Discovered in the freezer when arriving home: chicken, beef, mixed bell pepper, corn, a remnant of blueberries.

Put the frozen chicken in a pot over low heat, cover, and ignore it for half an hour or so, until the chicken is thawing out. Peer in at it. Flip it over maybe. Put some frozen corn in there too, and cover it back up. Nudge the heat up a little if it’s not cooking fast enough. Ignore it a while more.

Peer in there again. If everything is thawing out and looking to be cooked enough to eat, or getting thereabouts, add a small can of tomato sauce. Just plain puree sauce, not some premixed pasta thing. Stir it around. Ponder. Open the cupboard. Ignore the red pepper because that’s too obvious. Put in some celery seed instead. And then give it a bit of soy sauce; not enough so you will taste soy sauce when you are done, mind. Just two drops or so. Enough to give the sauce some background so it doesn’t just taste like tomato puree.

Maybe add some oregano. Open a can of beans–pinto–rinse them, and toss them in. Ignore it a bit more because cooking doesn’t seem like the proper rewarding, indulgent thing to be doing. Once the beans have warmed up properly you can eat it.

It’s not really chili. But it is impromptu.