Ok, Bush Administration, now it’s personal April 28, 2008

I am as mad as anyone about the Bush Administration. They are an obnoxious bunch, doing pretty much whatever they want, Congress and International treaties be damned. I have frequently felt frustrated because I feel there is nothing to do but count down the next few long months. Sure, I have signed petitions, given money to causes, but on the whole I feel impotent with regards to the federal government. It doesn’t help that NC has two congress people who don’t do jack, and writing letters to them does not help anyway because they toe the party line.

But now, George, it’s personal. This border wall you are building. I have read countless articles about the negative impact it will have on wildlife. If this weren’t bad enough, you go an take Sabal Palm Audubon Sanctuary in Texas. Sabal Palm hosts the largest last remaining stands of Sabal Palm trees and this ecotype of native vegetation is host to many, many animals. This is one of the main reasons birdwatchers flock (no pun intended) to southern Texas. So many amazing birds.

I love Sabal Palm, because I spent two weeks there pulling invasive weeds (and there are many) and working on the construction of a boardwalk. It is a beautiful place and I saw many cool birds as well as helping get a group of high school students interested in the environment. Jimmy, the head guy, was so nice and it was a real pleasure to work with him.

Sabal Palm, under the current border plan, will be cut out. It is located on the Rio Grande, and the wall will put it in no man’s land outside of the wall. Outside of visitors view. The ocelot population, small at best, will probably not survive. Without management, the palms won’t either.

This is a terrible, terrible thing. The wall is for me the breaking point. I can hardly wait for a change in administration. If you want to help this fight, check this out.

George, January 2009 cannot come soon enough.

Follow up to River Clean up post April 13, 2008

I just read in the news that one of the other volunteers found $600 in a beer bottle doing the river cleanup!!!

Coconut Cake is a Party Unto Itself April 12, 2008

Lots of people have mixed feelings about coconut. I can assure you, if they ate the coconut cake recipe that I make, they would change their minds. Actually, frankly they would change their mind about coconut if they were to drink a really good Pina Colada, but this post is not about that.

Coconut layer cake. Wow. Well, I give in and here is the true trick. You know how coconut cake is so pretty, with is bower of shredded coconut? You gotta toast that bower. Put the coconut shreds on a baking sheet and put it in the oven stirring every now and then until its a lovely mixture of golden tan and white. Toasting the coconut caramelizes the sugar and makes “little white worms” (as my dad, a coconut hater, calls it) into a totally different delicious thing all together. The lush butter cream frosting that glues the whole cake together is pretty kick butt too.

Best of all, if you are like me and cannot frost a cake to save your life, you can hide all your frosting goops and gobs under the coconut. It will be our little secret.

The reason why I am making this cake is for my close friend Jenny’s wedding party tonight. I am so flattered she asked me to make it because she is a really talented baker. Jenny, I hope this coconut cake ushers in many, many years of happiness for you and the husband. Congratulations.

PS I know you want the recipe for my kick butt coconut layer cake. OK, I’ll give. It is the Cook’s Illustrated recipe. But I can’t give it to you because its not on line and I don’t want to type it in. But you can get it from the Cooks Illustrated Baking Guide.

The Power of a Cleanup April 5, 2008

Today I took part in the Neuse River Cleanup here in Raleigh. It made me think about volunteering and littering. (Well, I was out there picking up trash not usually within conversation range of anyone else for about 4 hours!)

I am a big believer in giving back to the community. I thought about that a lot today. Because I was knee deep in wet vegetation on a Saturday morning. And I am out doing volunteer work on many Saturday mornings.  Maybe I should spend more time doing things for myself?  None of my pals volunteer to the extent that I do, and so perhaps I am missing some sort of self indulgent element of life? But you know, I volunteer because I want to. In a different way than getting a massage is self indulgent, but, it makes me happy. Plus, you get that warm fuzzy feeling of doing something good. Best of all even with a small number of people (we had 7 folks from Wake Audubon to do our section of the river) you can get stuff done. Our section certainly looks much nicer than it did yesterday.

Ok, on to littering. First of all, people who litter drink a lot of Nu-Grape. Who drinks Nu-Grape? No one I know. I don’t think I have ever tried it myself. They also drink a lot of alcohol, but that is to be expected. We picked up 48 bags of trash, 3 tires, a bike (I found another but it was so buried in the mud it is now part of the ecological web), a metal frame for towing a car on a trailer, a tennis racket, a purple martin house, and a saw blade for a table saw.

As a bonus I saw my first Blue Grey Gnatcatcher of the year!! Also heard Blue-headed Vireo and a few warblers I could not identify. I need to refresh my birding by ear, clearly.