Yesterday, I made a very time and energy intensive white bean chicken chili. Most people use powdered spices for their chili peppers, but I used three types of fresh chilies and one dried type, a couple of onions, and a handful of garlic gloves and broiled these in the oven until blackened. After making a paste with them, the smell was undeniably fresh and good. I knew this was going to be a finger-licking good chili. And it was. I’ll be sad on the day later this week when I am enjoying the very last bowl.

I realized that since we’ve come back from Australia and Asia, I haven’t really spent much time cooking at all. Wedding planning has taken over my January and February, and so it was very relaxing to stand at the counter and cut my vegetables and dice my chicken thighs and forget about all my to-do’s. This is like my own therapy.