Mussel spasms

I love mussels.

They make me feel warm inside, something I need a lot of these days. They bring back great memories of weekends in Little Deer Isle, Maine where they just wash up on shore and dot the sand like jewels. I always wanted to grab bunches and bunches of them to bring home but that was never feasible since we were usually staying at a bed and breakfast and it would be days before we got home and hours of driving which meant definite rot. I remember staring down at them thinking what a waste. They remind me of France and that's enough to make them exceptional. They remind me of one of our most memorable meals at Rouge in Philadelphia when we walked in for lunch on a freezing new year's eve afternoon into a warm and cozy room and sat down to a huge bowl of mussels and even bigger platter of frites cooked to perfection. So when I needed mussels for a recipe that Saveur emailed me, http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Salmon-a-la-Nage?cmpid=enews120610 I didn't hesitate. Since for this dish I only needed about a dozen I figured I'd have lots left for one of those giant bowls and frites, hmmmm. But alas, it was not meant to be. Frank wasn't in the mood for that and I only had sweet potatoes so he suggested a paella using just mussels. OK!
I added chopped chorizo to the sofrito.

then made the paella using the same method as the vegetable paella then adding all the mussels
and covering the pot until they opened which takes anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes.

Max on the other hand doesn't think much of mussels, he'll eat just about anything but not if there are shells involved. He'd rather eat his foot.