Katie and I went to a french bistro on the upper east side and I got mussels steamed with fennel, garlic and white wine. I haven't copied the recipe yet, but I think it would be easy enough: Scrub and soak the mussels (soaking them in water with a little flour makes them disgorge sand faster). In a large pot, saute a few fennel bulbs with lots of olive oil until soft; add a few minced garlic cloves (or a lot!), toss in the mussetels and add white wine going up to about the middle. Cover and simmer until the mussels open, like 8 minutes. Serve with tons of crusty toasted bread to dip into the sauce, or over pasta. I think a little chopped parsley and lemon zest at the end would be good too.

I got shrimp from a store right on the dock last night - i'm loving living on the water for the fresh seafood. Donovan (who never lived outside PA before now) said he'd never had seafood so fresh. They had buckets of soft shell crab just sitting on the floor! Although I'm creeped out by eating an animal AND its shell.