Tag Archives: North Carolina

January 25, 2014 · 1:00 PM

The Deep freeze and chocolate cake…

The temperatures have been freezing! Too cold to work in the yard and to do the usual hardscape maintainance I like to do during the Winter! The days have been in the low 30s or even upper 20s with the night temps in the low twenties and a few times down to about 10f! Just crazy.

So my thoughts turn to cooking. I set my internet radio to Amsterdam Dance Radio or put a Depeche Mode CD in!

I have been looking at the label recipes of the Hershey’s Cocoa package and decided to make the chocolate cake recipe and the frosting recipe, too!

HERSHEY’S “PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE” Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup HERSHEY’S Cocoa
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 cup boiling water
  • “PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE” CHOCOLATE FROSTING (recipe follows)

Directions

  1.  
    Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.
  2.  
    Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.
  3.  
    Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost with “PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE” CHOCOLATE FROSTING. 10 to 12 servings.

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The two layers cooling in the pans. The middle cooked slower then the side so next time I will cook them on the lower shelf and not on the top shelf.

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And

“PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE” CHOCOLATE FROSTING

  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
  • 2/3 cup HERSHEY’S Cocoa
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Soften butter at room temperature. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency.
  • Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

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Hmm, chocolate buttercream frosting!

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And the final product! Hmm, I don’t think I would be a good sculptor or mason as I am very messy!

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But it all taste the same in the end!!

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Of course, later in the day we headed to downtown Raleigh (http://www.godowntownraleigh.com/) and The Borough restaurant (http://theboroughraleigh.com/) for my favorite drink: “How do you Q?” Pretty, isn’t it?

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xxx

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July 26, 2013 · 10:00 PM

Crape Myrtles and Southern Gardens

I grew up on the Southeast coast of North Carolina. The weather is humid and subtropical. The winters are very mild and the hot summer days are often followed by short rain storms. I did not realize how much the ocean breezes cooled the air until I moved about an hour-and-half inland to attend college. The summer air was so humid and thick you could cut it with a knife!

The good side, as a gardener, is I could grow so many tropical species down there! Now I am two-and-half hours from the coast and the winters are just a bit colder but not by much thanks to climate change.

Crepe Myrtles are a very popular tree or large shrub throughout the South. The flowers originally came in shades of red and pink but now there are whites and lavenders and purples. There are also a few sections with burgundy foliage, also.

NCSU has a very nice list of the cultivars with descriptions of flower color and growth habits:

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/factsheets/trees-new/lagerstroemia_indica.html

A few photos for Crape Myrtles around Raleigh, North Carolina.

I call this color watermelon. These are in my neighborhood.

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A pink Crape Myrtle in Cameron Village Shopping Center.

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A young group of mixed colors near Cup-A-Joe.

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And a beautiful purple Crape Myrtle in front of The Reader’s Corner.

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This beautiful red one on Oberlin Road has a very nice shape.

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And a white one photographed late in the evening.

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Crape Myrtles need to only be pruned to removed crossed limbs or damaged or low hanging limbs. Some varieties have beautiful bark that can peel in beautiful strips which revel shades of red and brown.

Unfortunately, most landscape crews do not know how to prune this heavy blooming plant. They tend to prune crape myrtles as if they are herbaceous perennials.

This promotes an awful water- sprout type growth.

These are weak stems which may eventually split the main trunk where they are attached. This type of pruning creates a look of a pollarded tree. Its not attractive or healthy for any tree.

Just say NO and don’t.

No! No! No! If you are in doubt that your Crape Myrtles need to be pruned. Just don’t do it. They will look better with a more natural shape anyway.

This is a properly pruned crape myrtle.

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This pruning allows the a more natural shape to develope which allows the beautiful and colorful bark to be seen.

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🙂

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April 13, 2013 · 2:08 PM

Pollen invasion and the new growth of Spring arrives.

The temperatures have become steadily warmer and have really fueled growth in the garden. One negative side effect, as least for me, is the onslaught of pollen from the wind pollinated pines and oaks. I have had to deal with the allergies every Spring my entire life!

When it rains during this time I can breathe for a few hours as the rain cleans the air temporarily! You can see how it coats everything.

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Side walks are covered for a week or two and the rain washes it into the low areas.

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I would like to just stay inside and pray for rain during all of this but their is work to be done!

One of the first chores in the Spring is to search the lawn for seedlings from garden plants. The lawn grass usually doesn’t wake up from its Winter nap until later in Spring so you can easily spot seedlings such as Spiderwort.

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It’s also a good time to move shrubs that have out grown their spaces.

This Gardenia ‘First Love’ is now shaded by a nearby Asian Magnolia that has grown rapidly the past few The plant came apart into three plants! So now I have three!

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The path from the patio to the bird feeders is experience a rapid growth of wild strawberry and evening primrose! It should be amazing in May when the pink evening primrose is blooming!

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And the Kerria are in bloom.

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On the Coast, where I grew up, I remember older gardeners would tie up the foliage of Spring blooming bulbs to get it out of the way. This still allows it to nourish the bulbs for next year. I thought I would try it!

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A good example of how plants spend their first year putting down good roots before top growth is this perennial sunflower. Last season it grew about knee high and produced only a few blooms. This Spring there are about five shoots coming up so far. It should reach five or six feet by Fall and be loaded with blooms!

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.

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