Here comes the cold...

That opening line of John Mayer's "St. Patrick's Day" captures the beginning of November perfectly for me. After five days in Dallas, I awoke Saturday morning ready to return to land with hills, only to find a barrage of canceled flights and Weather Channel reporters being blown sideways through Chatham. Once our retro plane descended through the tumult of clouds and I finally got home, the heat was on in my building.

Inside, my living room was relatively temperate, but my bare feet were instantaneously freezified on the bathroom and bedroom floors. I HAD TO WEAR SOCKS. (I seriously just typed "sox" on the first try there.) Enter winter cooking.

Tonight, (well, most of this afternoon) I made chili with ground chicken, sweet potatoes, and black beans. Why?

• I spend many a day thinking of how I can incorporate sweet potatoes in to things, and this seemed to be the best way to marry this charming vegetable with comfort food.
• Black beans are the only beans I eat. Sometimes I don't have the energy at Anna's to tell them not to put the regular beans in my burrito, and I always regret it.
• Why no lamb? No beef? Cause I'm getting fat. Had to make the trade-off somewhere.

It's a good thing that Betsy, her mom, and Katie could come over, because I made a whole lot o' chili. I also cooked some polenta and warmed the solidified slices in a pan. Everything was delicious, especially the flavor and texture complement of the polenta.

We also started training for the EBWOWEC Custom House New Years Champagne Marathon by enjoying a bottle of Mumm blanc de noirs. Bubbles always soothe my chills.