At the park in Alamogordo. Note the ancient cotton gin in the background.
… are great! Yesterday was both, and since every day of the week is pretty much the same for me at the moment as I am preparing for Hannah’s birth, Monday doesn’t mean “major meltdown” or “automatic stress” as it did a few months ago. In fact, yesterday was much like my old Sundays, without having to squeeze in a lot of errands and that end-of-the-weekend depression.
We left a rainy Cloudcroft around 11 a.m. yesterday, intending to have a picnic near the old railroad trestle, but the weather changed those plans. So, we did the next best thing… we picnic-ed at the park in Alamogordo, with its lovely views of the main drag, consignment stores, long-abandoned cotton gins and drag racers.
Mmmm. Christian's pork is good cold, the next day, too!
No, actually it is a lovely park in an unfortunate location, but we made the most of it, and it was a clear, cool day down in the “flatlands.” We had our leftover pork from the night before, Brötchen from
Marina’s German Bakery in El Paso, salted cucumbers and tomatoes, Asadero cheese slices and a peanut butter cookie from
Jamocha Bean in Cloudcroft. A great way to transition from the gorgeous mountains of Cloudcroft to the stark flatlands.
Since we had no real groceries at home in El Paso, and the last thing one wants to think about upon returning from a trip is to run straight to the grocery store, we decided to treat ourselves to dinner last night at
Nothing But Noodles, very close to home yet we’d never given it a shot.
It’s a chain restaurant but the interior is modern, clean and inviting, and its menu has really something for everyone. Be forewarned, however. I don’t know if it’s an El Paso thing, but why is it that Mexican salsa can say “mild” and melt your tastebuds off, but when other ethnic food (Asian, Italian) food is labeled “hot and spicy,” it tastes like ketchup?
That’s how it was with the Italian pasta Margherita Christian ordered…he spent more time salting/red pepper-flaking/Sriracha sauce squeezing his dish than he did actually eating. It seems that only Mexican food is allowed to be “hot” in El Paso. While Christian toyed with his pasta to get a kick from it, I enjoyed my Udon noodles with broccoli, mushrooms and sprouts.
A nice, reasonable serving with just one flaw…and a flaw that again is so prevalent in El Paso… wayyyyyy too much sauce, to the point that the bottom of the bowl was just a soupy mass of soy sauce, MSG and cornstarch. Sometimes less IS more, you restaurant managers out there in El Paso.
But all in all we couldn’t complain, and were quite happy with the lettuce wraps we ordered as an appetizer. Fresh and simple, although the dipping sauce left a LOT to be desired (I don’t use it anyway, and just stick to a bit of Sriracha sauce if I need a kick). Christian said the sauce reminded him of deodorant, “If I had tasted deodorant,” he said. Lol. I couldn’t find the connection there, but it did have a strange taste.
•••
I was a lazy bum in Cloudcroft, foregoing my usual long hikes and preferring to sit and read on the porch. Not that I am going to be too hard on myself about that. But it’s back on the wagon this morning after Christian leaves for work. I refuse to step on the scale until my next prenatal exam Oct. 18. My clothes (even my maternity clothes!) are doing the talking, lol. While Christian continues to lose. He now even has to take his Tag Heuer in to remove some links! My rings don’t come off without some major Vaseline and elbow grease! So much for the sympathy pregnancy I have heard about so often!
