November 2008 Blog Posts (13)

Coconut-orange butterballs: A delicious twist on an old favorite.

1 ¼ cups sweetened flaked coconut

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 ¼ cups sifted confectioner’s sugar

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

grated zest of 1 orange

½ teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spread coconut on a baking sheet; bake until lightly toasted, stirring occasionally — about 10 to 12 minutes. Cool.

Using an electric mixer, beat butter, ½ cup of the sugar, and vanilla in a bowl to blend… Continue

Added by Mary Kate Leming on November 24, 2008 at 11:54am — No Comments

Joe Froggers

This cookie has great legend behind it, linking it to a Revolutionary War veteran in Marblehead, Mass. The story and recipe I got come from the cookbook, America’s Best Lost Recipes. They write that Black Joe Brown, a freed slave, and Aunt Cresse opened Black Joe’s tavern in a part of Marblehead called Gingerbread Hill. They used to make these big, flat, pancake-like cookies there and there was a frog pond out back. Somehow, the cookies became associated with “Joe’s frogs,” and… Continue

Added by Mary Kate Leming on November 24, 2008 at 11:34am — 1 Comment

DR. WILLIAM R. TOLFORD: Briny Breezes

By Ron Hayes

BRINY BREEZES — His name was William, but friends called him “Bill.” Fellow sailors called him “Captain.” Patients called him “Doc.” And come December, children called him “Santa."

Dr. William R. Tolford was a big man with a long white beard who donned a red suit for the town's annual Christmas party, then rejoiced in challenging young doubters to pull his beard. When the beard proved real, the children were reassured that Santa Claus must be, too.

Dr. Tolford,… Continue

Added by Mary Kate Leming on November 5, 2008 at 5:13pm — No Comments

Keep Boynton Beach across the bridge: Opinion

Local Voices

The eventual redevelopment of Briny Breezes is inevitable: The land is too valuable, the trailers are unsafe in a storm, and the shareholders have been offered a fortune. But Briny’s recent flirtation with Ocean Land Investments painfully divided the close-knit Brinyites and the opposition from the neighboring residents has left the barrier island communities mistrustful of each other and wary about the future. Worse, Briny’s dismay at the organized effort to… Continue

Added by Mary Kate Leming on November 5, 2008 at 5:07pm — No Comments

Seahorse condo development falls victim to hard economic times: Gulf Stream

By Steve Pounds

The $90 million Seahorse oceanfront condominium has been canceled, the victim of a tough economy and the recession in the housing market.

“It’s dead for financial reasons,” said Ann Bane, a spokeswoman for Palm Beach Gardens-based Catalfumo Construction Inc. “We did the initial preconstruction work and prepared the site, and then the project stalled.” The low-rise development suffered from inconvenient timing. It began last year as the housing market was… Continue

Added by Mary Kate Leming on November 5, 2008 at 5:00pm — No Comments

Wake from catalog fantasies and get planting

How Green Is My Island?

By Mary Kate Leming

Seed catalogs come at the wrong time of year. Each spring, we curl up in our favorite chair and indulge ourselves in page after page of award-winning zucchinis and crayon-red tomatoes. But while we’re distracted with fantasies of deep, dark topsoil and giant, wiggling night crawlers, the South Florida summer sneaks in with saturating humidity. Better for growing mildew than honeydew.

But we can’t put down the… Continue

Added by Mary Kate Leming on November 5, 2008 at 4:40pm — No Comments

New Manalapan mayor shares his to-do-list

By Antigone Barton

MANALAPAN — While election season raged elsewhere, change came quietly to this town, with the ascension of William “Tom” Gerrard to mayor.

Even without the clamor of a contentious campaign, the vice mayor who was appointed by unanimous commission vote in September to succeed outgoing Mayor William Benjamin, hopes to make a difference that will usher in a more connected Manalapan.

“I’m certainly not just doing it for the title,” he said. “I have a big love… Continue

Added by Mary Kate Leming on November 5, 2008 at 4:32pm — No Comments

Despite probe, coastal officials praise McCarty

By Thomas R. Collins

Mayor William Koch Jr. has been the mayor of Gulf Stream since 1966 and has gotten to know many a politician. As far as he’s concerned, one of the good eggs is County Commissioner Mary McCarty. When the town needed help with paving roads that ran through town, she came to its aid. When it needed help resolving problems with Florida Power & Light, McCarty was there. So when Koch heard that federal investigators… Continue

Added by Mary Kate Leming on November 5, 2008 at 4:30pm — No Comments

Atlantic Plaza II: Delray Beach

DELRAY BEACH — City commissioners this month will debate the first in a series of necessary approvals that would allow for the development of condos, shops and office space west of the Intracoastal Waterway. Commissioners on Nov. 18 will address a request from the property’s representatives for permission to construct buildings higher than 48 feet; three of the six buildings in the plan will go 60 feet high. The Atlantic Plaza II proposal, northeast of Atlantic Avenue and Federal Highway next… Continue

Added by Mary Kate Leming on November 5, 2008 at 4:11pm — No Comments

Boynton Beach looking into options to razing its 1927 High School

By Mary Kate Leming

BOYNTON BEACH — The city’s 1927 high school won a 3-2 decision in its favor, when city commissioners voted Oct. 21 to research funding or potential partnerships to rescue the old building. At the outset of the hour-long discussion, City Manager Kurt Bressner offered three options for the building, located next to the Schoolhouse Museum on Ocean Avenue: demolish it, leave it as is, or make it available to some organization like a nonprofit to fund the… Continue

Added by Mary Kate Leming on November 5, 2008 at 4:00pm — No Comments

Delray pioneers’ efforts to shine through in house museum

By Ron Hayes

DELRAY BEACH — One of the city’s oldest houses has a new home, a new name and a future as bright as its past.

In 1908, when a young man named Horace Hunt arrived from New Jersey to grow tomatoes, beans and pineapples along a canal in the fledgling town called Linton, he bought a five-room house on the Boynton Road.

That canal is called the Intracoastal Waterway these days. Linton is known as Delray Beach and the Boynton Road is U.S. 1. Horace Hunt is long gone.… Continue

Added by Mary Kate Leming on November 5, 2008 at 4:00pm — No Comments

ERIC JOSEPH MANGIONE: Ocean Ridge

OCEAN RIDGE — A resident for nearly 20 years, Mr. Mangione served on the Town Commission from 1982 until 1994, including four terms as mayor.

Mr. Mangione died Oct. 8 after a brief illness. He was 67.

A financial adviser, Mr. Magione brought his professional expertise to his work for the community. “He was a very nice gentleman, and very diligent during our budget deliberations,” recalled Town Clerk Karen Hansck. “We completed our water improvements during his time in office, and in… Continue

Added by Mary Kate Leming on November 5, 2008 at 4:00pm — No Comments

A tunnel under A1A for golf carts?: Briny Breezes

By Hector Florin

BRINY BREEZES — Months after the completion of three new residential tunnels across State Road A1A in Manalapan, the Town Council will consider whether it should follow suit.

At the Oct. 23 Town Council meeting, Briny Breezes Inc. director Robert Purcell addressed the idea of building a tunnel, and council members agreed to continue talks on Nov. 20. The town had been sidetracked by talks with Ocean Land Investments when Purcell said he previously raised the… Continue

Added by Mary Kate Leming on November 5, 2008 at 4:00pm — No Comments