We just returned home from seven weeks of traveling, and I can’t tell you how nice it is to be home. We spent three weeks running across the country on Amtrak, visiting relatives and friends, followed by four weeks in India, for the wedding of a college friend of mine and a yoga retreat. It was delightful. And it’s even more delightful to be back.

Bringing in the fishing nets // Kochi, India

Travel is wonderful, I love it, and I don’t think I’d be a very happy person without it. But even as you feel empowered by making and executing plans, experiencing new places, taking risks, etc., you start to feel a little helpless: most places, you can’t cook for yourself. You don’t really clean up after yourself. You don’t have anything to take care of but your own self, and you (or rather, I) start to really look forward to having a few good old-fashioned responsibilities.

Is that weird?

Well, anyway, I’ve been knocking out chores for the past few days, and it feels great. Dusting everything, sorting two months’ worth of mail, paying bills, cleaning the oven–and best of all, cooking lots of delicious food. While we adored all the delicious Indian food we’ve been eating for the past few months, it feels great to eat fresh, simple meals we make ourselves.

And here’s the best part: the kitchen improved while we were gone! I stalled out on painting our cabinets back in September or October, and couldn’t bring myself to get started on them again, so for months we’ve been living with unintentional open shelving mixed with unpainted cabinets, mixed with the few cabinets I did get around to painting–and it’s been more than a little irritating to look at.

But my wonderful brother came to the rescue and offered to finish the cabinets as a Christmas present! He’s not done yet, but he’s made a serious dent and the results are beautiful. As a quick reminder, here’s how it looked when we first saw the house:

And here’s how it was looking last fall (wow that’s a bad photo!):

And here’s where it’s at now:

Ahh. So fresh!

It’s still far from finished, of course. Pull back to reveal more unpainted or missed cabinet fronts–

And chaos reigns on the other side of the room–

But it’s starting to feel like it could someday be finished, which would be like a dream.

Anyway, with the kitchen feeling so fresh, I’ve been really enjoying cooking. Last night I tried to make pho for the first time, with fried tofu and spring rolls. For the pho, I used this recipe from The Kitchn. There are definitely things I’d do differently next time (more ginger! more stock!), but it was delicious. It was only my second time making spring rolls, so I’m still getting the technique down. On the side are soy sauce, hoisin sauce, and my homemade ginger-plum sauce, which I love.