sanity saver vegetarian chili
Boston was kind of infamous in the country last winter for getting 108.6" (275.8 cm) of snow, which isn't a lot, compared to some places, but we have small narrow streets and cramped traffic patterns that are horrible to navigate on a good day, and we kept getting more and more snow to the point where we started running out of space to put it. I used to dump the snow in the yard, but then it started getting above my head and difficult to pile onto, so when I wasn't shovelling, I was levelling drifts so I had more room. I had wicked arms by the spring, let me tell you.
This is from February, so a decent-ish amount of snow. I think this is what my street looked like.
Literally this is what the snowpile next to my driveway looked like. (I wish I had a dog though)
As you can see, two way streets became 1 way streets so we came up with an unspoken system to designate the direction of particular routes.
Anyway, I got worried about my meat intake, especially with being inside more than I was used to, so I found this terrific chili recipe, which lasted me for 2 weeks, useful because I didn't want to hike the snow drifts to the grocery store. 2 weeks, lunch and dinner every day - this chili. Come inside from shovelling for an hour each afternoon - this chili. Back from work after being stuck on the train for 2 hours - this chili. Don't know what to eat, getting chilblains from the cold - this fucking chili. When the cornbread ran out, I would make a new loaf, but otherwise, I was good. Put some cheddar cheese on top, stellar.
And after all that, I wasn't actually sick of it! Actually, I have many fond memories of the taste! I'm definitely making it again this winter, but hopefully with less snow.
(Special shout out to the Sons of Liberty fandom, which had its share of stir-crazy New Englanders who watched the History Channel mini series for the hell of it, because what else were we gonna do? And then immediately took to tumblr with feelings. You guys helped me survive haunting my own house like a ghost on the days when I worked from home. Much love.)