Winter in Whitefish / Fall in New York

So Christmas was yesterday and today I'm spending another day in bed with my hacking cough. And in one week I'm coming home. Quite unbelievable. So here, finally, in the nick of time, is a look back at the last couple of months here in the north west of the USA, in the little town of Whitefish, Montana. It's been pretty beautiful.

Taken on a mid-November afternoon, before the snow settled in once and for all

Big Mountain is where I was this weekend, learning to ski for 2 days, finally. You can see some of the runs in the picture above. It takes only half an hour to drive up there from Wendy's house. Usually when I'm here in summer we hike up those runs to pick huckleberries. I'm hoping I'll get back up there for a few more days before I go, to practice my new skills. My plan to ski was delayed by a week or so when I strained my back shoveling snow after the snow plow dumped a load of it across the driveway, and I thought I'd be helpful and also get some exercise and clear it for when Wendy got home. Never again!

A little snow seal unearthed from my shoveling exercise

When I arrived here on the evening of 26 October, it was snowing when I got off the aeroplane,  which was a surprise and of course was totally magical. So this is what the street looked like the next morning in all it's all-American cookie-cutter perfection:

Wendy's street

Then it was Halloween.

Wendy & Karen's jack-o-lanterns. The right hand side of Wendy's has been partially eaten by the local midnight marauders: deer.

An appropriately spooky mist descended on the streets that night. But really it's just an excuse for American children to feed their collective sugar addiction. Kind of a nightmarish holiday in that regard.

Another few weeks and we came to Thanksgiving. Wendy and I had fun on our day-long cooking marathon event and pulled off a roast turkey for the first time...

That right there is a 20 pound bird. That's almost 10kg of roast poultry. Quite a logistical exercise. We used Jamie Oliver for inspiration. Despite looking charred in this picture, it tasted good and we had a LOT of leftovers. I made stock in 2 large pots with the bones the day after, which yielded 28 cups of rich super tasty goodness.

The beautiful cranberries before I turned them into sauce

The Thanksgiving plate. My favourite thing was the twice-baked sweet potatoes.

The pies. Karen made the pumpkin one, I made the apple one. That's the most perfect looking pastry I've ever pulled off.

With the leftover dinner rolls, turkey meat and cranberry sauce, we ate sliders for days.

And the first thing I made with the turkey stock was this white bean chili. On the side we have some cornmeal quinoa muffins. Not a great photo but it was so delicious.

Between Halloween and Thanksgiving there was only intermittent snow, so we did things like ride our bikes ...

Iris in her new bling from Granna in Arkansas

... and go for walks in the woods where there were cool frozen puddles ...

... and go for night time drives in Glacier National Park (you might need to adjust the brightness to see this one) ...

And! Before the snow really set in for winter, there was a window for ice-skating opportunities. So we drove up to one of the first lakes to freeze over this season to skate...

That's me in the whiteness, trying not to fall over

Iris and Tyler. Our skate & sled marks were the only ones on this big expanse of whiteness.

Fun

So you can see how deep the snow is up here, it looks like marzipan icing on that picnic table

It was my first opportunity to wear my awesome snow boots too

We found a skate-able pond up at Big Mountain too.

Our theory is that this spot was the last to freeze. That's Tyler's super cool ice pick, which she bravely uses to test whether the ice is thick enough for skating on.

I've been doing a lot of cooking too, besides Thanksgiving dinner. One thing I've nailed is baked beans.

Looking good!

Here's the recipe (inspired by this one):

450g white beans (I used navy), soaked overnight
2-3 tsp chopped dried chipotle chili (or a bit more if you want it spicier)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
25g butter
2-3 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp ground black pepper or to taste
1 1/2 tsp dijon mustard
3 Tbsp molasses
3 Tbsp maple syrup
Salt to taste (at end)

1. Preheat oven to 175 C.
2. Drain & rinse soaked beans. Add 6 cups water and bring to boil, then simmer 30 minutes. Ideally this is happening in your oven proof pot, otherwise you can transfer to baking dish after.
3. Saute onion & chipotle in the butter until onion is soft.
4. Add smoked paprika & combine, take pan off heat.
5. In your oven proof pot or dish, combine everything, plus an extra 1/2 cup water.
6. Bake at 175 C for 1.5 hours with lid on, stirring at half hour intervals.
7. After 1.5 hours, check if beans are getting soft or are still quite firm. I found they were still firm after this amount of time, plus the sauce was still watery. So I put them back in oven for another hour, with lid still on, and checked them again after half an hour, and stirred them. The picture above shows what they looked like when they were done. They should be soft after this additional hour and the sauce: saucy. Take them out of the oven when done, don't leave them in there or they'll dry out and get too mushy.
8. Add salt to taste. I added between 1/2 and 1 tsp salt.
9. Eat and enjoy!
This is a vegetarian version. If you wanted you could use some bacon at the start in place of the butter. I think it would also still be good with less molasses and maple syrup, but see for yourself.

...

We've been doing crafty things too, including fixing the holes in woolen clothing items, thanks to my discovery of Woolfiller and needle felting. It's so easy, and fun! Here's one of my fixed merino tops:

This is the back. There were lots of holes.

The sleeve

We even managed to fix holes in cotton knit tops with this method. Needle felting is an old crafty thing to do but the brilliant idea of using it to patch holes is of course, Dutch.

...

Around the 7th of December it really started snowing and became officially winter.

The street again, with more snow this time

Here's a little look around the snowy neighbourhood:

Birch trees making sense (this picture is for you Cassia). This is the town 'beach' in summer.

Down by the railway tracks. Love this yellow against the snow...

...and this dirty pastel green...

...and pastel blue

Tomorrow we're driving south to Bozeman to visit relatives. Then upon returning there'll be three days left in which I can ski, and hopefully my upper respiratory tract and bruised shins (no-one told me how torturous ski boots were going to be) will have recovered by then. On the 4th of January I'll get back to my little house on Albert Street, and probably go to sleep for the day, after leaving here on the 2nd. And then I will look forward to seeing all of you again sometime soon!

One last look at Whitefish here.
Finally I was out at the right time of day to capture the glorious yellow of these trees around town.

But first, let's go back to New York for a bit, because I've neglected to write about that yet...

Autumn colours at the Brooklyn Farmers Market

So my 2 and a half weeks in New York were mainly all about food and art.

I stayed in Brooklyn right near Prospect Park. This green lake called 'Lullwater' is outside the Audubon Center within the park. I saw Blue Jays and a Red-tailed Hawk and some other little birds which I couldn't identify. The park was designed by the same guy who did Central Park. Word is he liked this one better.

Let's start with ART.

Outside MOMA

One my favourites at MOMA: Ed Ruscha gunpowder drawing from 1967

And another favourite: a wild James Ensor painting from 1888

Another shot of the street outside MOMA. So New York.

I also went to the Met.

Detail of El Anatsui piece. It's crafted from trash. I'm now a big fan of this Ghanaian artist. First discovered him in a journal while sheltering from the heat in a Rome gallery. Then got to see my first real life piece in Paris. Then 2 more at the Met. Here is an interview I listened to on the audio guide when I was there.

The whole thing, so beautiful.

Detail of the other El Anatsui work at the Met. You can see the whole piece and read more about it here. This one references the traditional kente cloth from Ghana, like the below piece that was alongside it in the museum.

I was loving the Édouard Vuillard paintings I saw in Europe, and there were a few more at the Met. This and the pic below are details from the one painting. Just loved it.

Last Met highlight - this dutch painting from 1449: 'A goldsmith in his shop'. There are lots of cool things about this painting, but mainly for me it was the piece of coral that's sitting on the shelf. I saw many paintings throughout my trip from this time period where the subject (mainly the Christ child) is wearing a necklace with a coral pendant. Also I saw actual jewelery and decorative objects made from this coral, from this Renaissance period also. So it was super cool to see this 'behind the scenes' painting.

And I also took a train upstate to the wonderful Dia Beacon.

My reflection in a Gerhard Richter work

Little shield bug on Richard Serra sculpture

I wasn't supposed to take photographs there, so those were the two sneaky shots I managed. Other highlights were seeing a whole bunch of Agnes Martin paintings (the reason I went up there) and the incredible Sol Lewitt wall drawings.

There was some ART on the street too, being New York and everything.

Wool graffiti

And now for FOOD. The week I arrived, Time Out published their annual 100 best dishes in New York issue. This became a guiding light for my daily itinerary. One of my first stops was to try the unusual sounding pork sticky rolls in the East Village at Northern Spy Food Co.

There they are, and man they were good. I've listed this one first because it was the best thing I had. Why were they so good? Read what's in them here. To accompany I had this cauliflower soup, also delicious, with tiny bits of apple, hazelnuts and chives in it. So so good.

I also went and ate this excellent dish from the Time Out list with my airbnb hosts at a Yemeni restaurant. New York is truly the capital of the world with so many cultures represented.

At the Brooklyn Flea in Williamsburg I was excited to find some super good Mexican food.

This rocked. Barbecued corn rolled in mayo, sprinkled with chili & queso fresco.

What else? Oh yeah, pizza.

My airbnb host took me to this place because he thinks it is the best pizza in New York. By the time I ate half of our 'pie' (see below) I agreed. This was a million times better than the pizza I had in Rome, and I went to a place there heartily recommended by locals and visitors alike. The guy running this shop came from the Campania region of Italy (where Naples is the capital) back in the day, so I guess that's why he knows how to make pizza.

On the wall near our seats was an article about how when the owner received a positive review in a NY guidebook in 1999, rather than expand his business, and make more money, he got inspired to simply make his pizza even better, to find better ingredients etc, while remaining in the same poky, slightly dysfunctional shop. The pizza maker is in his 70's now, and he's the only one making the pizza. Three of his middle-aged children work in the shop, and they're relegated to all the other duties and aren't allowed to make the pizza.

Our pie.

Now for something with pickles.

My super deluxe hot dog, with fries smothered in 'poutine' - a gravy with lumps of cheese in it that's something they eat in Canada I think. Pretty crazy and good. This was from Mile End in Soho.

And a bagel, of course, from Russ and Daughters.

Pastrami cured smoked salmon sliced super thin while I watched, with horseradish & dill cream cheese, capers and red onions. Perfect!

And lastly, a fish taco from a taco truck in Williamsburg:

Cheap and good at $3.50

That's it for food. And pretty much it for New York. Except for a rooftop walk along the High Line:

Here's where I enjoyed some hot cider with the sunset

 

Lastly, it was great to discover that one of the things that hasn't changed about New York since my last visit in 1999 is the quality music to be heard in the subway. One station I passed through most days was 14th St / Union Square, and my favourites were there, a drummer and saxophone player who were so good. On my last night I realised on my way home that I wasn't going to be going past that station again, so that I had probably missed my opportunity to see them one more time. But then for some reason I accidentally took a downtown train rather than an uptown one and ended up at a random station waiting to go back the right way, and who comes along and sets up his drum kit? The 14th St/Union Sq drummer:

This dude is non-stop. If he has to do something while drumming, he'll keep the beat going with one stick. White he was setting up he said to those of us waiting: 'If this is gonna be too loud for you, you need to move, cos this is my spot'.

That's it really. That last day was also great because I saw Ethan Hawke in 'Ivanov', the first play Chekhov wrote, in a little theatre in the East Village, and it was awesome. And I discovered alfajhores that day too.

Ok Happy New Year everyone! Well done if you made it to the end of this post!