Life is very, very good right now.

When I started this post, a week or more ago, I was sitting in a hotel somewhere near Los Angeles, while pokershaman was off doing his 52-card magic. I’d been listening to all kinds of good music — from Vivaldi guitar concertos to Laura Nyro. I’d done some useful work. Dinner would be homemade chili: as I wrote, I was caramelizing purple Spanish onions. (Brought my own Calphalon everyday pan — the pots and pans in these extended-stay places are flimsy.) Then the chili simmered to blend its flavors: onions and garlic, red and yellow peppers, cinnamon and chipotle, beef and beans. It was excellent, and the leftovers made great tortillas.

Lately I’ve been getting my kitchen mojo back: not just the courage and desire to cook anything other than ramen (and sometimes not even that), but the ability to taste a new recipe in my mind, to cook on the fly, to put together a week’s worth of menus, to run a kitchen. Those are skills I learned when I was a child, and I never thought I’d lose them. Then for a long time I never thought I’d get them back. I’d broken where I was strongest.

Now I have a batch of whole-wheat challah in the oven for Thanksgiving dinner. In the morning I’ll make stuffing, while housepet prepares the turkey and mashed potatoes. gramina already made mashed squash and cranberries in port. I’ll probably make the green beans as well — steamed or sauteed, probably. Maybe with slivered almonds.