On Christmas eve, I had a few people over for dinner. We had plans to meet everyone at Tommy’s for pre-dinner margaritas. It was a nice way to start our evening. Tommy’s always have this family feel to it that made me feel more like I was having cocktails at home.

After sharing a few pitchers of that elixir, it was time to go home for dinner.

When I planed my dinner, I needed something that could be very quick to make, have you ever tried to make dinner when you’re tipsy?? Well me neither so, that morning I went to Lien Hing on Clement street, got a few pounds of fresh crab.

In the afternoon, I cooked the fresh crab in salted water (make it taste like sea water) and just let it cool off, that’s it.

The BF made an amazing aioli that was our first course!

Then I made some moules frite, sorry I forgot to take the pictures, I guess I got too excited by the dinner.

The moules marinieres are very easy too. In a big pot, I put a big chunk of butter, I let 3 thinly sliced shallots sweat in the butter for a short time, then had 2-3 cups of wine depending on the amount of mussels you have. I had about 3 pounds. Then I threw in a small tablespoon of garlic (this is to your taste, I love garlic!). Add a bay leaf.

When ready to eat, I throw in the mussels and let it steamed for about 4-5 minutes. It’s important when making big quantities of mussels in a big pot to mix them a couple time so they evenly cook. At the end just had a handful of chopped parsley.

We had store bought pre-cut shoe string potato. It was very convenient and  we just threw them a couple minutes in the fryer and here we had it our Christmas eve dinner made in 10 minutes, perfect.

Every thing was served family style in the middle of the table and the guests seamed to have had a great dinner!

It was easy and very good!

Bon Appétit!