And ^^^that^^^ is why you will find New Englanders out and about in 50°-60° weather in February in light coats, shorts, t-shirts, car windows open.
We try and absorb that sunshine and warmth (for us), because we ALWAYS get a day or two in the middle of winter that seems like Future Spring is telling us "See? I’m coming. You just have to wait another 2 months or so, because my cousin, Ol’ Man Winter, is planning on dumping more fluffy white and/or heavy wet shit on you…and then you have to wait until that melts into dirty piles of parking space savers road refuse that got plowed up during all of all the storms from city locals trying to save the damn parking space they’d shoveled out about 15 times to prevent someone else from taking the spot they had shoveled.
And THEN you will have to get through Mud Season (he’s technically a third cousin, twice removed, but he’s definitely a seasonal family member!), before it is decided that you suffered enough. FINALLY I’ll show up to give you a couple of weeks of ZOMG-it’s-beautiful-out-let’s-open-the-windows-and-air-out-the-stuffy-house-and-you-don’t-have-to-wear-a-coat-anymore-and-can-go-for-walks-without-breaking-your-ankle-on-ice-or-stepping-into-a-rain-covered-pothole Spring so you can enjoy your local asparagus and fiddleheads for 3 weeks. But you know what’s gonna happen? My bitch of a sister, WICKED HUMID SUMMAH, will appear and you all will mostly disappear inside for your air conditioned comforts."
This is why I like Uncle Autumn the most. We get warm days, cool nights, and lots and lots of changing colors. But Ol’ Man Winter is just around the corner again, so there’s that.
Isn’t it funny how every regional has its season weirdnesses. I’ve sampled it all. Spent 14 yrs of my childhood in Buffalo. 4 yrs of college in NH. Then moved to the west (Los Angeles and then north of Seattle). Oh, and a year in BFE Illinois for H’s post-doc. Our PNW comic calendar includes the months of June-uary, mud, and spiders.
Last night I made pork half butt roasted over potatoes, breakfast radishes, onions, and carrots with an apple-butter gravy. Not bad but overdid the salt. I used leftovers today in Vietnamese sure rolls with leftover maifun, cilantro, and cucumber. Any ideas for the rest? Maybe pork hoagies with provolone and garlic broccoli/broccolini (not that big on broccoli rabe here).
When I have leftover meat, I sometimes chop it roughly and put it and any leftover veggies in a Japanese curry sauce made from a block. Works well with pork, chicken, or beef and always gets a thumbs up!
I did my best to copy our local gringo taqueria’s “Support Group” vegan taco (which is amazing). “Cumin sweet potatoes, pecan and black bean hummus, roasted pepitas, avocado, spinach, and coconut crema on a plantain tortilla (vegan).”
Plantain tortilla was subbed with corn, and I used regular Mexican crema. They were super! Served with Mexican street corn and slaw with clementine-shallot vinaigrette.
I got a Slack message at 1:15 that just said “Wine”.
So I knew I’d be at Jaime’s next door to my workplace tonight for wine, unloading TPSTOS(hit), and enjoying whatever food struck our fancy. My fancy was a bacon cheeseburger and fries.
