babies, goals, sisters, and the velvet elvis

My beautiful niece. New life is so precious! Copyright (c) 2011 Wendee Holtcamp

"When everything is answered, it's fake. The mystery is the truth."
-Sean Penn.

Methinks I need to blog more frequently because when so much time passes, I start to wonder where to even begin. Or shall I say, not too much is going on, yet everything is. Ah, life as paradox.

I just returned from a week-long visit to the small mountain town of Sisters in central Oregon, where I got to know my newborn niece and her mom. My brother was there too, for a brief moment of time. When I first saw my niece, I was scared to hold her, like I was going to drop or break her or something. It's funny how you forget how tiny newborns are, and how fragile. Yet human life is also so strong, so persistent, so tenacious. I did overcome my baby-breaking-fears and held her, of course, and oh how sweet she is! I'd never been to Sisters before, and - the few times the snow stopped and the sky cleared - the view right out the window was of the "three Sisters" which are three 10,000 mountain peaks in the Cascades. Early settlers dubbed the three sisters Faith, Hope, and Charity.

I didn't get out of the house much because I was helping my niece's mom out, but it was sure peaceful and beautiful. The neighborhood sets right next to Deschutes National Forest, and many tall, red-barked ponderosa pines rose tall from the layer of pure white that blanketed the area. We had several snowfalls during the time I was there. It was so lovely and beautiful! When I was a kid, I have many fond memories of camping on the Deschutes River with my dad and brother but that was a different part of Central Oregon.

While there, I made a couple visits into the quaint little town of Sisters, and especially fell in love with Angeline's Bakery, which has a lot of vegan and gluten-free items, and I discovered this utterly divine raw, vegan chocolate truffles made from raw cacao by Jem Raw Chocolates. They're only sold in Oregon, but if you can, check them out. Seriously amazing. And no one paid me to say that. They're just good! Oh wait, I think you can actually buy them online too!

What am I up to? Well, let's see. I'm working on this "Goal Setting Course" by The Wake-up Call Coach Amy Ahlers that I won during the Inner Mean Girl Cleanse I participated in. It's a 12-week course, where I get weekly emails that have exercises to identify wins and losses from the previous year, "process" the through journaling and such, and then create new visions and goals for the new year. I'm about 1/3 of the way through.

Even though I'm not at the goal-setting part yet, I have already set some pretty serious goals while thinking about my New Year's resolutions, and as far as writing/biz goes - one is to double my income, and write twice as many stories in 2011. That means, I will have to become doubly efficient! To that end, I installed a program on my computer that tracks where I spend my time, Rescuetime. It's pretty impressive and the results, illuminating! I have already discovered that I'm a fairly fast writer when I set down and do the writing, but I also tend to - on occasion - spend "too much" time on time-wasters like Facebook, Huffington Post, etc. It's been very insightful.

Overall, I am happy with how things are going so far this year. I've broken into three new markets (The Daily Climate, Climate Central and Miller-McCune magazine) from contacts I've made from the Society of Environmental Journalists conference, which is a good thing because the state of Texas' budget is not doing so hot. My daughter came home telling me how they had laid off many of the first-year teachers, and many extracurricular activities have been cut, and it will affect her JV soccer team. It is going to affect my writing for Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine. Keep your fingers crossed and say a prayer because that is my bread and butter, and the editors there are awesome to me! I'm working on a query challenge with other members of Freelance Success, which is a fantastic writer's resource.

I have an article coming out this week on "The Big Chill: Why is the Bering Sea so Cold if the Earth is warming?" at Climate Central online, so stay tuned. If all goes as planned, I should have a piece in the next issue of Miller-McCune magazine, and I'm about to head to the coast next weekend with my awesome friend Cheryl, who I met at the Colorado Writing Away Retreat last year and hung out with again at last fall's SEJ conference! I'm working on two stories for Texas Parks & Wildlife mag. One is for the 10th annual water issue, and another is a "3 days in the field" travel piece. Those are always fun!

Last but not least, I am in love! I have discovered ... Rob Bell. He. Is. Amazing! I love Rob Bell. I love Rob Bell. I love Rob Bell! He wrote The Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith - see below - and also Sex God (I'd previously read some of this one, but the Velvet Elvis, which I just discovered, blows me all away in a whole different way), and is a pastor who founded Mars Hill Bible Church. I dunno, the guy's a freaking g.e.n.i.u.s. I just adore his writing, his open mind, his intellect. He says, for example, "Central to the Christian experience is the art of questioning God... naked, honest, raw, vulnerable questions." He also delves into a lot of Jewish cultural history from that time, and despite having studied a lot of this stuff through various Bible studies, he had completely novel insight for me, such as the meaning - in Jewish culture - of being yoked to a Rabbi, and of "binding and loosing" and other things that Jesus said; the meanings of the statements are still relevant but these cultural references lend so much more insight. Good stuff!

I love this design! They're having a hoodie giveaway but it ends tomorrow...
Dangerously spiky icicles. The three sisters in the distance - this is the view out of the window of the house I stayed at in Sisters, OR.
I bought this onesie for my niece that says "I love my auntie"
The three sisters mountains. The one on the right is actually two. The second peak is hidden behind the one in front.
My latest journal collage.

broccoli frittata and raw beet salad recipes!

I thought I'd make the recipes their own post, since they really have nothing to do with the Bering Sea.

I've been cooking a lot of great recipes, and when I get more time I will post a few of my versions. Last night I made this recipe from Cooking Light magazine - Coconut Curry (Chicken) Soup - but I made it with tempeh instead of chicken and it was great!

This is a recipe from my friend Elissa who is an awesome chef!

Broccoli frittata

2 heads broccoli
2t butter
2 small onions
1 cup water
1 ½ t salt
3 large whole eggs
9 large egg whites
½ ounce grated parmesan cheese
Olive oil

1. preheat oven to 375. cut broccoli stems into ½ “ pieces and cut florets into 1” pieces, set aside. Melt butter in a 12” sauté pan over medium head. Add onions, cook until translucent, about 5 min. add broccoli stems and cook until they begin to soften, about 5 min. add florets and water, cook until broccoli is tender and liquid has evaporated, about 5 min. salt and pepper, remove from pan to a bowl to cool completely.

2. wipe out pan, coat with olive oil. In a bowl on an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine eggs and egg whites. Beat until extremely light and frothy, about 8 – 10 min. heat pan over med-high heat. Fold parmesan and broccoli mixture into eggs. Add to pan, dot top with goat cheese. Cook, without stirring for 2 min. transfer to oven and bake until top is golden brown and frittata is set, about 30 min. let cool for 1 minute before sliding out of pan.


NOTES: I left out the cheese "Cut the cheese" - ha ha I'm so funny, and added herbes de provence - it's super yummy! I've also made it with leeks and broccoli. You can add any herb. Without cheese, it's only 150 cal/serving. Don't count on it "sliding out of the pan"... unless you coat the pan VERY well but it serves just fine out of the baking dish.

Grated Raw Beet Salad with Jicama, Avocado, and Orange

I made grated beet salad which is another great one from Vegetarian Times. It was good but not an absolute fave but very healthy, and raw. (Image is my grated beets in my Cuisinhart - the best thing ever)

2 cups grated jicama
2 cups grated raw beets (3 medium beets)
1 avocado, thinly sliced
1 navel orange, peeled, sectioned, each section cut into thirds
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
3 Tbs. thawed orange juice concentrate
1 Tbs. lime juice
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
11/2 Tbs. olive oil
1/4 cup toasted pumpkin seeds

1. Place beets in medium bowl along with jicama, avocado, orange, and cilantro.

2. Whisk together orange juice concentrate, lime juice, cumin, and coriander. Whisk in oil. Pour over beet mixture, and toss to mix. Season with salt and pepper, if desired. Sprinkle each serving with toasted pumpkin seeds.

I add fresh avocado to each serving, rather than put it in the salad, since avocados get brown very quickly when exposed to air. And I skipped the cilantro so my kids would try it, and pumpkin seeds to save fat calories. :)

Back to the frigid Bering Sea

One of only 3,000 of the world's endangered short-tailed albatrosses - soaring across the Bering Sea. Copyright (c) 2010 Wendee Holtcamp

Boy with the weather this winter in Houston you'd think I was in the Bering Sea again... it normally freezes once or maybe twice a winter but this one has been crazy. Back and forth, up and down. It is now about 22 degrees F outside, and tomorrow it's supposed to feel like 5 with the wind chill! Then by next Tuesday it will be back to 70.

Speaking of the Bering Sea, my second article on the research expedition I spent a month on is out in BioScience's Feb 2011 issue - Rime of the Bering Sea Mariners(PDF). It's not quite online yet at the BioScience AIBS website, but I have the PDF reprinted at my website here. I thought it turned out good and I got to go in more depth and focus on some different research than in the shorter Nature piece - The Tiniest Catch - published last Oct.

In other news- life is good! Some great things happening here, which I'll reveal in future posts. I am about to head to the coast to report for the 10th annual Water issue of Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine and visit places such as the upper Texas coast, which has the highest rates of beach and coastal wetland loss of anywhere on the Gulf Coast (close to Louisiana, which has comparable rates of loss). I will also spend some time in the Columbia bottomlands, a little-known place that has some of the south's only remaining old growth forests.

I'm starting up another session of my online writing class - recently renamed the Magazine Writing Bootcamp on Feb 26 (signup deadline Feb 19)! While originally designed to focus on environment writing, the course assignments can be tailored to any topic, and it gets consistently great feedback! Email me if you would like more info (bohemian_AT_wendeeholtcamp.com) or check out the Bootcamp website.

Welcome to February!

Daydream Island, Whitsundays in far north Queensland, Australia
Copyright (c) 2006 Wendee Holtcamp

Welcome to February! At the moment, far north Queensland is getting hammered by Cyclone Yasi. Category 5 when it made landfall, it was as big as Hurricane Katrina, and is expected to drop more rain. Poor Queensland can't catch a break. Brisbane in southeast Queensland got hit with intense flooding just a week ago. I'm trying to get back over there to report on the aftermath of the floods and the cyclone. Yasi hit right near Mission Beach, a quaint coastal town on the "Cassowary Coast" which I visited in 2008, and wrote this article, Saving Big Bird, for Wildlife Conservation magazine.

A couple new articles have come out. I'm proud of this essay that came out in The Daily Climate: Can eating less meat curb climate change?

And just out today - Rime of the Bering Sea Mariners in BioScience, my second piece on the trip I did last summer.

I am about to head on a road trip along the coast to report for the 10th annual Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine Water issue within the next few weeks, which should be fun.

Well that is all for now! Hopefully I'll be back before another month goes by!

life moves on

This is at Eisenhower State Park. It was so cool!
Copyright (c) 2010 Wendee Holtcamp

Do you ever have those times in your life when you have so much to say, and so much overwhelming stuff going on that you don't know *what* to say? Now is one of those times for me. So that's why, I suppose, I haven't blogged that much. I feel strong and confident about my future and am resting in the Lord's grace and love (trying to feel His love is a challenge for me so I'm working on that).

Christmas was, well, Christmas. I did get to go to Chuck Swindoll's Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas on Christmas Eve! It was cool to see the man with his voice in person. The service was only 30 minutes long and all he and another guy on the stage did was to read the Christmas story interspersed with Christmas songs. It was not all that spectacular to me. I wanted to go to his service on the following Sunday, but that was not a great day... nuf said.

And then I went up to North Texas for a travel piece I'm doing on Lake Texoma. It was cold but fun! I stayed the first night at the Rancho Sereno Bed & Breakfast, which is run by a couple who raise reining horses. The Red River Valley area of Texas is like the world's headquarter's for raising and training horses for competitive events like reining, because of the sandy loam soil. I am not a big horse person myself, but it was really interesting, and a beautiful place to stay. The next two nights I got a tower room at Tanglewood Resort, a place that has been around since the 1940s! The tower is a 7-story "tower" and each room is its own suite with a 360-degree view. At the top is a lounge where people can hang out with a great view of the lake. I think the best part was the awesome massage I got while there at the Tranquility Spa! The owner, Johanna, creates all the products herself and I got a couple of the bath salts and they smell AMAZING and the prices very reasonable. She apparently has a new line of organic baby care products coming out too. Not that I need that!

While staying in North Texas, I went birdwatching at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge (we saw quite a bit!), and went out on Lake Texoma in frigid weather with awesome fishing guide Chris with Striper Express - he knew exactly where the fish were! See the pic below with a ginormous striped bass and yours truly. OK I didn't catch it, but still... Then we ate some yummy food at De Happy Cajun Restaurant. I also stopped in at Eisenhower State Park - which is absolutely gorgeous. I didn't expect that. The lake - which is on the border between Texas and Oklahoma and is a reservoir of the Red River - has these rugged cliff faces and rocky ledges you can climb around on at the state park and I explored around and sat watching the water in this one beautiful spot. The area has a lot of history too.

And now I'm back home and trying to have an incredibly productive January! While doing the Inner Mean Girl Cleanse, I "won" a 12-week goal setting course through Amy Ahler's Wake Up Call Coaching so I'm on week 1 now. I've set some goals for my new year in all areas of my life! I'll share some of those soon.

Our first exercise was to address where we are thriving and where we are merely "surviving" - and I was happy to say that in most of the areas of my life I am thriving! I am very grateful for that. My main goals have to do with breaking through the glass ceiling in the writing world (there are some prominent magazines I plan to start pitching and would like to break into), and in the financial realm as well. I also want to make sure to spend more time with my amazing children and to cherish these next 2 and 3 years they are home with me before going off to college (sad face). I am soooo proud of them! Both of them are in the top 1% of their classes! My daughter got chosen as team captain by her coach because she saw that Savi exhibited leadership skills - even though this is only her first year on the team. I saw her first home game tonight and it was freeezing cold but it was so cute seeing her out there playing and telling other players where to go on the field. :) And they won 4 to 1!!

This is the house that President Eisenhower grew up in. Notice the "white picket fence" - I wonder if it was actually white when he lived here?
This is one of two cabins at Rancho Sereno.
One of the horsies at Rancho Sereno.
Inside the rooms at Rancho Sereno. The photograph on the wall is of horses from the ranch.
This is a relatively dull shot of the scenery at Hagerman NWR. It was grey day, so nothing is vibrant but the birds were out in droves.
A shot of the cliff and the lake at Eisenhower SP
Another shot of the shoreline at Eisenhower SP
A pretty ginormous striped bass on Lake Texoma!

Desert bighorn relocation project

Solstice Moon and Sunrise, Elephant Mountain WMA, Texas.
Copyright (c) Dec 21, 2010 Wendee Holtcamp

I just got back from a short but amazing short trip to West Texas near the Mexico border to report on a desert bighorn sheep relocation project. I drove to Austin and then carpooled with some folks from Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, and the first and third evenings we stayed at the gorgeous Lajitas Resort in between Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park. The second evening we stayed in Alpine, Texas because there was a safety and sheep briefing at Sul Ross University. The second day we arrived at Elephant Mountain Wildlife Management Area at 6am and as soon as the sun came up got to work. A helicopter crew - they're freaking amazing - captured the sheep on the mountain using nets and then transported them down to the staging area below where we got to work on the animals.

Talk about alien abduction! You can imagine what the sheep is thinking - there is nothing in their evolution or natural history to comprehend flying through the air suspended by rope, then being placed in a stretcher, blood taken, poop taken and a collar placed around their neck. BUT it's truly for a good cause. People helped cause the extirpation of desert bighorn sheep from Texas by the 1950s but now have re-established them over the past couple of decades to a population of around 1100 in Texas. This particular project was about moving them to a mountain range they formerly inhabited but have not re-established themselves on, in Big Bend Ranch State Park. We had a phenomenally successful two days, reintroducing 46 bighorn sheep - 12 rams and the rest ewes. I was only there for the first day. Here are some photos! Next adventure- Christmas and Lake Texoma.

On the drive to Lajitas the first day, I took this image on the roadside. I took all photos (all copyright) below except the helicopter one.
Tom Harvey, Texas Parks & Wildlife Department Media Communications Group Leader
We stayed at Lajitas Resort the first and third nights. It's really a gorgeous place. It's between Big Bend National Park & Big Bend Ranch State Park (which are next to one another).
Quicksilver air pilots capture the bighorns using nets, and then carefully set them down in the staging area. They're amazing! Isn't this shot incredible?! This photo is Copyright (c) Texas Parks & Wildlife Dept. You can see their Flick photostream here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/texasparkswildlife
After the helicopter captures the sheep on Elephant Mountain (Elephant Mountain Wildlife Management Area (WMA)), they gently lay them down at the staging area, where a crew carries them over to where we processed them as quickly as possible.
'Processing' a desert bighorn ram before placing him in the carton/trailer for transport to Big Bend Ranch State Park. They're blindfolded because it helps calm them. Blood, fur and fecal samples are taken for DNA/genetic work and to check for parasites, and they're outfitted with a radio transmitter.
That's me in the background and to the right is Mike Janis who is a TPWD wildlife biologist I happened to have worked with almost 20 years ago at EG&G when we were seasonal field biologists on the Nevada Test Site. Small world!
A couple of the ewes in the trailer. I peered through the slats in the side and they kind of made a huffing sound at me, but that was it. They didn't mew or make any other noises.
They look a bit scared, but I would be too. We did everything possible to minimize stress on the animals, including keeping them cool if their temperature started to rise, and doing the entire handling process in approximately 5 minutes.
The release site at Big Bend Ranch St Park is right on the Rio Grande River, so technically the sheep could just walk on over to Mexico... And in fact TPWD just signed a binational Memorandum of Understanding with CEMEX (a cement company that owns land on the border) and some other entities to manage the species cooperatively across the border. A couple of their biologists - Billy Pat and Bonnie McKinney - formerly worked with TPWD at the Black Gap Wildlife Management Area where one of our state's herds of desert bighorn sheep are.
A shot of the insanely beautiful Panther Canyon area where we released the bighorns. They have to compete with exotic Aoudad (or Barbary) sheep, introduced from Saharan Africa. They're larger and can survive anywhere... they've had to try to control the Aoudad's population to ensure the bighorns will survive and thrive.
Another shot of the area where the bighorns were released.
The biologists released the group of ewes first. This is one of the ewes jumping nimbly to her freedom in her new home. They all went straight up the mountain.
Next the rams were released.
And there they go!

Deep corals, tiny plankton and other recent pubs

I've had a few articles come out that I wanted to mention.

• The cover feature of Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine's December issue is on the Gulf spill and Texas. It is a two-feature series, written by myself and my colleague and friend Melissa Gaskill. My article is
  The Forgotten Deep: The Gulf’s little-seen deep-water ecosystems may bear the brunt of the BP oil spill’s damage.
  
  I focused on the deepwater corals that so few people even know about and they have received scant media attention. The feature also includes a sidebar on "Texas' forgotten spill" about the Eagle Otome which dumped over 400,000 of crude oil off Port Arthur in January. I wrote this piece in January just after the Texas spill occurred, but right before it was to go to press, the Gulf spill occurred and it seemed almost irrelevant while so much oil was gushing into the Gulf on a daily basis. But the Eagle Otome was a substantial spill, and I'm happy that we got to use an updated version of it for the Gulf oil spill article. Melissa's article is The Pain of the Spill. (Remember we went on the Great Gulf Coast Road Trip - day 1-2, day 3, day 4 and day 5)?
  
  
• The Tiniest Catch: Marine scientists are prowling the Bering Sea to learn how climate affects minute sea creatures and the lucrative fishery that depends on them.
  
  This is the feature I wrote for Nature on research I learned about on the Bering Sea trip - it finally came out! You may remember that in June through July I spent a month in the Bering Sea, during which I blogged for Nature. I have another feature coming out in BioScience Feb 2011 issue on the Bering Sea.
  
  
• Putting Numbers to Nature. My piece on the Natural Capital Project for Momentum Magazine's Fall Biodiversity issue.
  
  
• The "Wendee Holtcamp Report" on Adventures in Climate Change has reprinted some of my older articles in new ways, and they look great.




• Silence of the Pikas -Will the American pika become the first species in the lower 48 states to be listed under the Endangered Species Act owing to global warming? This is only part I and the other two segments of the article will be posted soon.
• Mimicking Mother Nature. A feature on biomimicry, the concept of learning from and being inspired by nature's designs - via evolution - to create innovative, sustainable products. Originally published in National Wildlife Magazine.
  
• A Grass Roofs Effort. A piece on rooftop gardens, aka green roofs, originally published in Sierra Magazine.

Thanksgiving!

Doug, me, and the kiddos at the Gaylord Texan Ice! ice sculpture exhibit. They give out these giant parkas for everyone since it is inside a tent kept at 9 degrees F!

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving at my mom and stepdad's place in Dallas. Doug came with me, plus I had the kiddos this year for the Thanksgiving holiday. As I've mentioned here before my mom and I sometimes butt heads (or should I say, we can't be around eachother for more than 48 hours without driving eachother completely crazy). But this trip went amazingly well. I've been hoping for my spiritual growth and patience to rub off on how I am around my maternal unit, and I think perhaps it's finally kicking in. Or maybe it's just that Doug was there and his energy diffused everything that could potentially have arisen - he makes my kids laugh, and makes everyone laugh, and we had a lot of fun. Or maybe it's because we only stayed 3 and a half days. Regardless, it was a success!

We drove up Wednesday, and worked out with my mom at her gym. She lives in a suburb made for people 55 and older, which has its own workout facility. Mom and Skip got out a 1000 piece puzzle and they all started working on it, while watching the movie Air Force One. On Thursday was spent the day preparing the turkey, mashed potatoes and other goodies and we watched The Bucket List (I'd seen it before but the kids hadn't) and played Trivial Pursuit. Skip's mom, Jane, came over for turkey dinner and we said a prayer and went around and said a couple of things we were thankful for. On Friday, mom and Skip treated us to the Ice! exhibit at the Gaylord Texan, which was really quite interesting - see pics below.

Honestly it was pretty expensive for what you see, and it's like 50 minutes of standing in line for 15-20 minutes of walking through the ice sculptures, but the story behind it is amazing. First we were herded into a room where you stand and watch an 8-minute movie about the making of the ice sculptures. Apparently there's an outdoor ice festival in Northern China where these artisans sculpt ice into incredible things - now that is something I'd like to see. It's called the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival. Because it's so cold, the ice stays there on its own, but in Texas, that won't happen, so instead they create the sculptures in a huge air-conditioned tent at 9 to 12 degrees F.

It was darn cold in there! And yes, we're causing global warming to see ice sculptures. They bring the Chinese artisans to the U.S. to sculpt the ice into various things. This year's theme was A Charlie Brown Christmas. Honestly, I'm not a huge Charlie Brown fan. I don't dislike it, but I'm just not a super huge fan so it was not as exciting as say, sculptures of dragons and castles like they have in China. But honestly the skill and time that goes into creating them is quite amazing. They use colored blocks of ice. And there's a big ice slide that we all went down at the end. And we took some fun photos. That evening, my mom took the kiddos out to dinner and Doug & I went to hang out with some friends and had a blast playing games, like Things! I'd never heard of it but it was so much fun! I will have to get a game so we can have some couple game nights around here. It reminded me of Balderdash, and some of my life's fondest memories are laughing my butt off with my friends Laurie & Jason playing Balderdash during Thanksgivings in Mississippi in my "other life."

Great grandma Jane, grandpa Skip (my stepdad), me and Doug, and Sam and Savi at my mom and Skip's place for Thanksgiving dinner
Savi making one of her beautiful faces! This is standing in line for the Ice! exhibit. Savi decided to make as miserable of a face as she could (since she always either makes faces or refuses to smile for pics! I promise she really wasn't as unhappy as she looks!) Doug and I in the Ice exhibit. :) My mom took this pic of us near the Snoopy house, and then ...
And 5 seconds later I slipped and we fell!
My mom and I.
Doug and the kids looking through the ice wreath.
Me and the kiddos.
The perfect background for us - Lucy's Psychiatric Help booth.
The Gaylord Texan hotel had a big holiday/Christmas decor all throughout in addition to the Ice exibit so this is Doug and I in front of one of the trees.
A closer up view. I like this pic.
Nikki and I were buds from high school who reconnected years later online. We've gotten together a few times when I come to Dallas.
The pictures didn't turn out great because they were out of focus, but this is Nikki in her beautiful new home, her friend Tiffany, me and Doug. Tiffanys boyfriend and Nikki's husband were also there just not in the picture. And I'll leave you with my favorite apple pie recipe: Bottom-Crust Apple Pie, which I made for Thanksgiving! I didn't make my own crust but bought them.

8 firm McIntosh or Granny Smith apples, peeled and thinly sliced
1/2 cup sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, pinch mace, pinch nutmeg
1/4 cup flour

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Center pastry shell in pie plate. Place the apple slices in the pastry and sprinkle with sugar, flour and spices mix (I actually tossed the apples in the mix before dumping it into the pie pans. I also didn't have Mace - you can sub pumpkin pie spice, allspice, or cloves. I used allspice).
3. Top with crumb topping.
4. Bake ~ 45 minutes. Let cool slightly.

Crumb topping
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cut in 1/4 inch pieces
1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 cup rolled oats

In food processor, cut butter into flour until it resembles coarse meal. Mix in sugar and oats, and spoon over apple filling. Yum!

Houston Toads and Houston Travel!

I have not had time to give an update on the Society of Environmental Journalists conference in Missoula, Montana, or my trip to Oregon due to some intense deadline pressures and getting back in the groove at home... but I wanted to post a couple of my latest articles!

I wrote the November cover story of Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine on federally endangered Houston toads- I love the cover image! I also shot one of the images that appears in the magazine of the little princess girl - so cute!

A Kiss for a Toad: A ‘head start’ project could save the endangered Houston toad.

It’s the Houston Zoo’s first Princess Day, a benefit for the conservation of Houston toads, and dozens of girls dressed in pink and purple have gathered to celebrate. The theme plays off Disney’s The Princess and the Frog, in which a girl kisses a frog hoping to get her prince, but instead is transformed into a frog herself. On prominent display at the event is a terrarium housing four Houston toads, almost invisibly camouflaged under pine straw and sand. A princess peers inside, and a reddish-brown toad wriggles and blinks its big eyes.

“Can I kiss him?” she asks.

The AOL Travel Guide to Houston which I wrote is also out/online! It is all online (no byline) and I wrote everything - the 10 best hotels, restaurants, places to visit in town, shopping spots, a 3 and 7-day itinerary, and more. Check it out - I had a lot of fun writing it! Here's part of my "Overview:"

If you're a first-time visitor, Houston travel can be an eye-opening experience. Most outsiders know Houston—the fourth most populous city in the U.S.—as the Space City, with NASA’s Johnson Space Center bringing a major aeronautics component to the city’s economy since it opened in 1961. Locals know “H-town” as the Bayou City: over 2,500 miles of waterways wind their way through the metroplex, which lies in a floodplain merely 43 feet above sea level.

And my favorite fact is that the 10-county greater metroplex region is - get this - at 9,000 square miles, bigger than New Jersey!

As always check out my weekly Animal Planet blog! One that got a LOT of attention was this: 9/11 Tribute Traps 10,000 Birds. And one of my faves is from my road trip to the Gulf Coast: Oil & Louisiana swamp gators. It's just a fun post about a swamp tour Melissa and I took, and how the oil impacts more than just the coast and Gulf of Mexico - its impacts can impact tourism in spots like inland Louisiana. This tour is pretty cool! I got some great gator shots.

At any rate, I also have an oil spill article coming out in the December issue of Texas Parks & Wildlife mag about the spill's impacts on the "forgotten deep" - the amazing, gorgeous and almost completely forgotten deepwater corals right near the oil geyser.