Well, white has a far better development, so he seems ready to strike back in the center if black attacks on the king's wing. The position has obviously evolved from the King's gambit where black has started a pawn storm. I guess white needs to be careful of tactics but nevertheless has a strong position.
Edit: I didn't see pfren's reply as a long time went from the moment I started my reply to the moment where I actually clicked submit. It is nice to have written something that touches something similar as a master like pfren.
Here Black is threatening to capture the e4 pawn. My instinct was to protect the pawn with a piece and I therefore played Qe2 with the idea of eventually castling Queenside. Note that Qd3 loses immediately to d5.
Although Black has a semi open a-file to work with if I castle Queenside, I reasoned that Black's pawn mass on the Kingside was too dangerous and therefore dismissed the idea of protecting the e4 pawn indirectly with O-O (if ...Qxe4 Re1).
Houdini 23-ply gives the following evaluations:
O-O = +1.25
Qe2 = +0.58
Bd3 = +0.42
Is anyone able to please explain why castling Kingside is good in this position? Is it the semi open a-file, Black's poor development, a combination of both, or something else?