Ten Days of Little Celebrations – April 2016

April was full of springtime activities. Volunteer activities took me

Outdoors with 7th graders in a stream looking for macro invertebrates (and seeing bluebirds and tree swallows on the way to the stream),

To my daughter’s elementary school (15+ years ago) for an outreach program with a barred owl and his expert handler

Into the flurry of activity helping preschoolers craft butterfly models (our of coffee filters, clothes pins, pain, and pipe cleaners), and

To the county STEM fair as a judge – hearing about a project that taste tested mealworm cookies!

There are multiple reasons I celebrate these volunteer activities --- the interaction with the students, the topics, and the frequent connection to the natural environment.

I saw two birds that were worth celebrating (along with the bluebirds and tree swallows already mentioned): a male wood duck at Brookside Garden and loons at Centennial Park.

I enjoyed some traveling and celebrated

Being TSA Pre for both flights – it makes the passage through security faster (and not feeling like I have to get stuff out and off…then back together)

Helping build a chicken coop,

Baking carrot cakes that turned out yummy for 2 birthdays,

Earth Day at Dallas’ Fair Park (and remembering times I had been to the Fair Park many years ago).

And finally – I celebrated a day just being at home!

Beautiful Food - April

The two beautiful foods that I picked this month are from opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to food processing:

Dandelion greens are wonderful when they first come up in the spring – before they develop any bitterness. These grew in the old turtle sandbox on my deck and I cut them to use immediately in a salad. There are several plants in the sandbox that I am harvesting by simply cutting the leaves – leaving the root in place. So far the plant has continued to put up new leaves and even managed to bloom and produce seeds while I was away in Texas.

Homemade carrot cake with marmalade icing – yum. I started with the recipe from the King Arthur's Flour site. It occurred to me that before food processors, carrot cake was a lot of work; grating 3 cups of carrots is so easy with a food processor...quite an endeavor with an old style grater. I liked that while the recipe listed 1.5 cups of nuts – they suggested other ‘additions’ that added up to 1.5 cups. I used 3/4 cup unsweetened coconut and 3/4 cup raisins for my husband’s birthday cake. The homemade marmalade icing was substituted for the cream cheese icing since I am lactose intolerant. I simply poured the warm marmalade over the sheet cake while it was cooling. The cake was better the second (thirds and fourth) day because the spices ‘matured.’ Later in the month I made the recipe again for my sister’s birthday – with pecans and raisins as the ‘additions.’ I made a sheet cake with marmalade icing and cupcakes that were left plain with a tub of the cream cheese icing for people that wanted it. Some people at her party preferred the plain cupcakes…this carrot cake is that good!