Barack Obama Shares Pre-Presidency Concerns With Barbara Walters

President elect Barack Obama In a new interview with Barbara Walters, President-elect Barack Obama reveals some of his concerns about transitioning into his presidency.

For national security reasons, Obama may have to give up use of his BlackBerry, as well as other electronic methods of communication -- something he says seriously concerns him.

"One of the things that I'm going to have to work through is how to break through the isolation -- the bubble that exists around the president," Obama tells Walters. "I'm in the process of negotiating with the Secret Service, with lawyers, with White House staff … to figure out how can I get information from outside of the 10 or 12 people who surround my office in the White House."

Obama went on to say he enjoyed his widespread interaction with Americans while he campaigned for the presidency across the nation, but he fears losing that contact.

"One of the worst things I think that could happen to a president is losing touch with what people are going through day to day …" he tells Walters. "I want to make sure that I keep my finger on the pulse of the struggles that people are going through every day."

"Barack Obama: The Barbara Walters Interview" airs Wednesday night on ABC.

Katie Holmes to Star in Major Fashion Ad Campaign?

Mother of Suri, Katie Holmes may be the new face of a high-fashion ad-campaign!

According to People, the actress will star in the next Miu Miu ad campaigns, sources tell the mag.

Katie will reportedly appear in the Italian fashion-line's Spring/Summer ad campaign, says People.

Other celebs to star in previous Miu Miu ad campaigns include Lindsay Lohan and Kirsten Dunst.

Healing the Planet with Earth-Friendly Bamboo Products

Jackie Heinricher's love affair with bamboo started in her backyard. "As a child, I remember playing among the golden bamboo my dad had planted, and when there was a breeze, the bamboos sounded incredibly musical. It was my magic fort area."

A fisheries biologist by training, Heinricher, 47, planned to work in the salmon industry in Seattle, where she lived with her husband, Guy Thornburgh, but she found it too competitive. Her garden gave her the idea for a business: She'd planted 20 bamboo groves on their seven-acre farm and had had some success propagating noninvasive clumping bamboos-the ones for small gardens (not the notorious runners that grow two inches an hour and take over the landscape).
Heinricher started Boo-Shoot Gardens in 1998. She realized early on what is just now beginning to dawn on the rest of the world: Bamboo is incredibly versatile as well as very earth-friendly. It can be used to make fishing poles, skateboards, buildings, furniture, floors, and even clothing and bed linens (the fabric is as soft as silk). An added bonus: Bamboo absorbs four times as much carbon dioxide as a stand of hardwood trees and releases 35 percent more oxygen. If Heinricher could use her green thumb to advance a green cause, even better.

First she had to find a way to mass-produce the plants—a tough task, since bamboo flowers create seed only once every 50 to 100 years. And dividing a bamboo plant frequently kills it.

Heinricher appealed to Randy Burr, a tissue culture expert, to help her. "People kept telling us we'd never figure it out," says Heinricher. "Others had worked on it for 27 years! I believed in what we were doing, though, so I just kept going."

She was right to feel a sense of urgency. Bamboo forests are being rapidly depleted, and a United Nations report showed that even though bamboo is highly renewable, as many as half of the world's species are threatened with extinction. Heinricher knew that bamboo could make a significant impact on carbon emissions and world economies, but only if massive numbers could be produced. And that's just what she and Burr figured out after nine years of experiments—a way to grow millions of plants. By placing sterilized cuttings in test tubes with salts, vitamins, plant hormones, and seaweed gel, they got the plants to sprout and then raised them in soil in greenhouses.

Not long after it cracked the code, Burr's lab hit financial difficulties. Heinricher had no experience running a tissue culture operation, but she wasn't prepared to quit. So she bought the lab. "It was a scary leap," she says. "I went from 5 employees to 55 [including Burr]. I didn't sleep much. Changing hats overnight was a lesson in boot camp management. Sometimes I wonder how I got here."

Oatmeal-Peanut Butter Trail Bars

When you bake your own “energy” bars, you can be assured that they include whole grains like rolled oats and whole wheat flour and healthy fats like canola oil, peanut butter, and walnuts. Peanut butter stands in for butter in these treats, reducing the saturated fat and boosting protein. These bars make ideal snacks—tuck one into your pocket when you head out the door.
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Baking time: 20 to 25 minutes
Makes 24 bars

You Will Need
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup natural-style smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup honey
1 large egg
2 large egg whites
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup dried cranberries (or raisins)
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or almonds (2 ounces/60 grams)
1/2 cup bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips

What to Do
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Coat a 9 x 13-inch (23 x 33-centimeter) baking pan with nonstick spray.

2. Whisk the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Beat the peanut butter, sugar, and honey in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer until blended. Blend egg and egg whites with a fork in a small bowl. Add to the peanut butter mixture, along with oil and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Add reserved flour mixture and mix with a rubber spatula. Mix in oats, dried cranberries (or raisins), walnuts (or almonds), and chocolate chips. Scrape batter into the prepared baking dish. Use a piece of plastic wrap to spread batter into an even layer.

3. Bake the bars until lightly browned and firm to the touch, 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool completely in the pan on a rack before cutting into 24 bars. One serving is one 2 x 2-inch (5 x 5-centimeter) bar.

Ingredient Note
If you must avoid peanut butter because of an allergy, you can substitute soy nut butter or sunflower seed butter (for tips on adapting recipes to sunflower seed butter . You can replace the nuts with unsalted roasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds) and/or sunflower seeds (look for unsalted seeds in the bulk bins of natural foods stores).

Tip
To avoid wasting the egg yolks, use reconstituted dried egg whites, such as Just Whites, which are available in the baking or natural foods sections of large supermarkets.

Per serving (1 bar)
175 calories
4 g protein
24 g carbohydrates
2 g fiber
8 g total fat, 1 g saturated fat
9 mg cholesterol
68 mg sodium

Marinated Asparagus Salad

You Will Need
2 pounds fresh asparagus, trimmed
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon dried basil
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 green onions, chopped


What to Do
1. Place asparagus in a large skillet; add 1/2 in. of water.

2. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 3-5 minutes or until crisp-tender. Rinse in cold water; drain.

3. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours.

4. Arrange asparagus in a shallow dish.

5. Combine remaining ingredients; pour over asparagus.

6. Let stand at room temperature for 1-2 hours before serving.

Serves 8-10