First snow

Michigan horse in Texas snow

Surprisingly Texas, along with the rest of the States, got some snow this past weekend, which made me feel like some sort of Snow Expert.  Having just come back from the Great White North and even walked through some of the stuff and ridden in a car that drove through it as well, I felt myself well equipped to handle snowy weather, snowy driving, and snowy walking.  On Friday afternoon, my coworkers and I started spotting snow flurries drifting down, lazily at first and then all in a hurry to beat rush hour.  Dallas meteorologists were quick to rule out any sort of accumulation, and per the usual, they were wrong as there were definitely light blankets of snow that stuck around through the weekend.

On the fifth floor of the office building, we peered out at the snow drifting down the street until it finally settled on grass in a playground.  The snow also covered up the empty beer bottle and dead pigeon, the two looking eerily similar but unrelated, lying prone on the roof of the neighboring building.  Snow tends to have that effect, slathering a facade of serenity and calm when underneath lies dead bodies and empty promises.  In Michigan, B’s dad shot a doe during bow season in the front yard.  The deer scrabbled away, leapt over a barbed wire fence, and died in the neighboring field.  I’m not quite sure why I was still expecting to see a crime scene three months later, complete with body outline, still visible on the lawn.  As far as I know, it might have still been there, if only covered by the carpet of snow that lay over everything in the state of Michigan.

Back in Texas, one of my colleagues was stuck in traffic for two hours that icy evening on what should have been a twenty minute commute.  The aftershock of the light dusting we got could still be seen the next day, in unmelted snow shadows on lawns shaded by trees and the crunched cars piled up on the side of the highway yet to be towed away.  Temperatures stayed in the 20s through Saturday, however the bright sunshine melted away most of the slick spots on the roads.

The cold weather made me crave bacon and sausage and pork belly and animal fat.  It’s ordinarily impossible to get / keep me warm during mild Texas winters, and my winter taste buds have reliably been my body’s way of telling me I need more fluff for the colder weather.  I bought Red Leicester cheese (best cheese full stop) and nuked it over rustic Italian bread.  I bought another pack of smoked bacon.  B and I made real hot chocolate on the stove top with milk and melted dark chocolate bars, winning the award for richest thing we’ve eaten in 2017 so far.  We tossed pasta with mussels and then mixed the leftover pasta with Italian sausage the next day.  I made slurp-worthy hot congee (my recipe here) with chicken and corn.

Today we’re back in the high 70s and will be for the rest of the week.  I’ve got a cold, rainy/snowy weekend adventure forthcoming and plan to pad that trip with carbs and more cheese, if I can manage it in skinny jeans.  Those of you who live in A Cold Place and have “healthy eating” resolutions for 2017, I salute you.  With a baguette and platter of smoked salmon.