now as you can see, I have a lot more than what I listed above.  We had 8 adults so I multiplied the recipe accordingly.  After 15-20 minutes, place the mussels in a dish and serve with crusty bread.  With any leftovers, take the mussels out of the shell and either freeze or put in a container for the next day to serve over pasta.

After we took a break from that, we boiled up some water and cooked up some Lobsters.  At that point, I didn't take any more photos because well it's just lobsters in water and I was getting busy cracking open shells.

We cleaned up and we enjoyed the meal we just had.  it was a great feast but it wasn't over yet.  Anita had made a cherry pie that was just teasing us from the kitchen inside.  Rachel made fresh whipped cream and brought out some ice cream.  Under candlelight and the stars, we finished our meal perfectly.

These are the meals that make summer great.  Great Friends, great food and great memories.  I hope you all get a chance to make great memories too on this Labor day.  Enjoy the last days of summer my friends.  Fall is right around the corner.  Soups, Short Ribs, Stew's are all on the Horizon.