Tonight I had another really special evening. I’m really digging this vacation.

I’ve been hankering to cook ever since I finished school (praise Jesus, hallelujah, every day I wake up thanking the sweet Lord that I am FINISHED with school). So of course tonight, what with the rare Texas snow and all, I just had to make my mom’s famous chili. And because I like you, my dear friend, I thought I’d share the recipe with you. It’s super easy, but shhh… don’t tell anyone. A good cook always pretends like her masterpiece was much more difficult to make than it really was.

Here’s that recipe…

Here’s the chili…

And the melt-in-your-mouth cornbread (with butter… butter makes everything better)…

And you can’t have a snowy night, homemade chili and cornbread without a fire in the fireplace…

And of course, a soft, warm Christmas glow lingering from my tree which I just can’t bring myself to take down just yet.

The rest of my decorations came down days ago, but there’s something about having a tree glowing in my front window that soothes me. And so this old tree may be sticking around until Valentine’s Day. I’m not afraid to be that girl.

Oh… who am I kidding… of course the tree will be down by the end of the week. I’m too much of a conformist. But I like to pretend to be a rebel.

Back to my evening. With a stomach full of chili and a fire to keep me warm, and a nice big mug of hot chocolate, I curled up on my couch and watched the most adorable movie… Julie & Julia.