N Y C in Las Cruces

Ahhhhhhh, Nuevo Mexico, land of green chiles, pintos, pistachios, pecans, and enchantment. And now, N Y style pizza slices!!!!!!!!!! Near the downtown mall is a pizzeria cum artisan bread shop, Zeffiro's/Popular Artisan Bread. It serves excellent brick oven pizza. Across town, by the university, the same people have been teasing us with a banner announcing the opening soon of a New York style pizza place. For those of us from "the east" there is nothing like a N Y slice---thin crust, delicious sauce, good toppings---fold it in half , place it in your mouth, and allow your taste buds to experience ecstasy. And now we can experience this wonder in Las Cruces.

I had gone to the bicycle shop to check the status of the tune-up on my mountain bike but it wasn't ready. So Leny and I went to lunch at Zeffiro's N Y style pizza on University. She stayed in the truck, I ordered a plain slice to go, took it to the truck, and shared it with her in the parking lot.

It was as good a slice as I've had since leaving the east coast!!! So I decided that dinner would be a N Y pizza, to be eaten during the Big East showdown between Villanova (YAY) and Syracuse (BOO). I called in the order. The wife and I went to pick it up. Now there is one negative---the very friendly young woman who cheerily took my money said it would be a minute for them to box the order, then never gave us the pizza. Giving the place the benefit of the doubt, it being new with new staff and still needing to work out the kinks, let alone considering their proximity to the university and how many people might not pick up orders, I patiently waited about 25 minutes for her to call my name to pick up my order. The wife of course picked up on my growing impatience and went out onto the patio. I approached the counter and the young person acted as if I had just entered the establishment---total air head. There was no-one home behind that sweet smile!!!! After we established I'd called in an order and had already paid for it, the owner/manager came over. He apologized and refunded my money. The pizza and calzone were under the counter, getting cold. The cashier still did not give them to me---it took another employee to hand them over!!!! Hopefully they get over their birthing pains soon because I will say the product is absolutely outstanding!!!!! The acid test of a pizza is whether it tastes good cold and this pizza certainly did!!! I bet it would be even better hot!!!! Hopefully I'll experience it that way next week. Now if they'd only add anchovies to their list of toppings it would be perfection...............

Bonus

An unexpected bonus this Sunday morning. Having the usual cup of coffee and perusing the online New York Times. Checking the normal online haunts. Then a squeal of excitement from the kitchen.

To the east of the adobe shack rise the Organ Mountains. The house itself sits in the valley north of Las Cruces. This particular clear crisp morning we were awarded the sight of nine hot air balloons drifting along. That isn't all that unusual a sight in the Mesilla Valley. We saw balloons Saturday as we headed out to do our weekend shopping and run errands. The bonus this morning was to see the air craft landing in the open area between our location and the main roads a few miles to the east.

Not only do we have those lovely views and the privacy of the pecan orchard but we are also near a hot air balloon launch and landing site!!!

I'm sure pictures will appear soon on CZ's site so stay tuned.

Zeffiro's

There are some very good Italian style eateries back east. Pasquale's in Candia NH comes to mind---wonderful food. Best pasta Faggioli I ever had, and the minestrone is excellent also. And Flatbread Pizza in Portland ME---good wood fired oven crust pizzas.

But we just had lunch in a place that will give either a run for their money. Las Cruces is where one might fantasize over Mexican cuisine but Zeffiro's Pizza Napoletana will make one believe they found a little Italy. The minestrone was excellent and the pizza------we had the "Capricciosa" with fresh mushrooms, kalamata olives, prosciutto..............as good as any I've ever had. And the pirate dogs who had been confined in the Nargle absolutely scarfed the crust we brought them.

So even though there's snow on the ground (got a couple inches overnight) it's very warm in the tummy right now...........

Update from the Mud Shack

What ever possesses people to do some things is totally incomprehensible to me. A standard washer/dryer pair takes up just over 58 inches---each is 29 inches wide, you need a couple inches clearance. So why make a laundry room 55-1/2 inches wall to wall??? Glad those new front loaders can be stacked; sorry to not be able to use our less than 2-years-old conventional top loaders.........

Gotta do a commercial for Lowe's---got the units on sale and they delivered Sat. a.m. at 7:30!! So nice to not waste a day hanging out waiting for delivery/service people!!!!! I've always had better service from them than their competitor.

Since the gas heater in the front of the house needs work, we have been heating with wood. The kiva fireplaces are wonderful. They are easy to light and once the massive masonry structure gets warm it retains the heat and keeps the area warm all day and most of the night.

We found a place that offers a variety of firewood for pretty reasonable prices and spent Friday stacking a 1/2 cord of pecan for our heat source.

Now Comcast is another story. The customer service people were a pleasure to deal with, the contractor was a jerk. We wanted at least two live connections. He provided one and groused that it wasn't on the orders to do two. Of course he still had his ladder against the roof and it would have taken him about 5 minutes to reconnect the splitter he had just disconnected.....It took me 10 minutes but that's because I had to wait for CZ to find me a pair of pliers to undo the connection.

There's some other small repairs that need doing, like the line to the swamp cooler that decided to spring a leak Thursday night......but no big deals considering the house is a fifty year old adobe!!!!! And I can sit in just about any room and marvel at the views, or curl up on the couch in front of the kiva fireplace with a good book or magazine.......

Can I figure out how to retire NOW???????

Gone and Done It

So after sitting on the market since mid-June with lots of showings and no offers, we signed a contract to sell our house Thursday at around 8:30PM. Needing a place to live, we had searched the internet and then on Saturday drove to Las Cruces and made an offer -----Today it was accepted!!!!! YeeHah and here we go again.

The house is an adobe, 3br/2ba on about 1/4 acre fully fenced and bordered by a pecan orchard on three sides. There are 2 kiva fireplaces and three outdoor living areas. The property is north of the Las Cruces city limits but only about 10 minutes to all the amenities of the city.

Here's a few pix:

This is the back of the house with 2 patios and french doors.

This is the family/living room with kiva fireplace.

This is the view out the back door of the back yard and the pecan orchard that borders the property.

More can be seen at Clair's Picasa site.