One of my favorite things about summertime is the food. Fresh fruit for cobblers, seafood from local harbors and salads crafted from garden harvests...

We've seemed to have mastered the "Moules Marinières" dish, as we've feasted on mussels a few times and our recipe has progressively improved.

INGREDIENTS:

1 tablespoon olive oil
 1 tablespoon butter
2 small shallots , sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
 1 1/2 pounds mussels
 8 ounces chicken stock
 1/2 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons cream
 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
 lemon wedges
 salt and pepper
Crusty French bread

DIRECTIONS:

Clean and remove beards from mussels.
Preheat a large pot to medium and add olive oil and butter. Once butter has melted, add sliced shallots, a pinch of salt and pepper then cook for 5 minutes until the shallots have softened.
Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add wine, chicken stock and mussels, then cover with a lid and steam mussels for 8-10 minutes or until all mussels open. (If any mussels do not open, discard).
Add cream and parsley, stir and season with salt if necessary.
Serve with lemon wedges and slices of crusty French bread.

Enjoy!

I discovered Mimi Thorisson on Condé Nast Traveler's Instagram page. It didn't take much to lure me in; her style and essence is elegantly chaotic, defined by a landscape so pure and bountiful. Mimi's reality is in fact particles of my own fantasy I dream of living; she has made the bucolic an active ingredient in her own life.

Mimi and her Icelandic photographer husband, Oddur, left Paris to live in the countryside of Médoc, France several years prior. At the time, they were seeking more space for their growing family (now comprised of seven children and 15 dogs). The region of Médoc, wrapped in a blanket of some of the world's most expensive and prestigious wine villages, is a six-hour drive from Paris, a landscape that will taunt even the most urban dwelling soul. After settling in to their stone farmhouse, Manger began to take greater shape. Manger is Mimi's labor of love, a blog that has flourished greatly since its inception that chronicles her family's life, largely centered around the seasonal foods that come from their surroundings. Each photograph, taken by Mimi's husband, is handsomely furnished as if each one were an invitation to Mimi's table in France. Manger has quickly snowballed into the success of Mimi's French TV Show, La Table de Mimi, and her new cookbook, A Kitchen in France: A Year of Cooking in My Farmhouse (it debuted last fall).

A writer from Condé Nast Traveler wrote a piece on the french beauty after visiting her home, describing her farmhouse as a 'Rembrandt still life.' As evidenced by the photographs above, Mimi's life is full and vibrant. It is certainly one to envy but perhaps one that proves following your heart can lead to all the satisfaction one could dream of, Rembrandt-esque, indeed.