~Poof~

Fine dining is a lot like a magic show- if you know nothing about the inner working of the restaurant, it is very easy to get dazzled by the show. And a lot of classic menu items are easy to get swept away by, even if they are the simplest thing in the world.

This is a huge reason of why I like studying food trends- while some is intensely impractical for a home cook, like some of the more complex French cooking (looking at you, Paté en Croute!); some items take minimal effort. One of my favorite comfort foods is mussels steamed in wine. It oozes sex and sophistication, while being incredibly versatile and adaptable to whatever is in your refrigerator.

It's literally as simple as throwing mussels into a pot with wine, butter, broth (or other liquid), and other aromatics. You can do whatever you want with steamed mussels. They're fantastic. Just get the liquid bubbling, throw the cleaned mussels into the pot, cover it, and walk away for 15min. Badabing badaboom, pot o' delicious.

I suppose I could also use the mussels as a metaphor. Occasionally you gotta take the random shit in your life, toss it together, and walk away for a bit to see what happens.  Most of the time? It is going to be far better than expected.