There are many worse things than having to spend a day in a charming New Mexican ski resort town!
So, the whole "we'll be back in Austin on Friday" thing didn't really pan out. We stayed in Mandeville (north of New Orleans) until Sunday and then spent most of the day yesterday ORGANIZING THE PANTRY YAYZ NOW WE KNOW WHERE THINGS ARE. But before I show you pictures of scrumptious fried chicken and delicious holiday feasting eats, a little more on our December New Mexico trip.
We woke up at the Inn of the Sun Gods in Taos, and our car looked like this.
Snow, snow, everywhere, and the plows were having a heck of a time keeping up with it. And if central Taos looked like this, what would the mountain roads out of town look like?
We added another day at the motel.
And immediately hopped in the car to drive out of town. I see no contradictions here.
Plus, there's a supercool bridge just outside of Taos that we really wanted to see! It's over the Rio Grande and is 650 feet up in the air. Really tall.
And it's really breezy standing on a bridge above an extra deep gorge!
We were lucky that the snow stopped long enough for us to be able to see the bottom of the canyon. As it was, we got the little Focus stuck in the snow for a couple of minutes. But at least it was clear outside, one of those beautiful crisp winter days we don't see here in Austin. (Aw, is your diamond bracelet too tight, whiny?)
This photo was taken mere moments before I was overcome with winter fever, scooped up a handful of snow, and charged the ever-patient photographer.
There was even a nice little rest area just off the bridge, complete with picnic tables. On a sunnier day, it would be a great lunch stop. That day it was just deserted, but New Mexico still wanted to gather the opinions of the few people stupid enough to brave the treacherous roads. How friendly!
Though I can't help but wonder if those buttons were attached to anything, or if we were perhaps just part of some giant New Mexican psychology experiment.
Back to town, and to lunch! We'd been hitting a lot of dives in New Mexico, so we wanted to give a slightly more upscale place a try. Plus, our guidebook highly recommended Graham's Grille, so there for lunch we went.
We both started out with a great mug of mulled wine. It's one of my favorite drinks in the world, but it doesn't go well with our 100 degree weather here in Texas. Next, an order of the house-made tortillas - apparently one of the owners used to be famous for her tamales and tortillas. These were pretty thick and came with chipotle honey butter, black beans, and crumbly piquant cotija cheese.
Absolutely awesome. God, I love carbs and carby things. Tasty warm griddled masa with sweet, slightly hot (coulda been spicier for me) butter? And the black beans, up in their little pile, trying to keep me healthy.
Husbear ordered soup and salad, because he's a girl. No, I think it was more that the soup of the day was a green chile chicken, and he couldn't pass up a green chile dish.
Too bad it wasn't delicious. Too much cumin and chile powder. The salad was good, though, and the housemade pita croutons were yummy.
I, on the other hand, got the tamale pie because I eat like a boy.
This was a soft green chile and cheese tamale, topped with corn and lettuce and tomato and lots of perfectly cooked black beans and really great green and red chile sauces because I ordered it Christmas. I'm glad I did, because both of the chiles were really good. I was thrilled with my order - so many contrasting textures and flavors.
Full and happy and much warmer, we wandered out into the plaza to check out the shops and art galleries. Husbear found his new favorite artist, or at least a guy who paints cool donkeys.
The little shops in Taos are lots of fun to wander. There are belt shops selling the real deal, knickknackaterias that are fun to browse including an antiques shop run by an entirely inappropriate riot of a Frenchman, rock galleries, knitwear shops, and cavernous tourist tack.
Of course, after a while, we had to go to a grocery store. The man needed New Mexican spices to bring back, after all.
A sign there in the store reinforced our decision to stick around for a day - if Taoseños can't get breakfast burritos in through the snow, it's probably best to stay snugly put.
And then we went to Orlando's and had a very bad but still overpriced dinner the end.
Well, not really the end, because I think it's worth mentioning that that night Husbear made mulled wine for me using the hotel coffeemaker and liberal dashes of apple pie spice. No, really, and it was awfully good. Now the end.
Graham's Grille is at 106 Paseo del Pueblo Norte in Taos. 575.751.1350.
And don't go to Orlando's. Bah.
