Winter weather is FINALLY here which brought my first opportunity to cross-country ski this season.  One loner on the trails, two hours, three balletic falls, four tastes of ice cream and five hundred calories burned later, I took a break to continue reading All the Light We Cannot See, an unforgettable book if you haven't read it yet.

The rest time allowed me to ponder the things I saw:

-Not long after I started skiing, I found a trail that had not been groomed.  I'm not now, nor will ever be, an A+ skier.  It's not in my blood or in my experience.  But I am related to my dad who subconsciously pushes me to do difficult, interesting and new things.  Blazing a new trail in four to six inches of fresh, white snow sounded like a good time.  The snow was incredible to glide through, not only because it was untouched by any other human (I have a fantasy of living back when the West was full of bison, not white people), but the silence that accompanied me the further I went touched me.  After I went a ways and reached a spot I knew not to go over/through, all I could do was stand there, listening to nothing and looking at everything. 

-Countless turkey, pheasant or the like tracks.  I came to an open area and saw at least 11 different track paths.  Upon closer inspection, I could clearly see a large bird footprint.  As I continued on, the field and bordering forests were absolutely littered with these tracks.  The situation made me think back to the first time I visited Smiling Hill Farm three years ago: While skiing out in the fields, I came upon a very small set of animal tracks.  As I stood there, wondering who had made them (some sort of mouse/mole) and where (s)he was going (take cover!!), I became so deep in thought that I promptly fell over.  Luckily, no one was around to see my grace and style that is me on cross-country skis...
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-Balls and balls of snow that had rolled down a small hill after being pushed out of a parking lot.  This was much off the groomed trail and enjoyed the trek through fresh snow to reach the gravity-created snowballs.  I even climbed the hill sideways on the skis to woosh down it and back to the trail.

Saturday night brought an environmental film at Allagash Brewery about conservation of land, skiing, grizzlies and passionate people.  This movie was accompanied by beer, chocolate chip cookies, popcorn and a particular short film called "Speed Dating."  You can view it here: https://youtu.be/eiLWmEZALdI ..... I loved the story, as the struggle is real, but not nearly enough to try speed dating!  The whole experience was great as events that include Allagash often are. 

A snow walk happened upon my return to town.  After spending 15 minutes dusting, scraping and chiseling ice and snow off my car a couple hours before, I wanted to see what else was now snow and ice-covered.  Sometimes I find myself taking an incredibly long detour from wherever I've been to wherever I'm going when there's snow on the ground.  The most remarkable sight were truly the ice-encased trees.  Run your hands over once next time icy rain happens to cover the local world and marvel at the smoothness found outside and marvel at the resilient life living within.

Other recent winter activities have included footing my name in the snow, literally.  During my Wednesday class, between teaching local kids the difference between squirrel, fox and mouse tracks and rolling down white hills, I challenged everyone to walk their names in the snow as neatly as possible, first AND last.  This is quite difficult, I found.  Not only does spacing matter but balance is not always there when you need it and a mistake is made.  Good thing White-Out was all around!

As I write this, the snow outside the coffee shop's window is swirling and blowing lightly in opposite directions.  Along the sidewalk just beyond the window, the snow drifts slowly to the right, while in the street the flurries flow decidedly to the left.  If you look at it long enough, you might believe you were stuck in a beautiful snow globe. 

Upon my reentry to Portland, I had a whirlwind evening of fun and breakfast at my favorite lighthouse the next morning (see previous post).  Later that afternoon, after a few hours of work, I met my new adventure partner, MDK, at Pai Men for some body-warming ramen.  Their Paiten dish is thick and filling, flavorful and delicious.  After listening to their incredible playlist full of Led Zepplin and the Ramones, we headed to Central Provisions and Local 188.  We struck out at both places as they were being renovated.  Bramhall Pub was a great next choice.  In the winter, this place gets pretty chilly so wear layers but its many redeeming qualities outweigh the extra clothes you end up putting back on as you sit and enjoy the candle-lit atmosphere.  Bramhall's selection of beer and cocktails can please anyone and if you get the chance, get the Cubano!  It was not eaten this time but it is quite memorable.  

Another late night created the urge for yet another bagel the next morning.  MDK and I walked to Union Bagel, only to learn that they too were closed for renovations.  Where are Portlandiers to eat this week!?  Coffee By Design on India was our next destination as they have both bagels and my favorite vanilla latte.  And other quality coffee brews.  After lounging longer and happier than I ever have at a coffee shop, we moved on to visit the Maine Jewish Museum inside the Etz Chaim Synagogue.  This is an unassuming building at the corner of Congress and India streets that houses art exhibits in the main hallway.  We were absolutely blown away by what we saw; heads of wild animals constructed from cello, guitar, piano and violin pieces as well as cardboard, paint, textured wallpaper and more.  It was an incredible exhibit and I'm kicking myself for not writing down the artists name (no, I can't find it through countless internet searches either.)  See the photo above for one of my favorites: a bison eating "grass."  The grass was piano string.  It was epic.  Besides the bison, there were also heads of a giraffe, boar, elephant and others, plus and a whole owl. 

Tuesday brought drink and food specials at a couple favorite spots.  Timber has a great happy hour with two $6 cocktails and $5 appetizers, this much has been previously noted.  This time I had a new cocktail and an old favorite.  The new one was margarita-esque with a healthy dash of spice.  The other was the Pooh Bear, a honey/bourbon/mint concoction I've mentioned previously in the 9/18/2015 post.  It was highly drinkable but the spicy mixture was the winner of the night.  We then moved on to The North Point (the sister restaurant to Timber) for their Tuesday night mojito special: $5 after 6pm!  For $5, you get a regular, blueberry, raspberry, mango or pear mojito.  Their regular happy hour from 4-6 is also a spectacular deal with $4 wine, $5 beer and  $6 cocktail deals, plus $5 snacks.  We ordered one blueberry and one mango mojito.  Both were excellent but I might be a regular mojito kind of girl.  Drinking mojitos with snow on the ground made me thing back to drinking a strawberry and basil mojito at David's on Monument Square before I started this blog.  Very fresh and favorable.  To finish off our evening, B.Good was next.  On Tuesday evenings, you can get a sandwich, fries and beer for $10.  It's an incredible bargain as it includes items I want to order all the time any way but you save about $6.  I like to get either a turkey burger or regular burger (both all natural) with the West Side option.  Your burger is then topped with avocado, cilantro, house made salsa, chipotle puree and lime.  Perfect. 
 
The next day brought cookies from Aurora Provisions, Bissel Brothers and Allagash Brewery visits and happy hour at Vena's Fizz House.  Two shared cocktails and two mocktails later, we left to go ice skating.  But a word about the drinks: one mocktail was the Bangladesh Express (coconut cream, blood orange, lime and ghost pepper) and the other was a Prickly Pear-tini (prickly pear puree, pineapple and fresh lime).  The Bangladesh Express was creamy but spicy and colored a light orang-y pink.  This was an startlingly good drink while the prickly pear drink was beautiful and tasty.  Our cocktails were the Baby Bourbon Manhattan (Wiggly Bridge Baby Bourbon, Carpano Antica, Coastal Root Aromatic Bitters, and Owl & Whale Persimmon Bitters) and a drink that tasted like apple pie.  One was strong and the other sweet but both were very good.

After an great skating session, we all headed to Empire to gain back some previously burned off calories.  A table full of food later, which included spring rolls, garlic green beans, lamb dumplings, Chinatown roast pork, soup dumplings and Kung Pao, all were satiated and smiling.   Another great night for the books.  

To top off the last five days of more fun than you can shake a stick at and sampling food/drinks all around town, I made a top-quality breakfast sandwich to remember.  This included a handmade English muffin from Limerick, Maine, hot Italian sausage from Rosemont Market, cage-free eggs and Cabot extra sharp cheddar.  Sorry, but it was better than Cafe OHNO.   

(Read "Tejas, Part I" first.  See below...)
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Wednesday's ride was 25 miles with a random sighting of four large, wild, green parakeets eating on the ground in a very urban setting.  Odd but apparently not uncommon according to Merlin Bird ID.  Apparently I hadn't worked out long enough so I ventured to the Austin Bouldering Project, a rock gym that doesn't use ropes for support.  You have to rely on your own strength to get up and down the fifteen foot high walls safely.  This is one heck of a workout and I had a blast!  You are challenged both mentally and physically in new and exciting ways.  A friend and I needed tacos afterwards so we went to Torchy's Tacos.  I mentioned this place when I came down for Thanksgiving but I ordered new items off the menu this time.  I usually go for their breakfast taco with bacon, egg and cheese, no matter the time of day.  But after another long bike ride and climbing, I decided to fortify myself with a fried chicken taco (called the Trailer Park) and one with jerk chicken, jalapeno and mango (called Brushfire).  The first was incredibly delicious in only the way fried chicken can make you happy and the second was super spicy and but definitely one to order again.

Thursday brought one last ride of 27 miles in two hours for a four-day-total of 115 miles and 8.5 hours.  I was sad to return the Domane bike as she rode very well and I was incredibly proud of myself for not having fallen over due to being clipped in (or just plain succumbing to gravity...) once.  After we dropped the bike off and I bought a new SPIbelt and Klean Kanteen (both red!), lunch at Whole Foods and ice cream at Amy's came next.  Amy's Ice Cream is stupid good.  Addictingly good.  Oh man I could eat this forever good.  This time, I ordered chocolate and coffee with Junior Mints crushed in.  Daddy chose a Kahlua and coffee milkshake.  Yes is all I can say. 

This was New Year's Eve.  I ended the Old Year and started the new one with my favorite little boy and breakfast with my favorite adult boy (nephew and dad in no particular order).  La Madeline is a French cafe with locations in Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia and the D.C. area.  It's no Standard Baking Company but their fire and antiques on the walls are nice to be around.  It was then time for Christmas at my godmother's house.  Toffee, Gatti's pizza, summer sausage and milk punch were accompanied by presents.  Milk punch involves booze and ice cream.  How can you go wrong?   One more shopping trip to REI and dinner at my sister's house concluded my trip to Texas.  I got three kisses from my nephew and then was pushed out the door by the little prince.  The next morning, I got up at 5am and had a smooth flight home. 

If I ever ponder leaving Portland, all I have to do is fly back in the daytime and look out the window of the plane.  This area has never felt more like home.  Maybe the dating or job opportunities are minimal to non-existent but at least I know in my heart that this is where I want to be (for now...)

Once I landed, I went straight to my apartment where a purring feline was waiting.  I didn't stay home for long because I was to meet someone at Bao Bao on Spring Street.  M was about to move to Virgina and hadn't been out much in Portland so I had to show him a good time.  I book-ended my trip at Bao Bao and I couldn't have been happier.  After Asian slaw, pork and cabbage dumplings, Kung Pow chicken and peanut dumplings and a Mai Tai, we moved on to Grace on Chestnut Street.  Their Holier Than Thou cocktail was calling my name.   Spicy in the throat and a glorious pink-orange color.  One is perfect, two is dangerous.  I had one as we then moved on to see the spectacle at Liquid Riot that is the ice ball.  Formerly Infiniti, Liquid Riot on Commercial Street serves great cocktails with their own booze.  Their Haute Fashioned as a giant ice ball instead of ice cubes which is made in a warmed mold.  Made with cinnamon, this is an incredible twist on the Old Fashioned.  Other interesting drinks were Port Royale, Rye Hilt and For the Love of Gin.  Rye Hilt had an incredible layering effect of flavors as one after another hit your tongue and then left.   Our final stop was a new one for me: Union at Press Hotel. 

Union has a clean and bright atmosphere and their drinks are good but for $13-14, I would rather go to Sonny's or Local 188 for their laid back feel.  We did get their cookie and candies plate ($9) which had both macarons (almond-based) and macaroons (coconut-based), a chocolate-dipped gingerbread cookie, cream filled rich chocolate piece, and more.  That finished our evening but the morning brought Scratch Bakery.  M had never been and to leave Portland without a fresh bagel is a real misfortune.  The 15 minute wait for fresh bagels is always worth it too.  We ate at Spring Point Lighthouse and watched a tanker come into the harbor.  30 degrees F in Texas is too chilly to sit outside for breakfast but in Maine, it couldn't be more right.

In less than a month, I found myself back at home in Texas.  Home is where the family (and the great food) is!

After a cancelled flight the day before Christmas Eve, I was able to get on a later flight (thank you Southwest Airlines for still having a couple seats open!!).  I took my first Uber to my sister's studio at 2:45am, Maine time on Christmas Eve.  My original flight left three hours earlier than my actual flight.  That only meant one thing: I had time to visit Bao Bao for half-priced dumplings before venturing to the airport.  Two orders of dumplings and a Fatty Bampkins cider was just the thing to ease my "am I actually going to get home before Christmas?" jitters.

I was woken up by an angel, my nephew Gabriel, on Christmas Eve morning.  We got up and made our grandmother's family-famous and butter-laden cinnamon rolls to eat on Christmas Day.  The recipe won't leave my family for now but I will say that you use All. The. Butter. And some lard.  Apparently, lard is making a comeback.  After making the dough, I went to my mom's house with Gabriel to decorate cookies.  Rich Roll Cookies from the Joy of Cooking are my favorite, even though I only get to eat them once a year.  Here's the recipe if you would like to enjoy some too:
     Cream 1 cup butter and 2/3 cup sugar together
     Beat in 1 egg and 1 teaspoon vanilla (or almond) extract
     Combine and add 2 and 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour and 1/2
         teaspoon salt
     Chill dough for 3 or so hours before rolling
     Preheat oven to 350 degrees
     Bake on a greased cookie sheet 8-10 minutes or until slightly
        browned. 
     Hint: use as little flour when you roll out as possible and make them crispy cookies (the darker the
         color, the more crispy!)

Christmas Eve dinner was pork tenderloin with mustard sauce, cooked in the oven to tender perfection, for the main course.  Red potatoes, boiled, then squished down and mixed with cooked garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper and finished in the broiler until their skin was crispy and green beans, steamed and topped with butter, toasted almonds and sauteed onions were our sides.  Dessert was locally-made ice cream (Lick Ice Cream on Lamar Blvd). 

Christmas Day greeted us with warm weather and my nephew calling to me from the next room.  We lay in my bed for some much-needed Auntie time and then got ready to go to my sister's house.  It's now a tradition to walk into my sister's house and smell my grandmother's house on Christmas Day.  The cinnamon rolls are ooey and gooey and served upside down from how they were baked in the oven so all the buttery and cinnamon-y goodness is facing up.  You get to see just how much delicious damage you're doing to your body BUT, since it's Christmas and Grandma visiting us through our senses, no one cares.  Halfway through breakfast, my nephew is pulling on anyone he can to go open presents and so, once everyone is finished, we do! 

Christmas Day dinner was incredible, mainly because of the sauteed and then broiled cauliflower and cheese sauce.  I wanted to put the cheese sauce on everything.  The main dish was a beef rib roast which couldn't be more simple and succulent.  Salt and pepper all over and then in the oven at 350 degrees for hours.  How can something so easy to make be so good?  I put cheese sauce on it.  A simple green salad and an assortment of European cookies were also served before and after the meal. 

Sunday dinner brought ramen.  My mom, sister and I went to Michi on Lamar Blvd (Lamar is a REALLY long street).  I tasted two types of beer and ended up with a Japanese plum beer made by Hitachino Nest. Appetizers were "burnt ends" (BBQ-esque bite-sized pieces of tender pork, not actually burnt) and pork gyoza (homemade, pan-fried).  I ordered their basic bowl with regular (versus light or stout broth), pork slices, woodear mushrooms, green onions, garlic oil, a soft-boiled egg and pickled ginger.  The whole meal was very good (but I honestly can't wait to get back to Pai Men Miyaki).  However, dessert is what I remember the most.  Nine different flavors of mochi ice cream was what Michi offered.  If you haven't tried it, mochi is rice pounded until it becomes glutenous and malleable, then stuffed with a dainty portion of ice cream.  You can find it at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods.

With Monday came nice, but not calm, weather for the visits' first bike ride.  This was to be only my second ride using my new SPD clip-in shoes and pedals.  The Bicycle Sports Shop on Lamar Blvd is THE place to go if you need bikes, help with your bikes or parts for your bikes.  Their employees go above and beyond every time for me and my dad, Todd and Mike especially.  I was expertly fitted on their black 58 Domane Trek before our windy 20 mile urban ride.  The wind mph was in the mid-teens so a country ride would have blown us about. 

Tuesday's ride was 70km long.  69km for my dad's 69th birthday and one to grow on!  That came out to about 43 miles of both city and country scenes. Some of my favorite parts of the ride were:
1. Coming down an empty road with three vultures flying overhead.  When they went to land on a nearby tree, we saw that there were at least 20 or 30 more vultures perched on the branches.  I was overcome in jaw-dropping awe.  When I caught back up to my dad, he said he was just waiting for me to fall over.  : )
2. Seeing a Crested Caracara land on the ground, possibly to catch and eat some prey.  I've only seen one other in the wild (on another Texas bike ride a year or so ago) and two in captivity so this was a epic event.  The raptor came into view as we were discussing when to stop for a snack break.  "Right now" was the answer. 
3. Reaching the "Bon Jovi" point in the ride and singing "Livin' on a Prayer" loudly as we rode along.  A new refrain is "Keep on pedalin' and we'll make it, I swear!"

To be continued...