Lyssy's Bday Dinner

i turned 35 on oct 10...and got the mac daddy of a 'pot and cover'. scott surprised me with a fire engine red 6 qt dutch oven. we of course had to cook in it right away...and mussels and filet were on the menu...surf and turf i guess:) thank goodness for costco so eating surf and turf is very affordable and high quality! i got around a 3lb bag of mussels...remember its costco...no small quantities, and scott helped me clean them all, no beards on my mussels thank you. it was a while ago when we actually cooked this...so i don't remember exactly what we did to the meat or mussels...but they were pretty straight forward... mussels in a winey, carmelized oniony, garlicy, buttery sauce with lots of crusty garlic french bread to sop it up and perfectly cooked and seasoned filet. i think we may have marinated them in teriyaki (how do you spell that?) (yoshida's is the best on the planet...unless you are in Japan i guess) scott just sears them in a screaming hot dry cast iron skillet till medium rare. i have to look back at the pictures to remember it all...do you know how hard it is to get scott to wait for me to take a picture when its time to eat!? i have to be quick! as you'll see in the pictures, scott was insistent that we remove all the mussels from the shells prior to consuming them...i know his plan was easy access eating...but i think they may have stayed warmer if we'd left them in the shell...either way, they were perfect, sweet, plump and delicious...only to be outdone by the chowder we'd make the next night with the left overs... happy birthday to me...cooking a yummy dinner with my yummy hubby...heaven