From the Window Sill Part 1

The past few months have meant a slew of changes in my life.  The biggest is that I am now a Doctor of Jurisprudence!  I graduated from Syracuse University College of Law and experienced all of the emotional and physical changes that come along with it.  No, my liver didn’t immediately enlarge, but I did move out of Syracuse.

I didn’t go far though!  For the summer, I will be studying for the bar exam at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY!  I moved here 2 weeks ago and have finally settled in to my apartment.  It’s not a fantastic apartment, that’s for sure, but it’s [now] clean and super close to campus.  It’s also next door to a bar that regularly has live music, which has been… interesting.  If I wasn’t studying for the bar, it would probably be awesome.  I digress.  The apartment is fine though, because I will only be here for 2 months.  In August I will be moving to…

Southern California!

After my last trip out to California I decided to make my way west.  I’m stoked about it.  First hurdle though is getting through a summer of bar studying.  And in order to have the stamina for 10 hours of studying a day (I wish I was joking) I need to EAT!

So this is the first in a series of posts I’m calling From the Window Sill.  That’s because the best light in my apartment is from the window in my living room of my attic apartment.  It’s got great lighting and a pretty sweet view of the lush landscape of Ithaca.  Here I will chronicle some of the food I make to get me through a pretty crazy summer.  Please realize that I will be eating way more frozen dinners/prepared foods/take out than I normally do, but I’m going to try to keep my sanity by cooking.  So here we go!

I make chili a LOT.  It’s total comfort food for me.  My dad used to make it a lot on the weekends and I’ve taken to doing that as well.  The thing about vegetarian chili is that too often it tastes like soup or just a thick and spicy bean/tomato mixture.  The chili con carne of my youth was really rich and definitely not diet food.  Since vegetarian chili is always super low in fat because it doesn’t contain animal fat (ew?) it tends to lack that richly satisfying flavor and texture.

So my amazing recipe that accomplishes that flavor?  Well, I’m sorry to say I don’t have one.  I almost never make it the same way twice but I always keep this in mind.  You need to add richness to the basics (beans, canned tomatoes, chili powder, cayenne, oregano, garlic, onions, and carrots).  Sometimes I add pureed winter squash.  This time I added the leftovers of a can of refried beans.  This was a winner and a half.  Give it a try with your favorite vegetarian chili recipe- just a quarter of a cup or so will do it.  You could also mash some black beans and get a similar result.

I made a big batch of this and froze a bunch in individual containers for easy lunches and dinners when my brain is too full of the elements of “trespass to chattels” and “depraved heart murder.”  Yes, those terms actually mean something.  What, you ask?  Well, I better get back to studying so I can tell you (and the bar examiners).