New Orleans neighborhoods without grocers targeted by $14 million program | NOLA.com

I'm so happy about this, and if I had a business plan together (and good enough credit for a loan) I'd try to open a grocery store in my neighborhood. I've been thinking about business ventures that could improve this area for a while, and a healthy food store was one of them (with maybe a garden in the back, to keep the produce cheap?).

Gambit New Orleans | Gambit's Food Revue

I might have to shell out $45 to check this out.

Blogging Challenge Day 4: What I Ate Today

Well, this is significantly easier than my last topic.

Breakfast:  Cereal (Honey Bunches of Oats in Silk's Vanilla Soy Milk)

Lunch:  Eaten at The Country Club (Bacon, Scrambled Eggs, Grits, Grapes, and Toast.  And 2.5(!) Mimosas.  And a dessert of Vanilla Ice Cream sandwiched between homemade ginger-molasses cookies.)

Dinner:  Cereal again.

Dessert:  One brownie, of a batch that was homemade by me.  I've been told that they're the best brownies ever, and I've got to agree, I'm glad I found it.  Here's the recipe.  You're welcome.

Liberty's Kitchen

Check this out:



It's a block away from where PNOLA's old office used to be.  I got lunch and breakfast there many times, and every meal was delicious and filling.  Check out Liberty's Kitchen's website to learn more about the program.

H/T to the Faubourg St. John Neighborhood Association's blog.

Happy Frackking New Year!!! New Year's Resolutions: 2010 Edition

Ahhh.  I remember how the new year felt last year.  2009. I just knew that it would be a year of change for me, and I'm happy to say I was right.  2008 had been the worst year of my life, though, so any sort of positivity would have made 2009 better.   But looking back on the year now, 2009 was my year of change, growth, and personal betterment, and these things will follow me through the rest of my life.

I made some new friends.  I was social with people from all of my jobs and hung out and did stuff with them.  I gained some self respect and stood up to D--- for being a jackass to me, and discovered that "losing" him was better than stifling all of the anger and hurt that I'd had towards him for two years of fucking with my head and being a dick-less coward because his sister suffers from epic levels of insecurity.  Ahem.  I got rid of that shitty friend, finally realizing that I'm better off with no friends than friends that are two-faced and make me feel bad about myself.  In short, I stopped making excuses for people who are being assholes to me.  I gained a (non-biological) father.  I got a job that doesn't pay shit, but I like it and my boss listens to my suggestions and I've learned a ridiculous amount in just four months.  I'm finally toying with the idea that I may be at above average attractiveness, though no conclusions have been made yet.  I'm in love with my natural hair, and learned how to cornrow it last week, so more styles are forthcoming.  I'm in the process of going organic, and have started eating dinner-sized lunches (and no dinner at all), which has drastically reduced my issues with IBS.  I'm becoming a good cook, and am an awesome baker, and I'm making much more food from scratch.  I'm enjoying being loosely attracted to several guys, instead of intensely attracted to one.  Hmmm, what else?

Well, I made resolutions this time last year for 2009.  They were:

1. Get my driver’s license by the start of hurricane season.  FAIL.  But there were no hurricanes this year, so...I'm giving myself an extension until June 2010!

2. Post on the blog at least once a week.  SUPER WIN.  Good lord, once a day wasn't enough for me.

3. Jog 5 times a week.  SUPER FAIL.  Heh, that was ridiculously ambitious.  So was the one below.

4. Do Pilates 4 times a week.

5. Start paying off loans and credit card bills by the end of the year.  Well, my Americorp grant from the summer paid $1000 on a student loan...but I still owe ~$27K.  Plus $10,000 in credit card debt.  So, I guess this is another SUPER FAIL.

6. Do at least 3 auditions by the end of the year.  MINI FAIL.  I did one, for Treme, which was awesome, but you generally don't get auditions if you don't have an agent so this one was my mistake for not understanding how the system works.

7. Spend at least 5 hours a week writing (non-blog).  FAIL.  Must.  Write.  More!!!!

8. Spend at least 10 5 hours a week reading (books, not on the internet).

9. Go to at least one social/learning event or New Orleans cultural place a week.  SUPER WIN!!!  I did pretty damn good with this, although I didn't categorize what I meant very well (social/learning?  try food/art).  The weekends when I didn't do one, which were very few, I made up for by doing three or four the following weekend.

10. Buy a vehicle (scooter or car) by the end of the year.  Not even close.

11. Regularly keep track of spending.  WIN!  Mint.com, y'all.

12. Call out-of-state friends once every two months.  FAIL.  I'm a sucky long-distance friend.

14. Find a man!  Found one, turned out to be a boy.  So I guess that's another FAIL.

That list is made of FAIL, but I didn't even know how depressed and miserable I was at the time (or especially, why) and how can you make resolutions to better your life when you don't know what changes need to be made?  I set myself up for failure last year, but I think I'm ready this year.  Here goes it:

1. Get my driver's license by the start of hurricane season.
2. Muscle-toning/pilates 3 times a week.
3. Get some good headshots.
   
4. Get an agent and at least one audition before the end of the year.
5. Write (non-blog) for at least 5 hours a week.
6. Fuck.
7. Do some wardrobe cleansing (get rid of some shit).
8. Continue developing my thoughts and opinions on topics that matter to me, and articulate them better to others.
9. Stop taking shit, and worrying about what others think.
10. Learn to acknowledge the signs of a shitty friend before you waste your time forcing a friendship.
    

2009, you've been good to me and I'll always love you for it, but I'm done with you.  2010, you're looking mighty fine...

Vintage Garden Kitchen

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News Briefs: Target Takes Food Stamps, A SDT Star is Born, 1 Day a Week Trash Pick-up, Sweet Valley High Movie, FEMA Trailer Suit Loss

Target is now accepting food stamps. Finally. You know, seeing as they are Walmart's biggest competitor, you'd think that the second Walmart started accepting food stamps, they would have done the same.

Sidney D. Torres and his business will star in a new reality show on TLC based around SDT, him, and his family.   Well, at least TLC does realer reality than, say, VH1.

Stacey Head thinks that twice-a-week trash pick-up is a luxury that New Orleans can't afford.  Um, I'm pretty sure that everywhere else that I've lived has had twice-a-week pick-up, and I don't really see how it is a luxury.  This city already has a critter problem, and in some neighborhoods it appears that twice-a-week pick-up is not often enough, so I really hope that this is not a suggestion that gains traction.  If it were easier (or free) to recycle then yeah; now that I've started recycling I only have to take my trash out once-a-week.  But there are people less fortunate than I who can't even afford $10 a month - or have way too many family members to be able to keep their recycling for two weeks at a time.

In movie news that hearkens back my days as an angry teenager (that only read about happy teenagers), Diablo Cody will be adapting the Sweet Valley High book series for the big screen.  I'm never a fan of anything that is too popular, so I'm a little annoyed that Ms. Cody is the hip new writer that everyone wants to write or adapt x y and z, but she may be able to take the saccharine out of SVH for today's more cynical audiences.  I never made it through the whole series, but I recall my favorite plotline being the evil twins that looked exactly like blond-haired, blue-eyed Elizabeth and Jessica except they had gray eyes and black hair.  Yeah, I'd like SVH to be a less "High School Musical", more Heathers.

And the first FEMA trailer lawsuit has been lost.  I wonder if it would have been better to choose a case a little more cut and dry.  I mean, how do you prove that your kid's asthma got worse due to the trailer, instead of naturally?  I know there must be people out there who were perfectly healthy before moving into the FEMA trailers, and got extremely sick afterwards. 

National coalition wants to improve school lunches - New Orleans Food and Recipe News - NOLA.com

http://www.nola.com/food/index.ssf/2009/09/national_coalition_wants_to_im.html
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News Briefs: Theatre Overhaul at Canal Place, Green Goddess, Katrina Anniversary Events, Black Dynamite

In two weeks, Landmark Theaters will no longer be housed at Canal Place.  It'll be replaced by Southern Theaters, which will start major renovations shortly.

A new restaurant, The Green Goddess, has opened up at 307 Exchange Alley in the French Quarter.  I downloaded their lunch and dinner menus and am curious about how a lot of the foods taste.  I'll definitely check it out and report my findings!

Here's a list of some of the events going on for the 4th anniversary of Katrina.

In movie news, Black Dynamite is finally getting a fall release after playing the festivals.   If I remember correctly, my second post here was about this movie.  Ooops, no, it was my third post.  Sony has taken the red band trailer off of YouTube, so here's the green band.

Some updates with me

I'm visiting my Mom in Maryland until Thursday and I can only pick up a wireless signal on the left side of my childhood twin bed, so posting will be a bit sparse.

She surprised me with church this morning, which is annoying. Even when I considered myself a Christian I didn't enjoy church, and while I'm not an athiest, I've seen and heard too much bad shit to trust organized religion. Also, if she'd told me before I got here, I could've at least packed an appropriate dress and shoes. I'll admit though, when the turbulence got bad on the plane ride over, I definitely prayed.

As I figured, the organic diet is not going to work here. I'm glad that I'm just starting it, and haven't completely crossed over yet.

I started reading World War Z during my 2 hour flight, and by the end of the day on Friday I had finished more than half of it. If the church service is too boring, I may whip it out. I took a break from it yesterday because someone with an imagination as overactive as mine really shouldn't be reading a realistic portrayal of the zombie war. I do want to adapt it into a film, however. And buy a gun. I'll review it when I'm done. I also have been putting off a review of District 9, which I saw on Wednesday.

I still want my fleur-de-lis tattoo, and hope that I can find a shop to do it for less than $100. I decided to wait until after my trip home so it would be completely healed when Mom comes for Christmas.

I'm feeling a little down about the acting thing. I jumped at the oppurtinuty to get $75 headshots throug a cultural center here, but I didn't really know what to expect and don't think I was prepared. I don't know if they're good enough to snag an agent. But if the pic I took with my BlackBerry has been good enough to get me cast as an extra (and an audition with Tremé), these will be good enough for me to get more of the same until I can afford better headshots. I also need to save up for acting classes and workshops. I haven't seen one advertised for less than $250. It seems like it wouldn't be worth it, but casting and talent agents sometimes observe these things and you can get work that way.

I've also been feeling down about my lack of a love life, but what the fuck else is new. I don't even want a "boyfriend", just someone to hang out and fool around with.

Lastly: I miss Biko. : (
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News Briefs: Louisiana Film Museum, NO-style Cooking School, DC Metro News, L9 and NO East Police Districts, Bill Now Cat 4, Free Katrina Doc

Opening September 1st, the Louisiana Film Museum will be located on the Riverwalk at Julia Street, in a section of the Southern Food and Beverage Museum.

This fall a New Orleans style cooking school will open in the Riverwalk Marketplace on Level C.

In news probably only important to me, the Metro in Washington DC will be expanding cell phone service by adding underground equipment so providers other than Verizon will get signals.  This service will start October 16th.  This seems a little unnecessary (do people get signals on the NY subways?), but it's a luxury I'll enjoy when I'm visiting my mom in the future.

I actually agree with Riley when he says that the Lower 9th Ward and New Orleans East need their own police districts.  Both are very isolated, and NO East is huge enough to be it's own city.

Hurricane Bill is a bad motherfucker, but he seems to be heading northward further into the Atlantic (um, sorry Bermuda).

There's a new Katrina documentary called "Survival, Strength, Starting Over" that will be screening for free tomorrow at Canal Place at 7pm and Sunday at Celebration Church in Arabi.

Movie Review: Food, Inc.

So, I went to Canal Place with Kristy last night to see Food, Inc.. It is an extremely well done documentary, and I wish it were in wide release because this is something that everyone should see. And I'm going to experiment with myself and try to align what I eat with the things that I learned last night. I was just going to do an endorsement, but is it really possible to spoil a documentary? Either way, the message still gets out. From what I can remember:

! It used to be that the top five food companies controlled less than 30% of the food market. Now, the top four control what I believe was between 75% and 90% (my memory for numbers sucks).

! McDonalds is the largest buyer of potatoes, beef, and chicken, among other foods. When you are the largest buyer of such things, you control them and how they are grown.

! We, at this point, are creating chickens. They grow twice as fast as they naturally do and we give them hormones to make their breasts much larger than normal. Imagine stuffing double-D breast implants into a 10-yr old girl and making her grow into them as though they were naturally occurring. Horrible image, right? That's what we're doing to chickens. Many of them can only walk a few steps before they have to sit down because their weight is too great for their skinny chicken legs. They're also living packed into a, I think they were called grow houses, where there's barely room to walk anyway, they're being fed antibiotics to keep them from getting sick since they hobble around in their own filth all day, but this just causes the potential diseases to mutate and become resistant (to the point where the farmer herself is now resistant to antibiotics).

! Cows are naturally supposed to eat grass. We're feeding them corn, because...well, I'm not sure why, because it doesn't make sense that it would be cheaper, since grass grows every-fucking-where, and cow poo serves as a natural fertilizer for it, so it will keep growing. But anyway, their stomachs are not meant to digest corn. We're forcing them to, and E. coli has mutated itself so that it can survive in animals that eat corn. Since the cows are living, once again, packed into stables and are standing ankle deep in their own poo, E. coli spreads to other cows. Since there are only a comparative few factories now that process beef, and these are very quick assembly line type places, inevitably feces ends up in the meat. In one package of ground beef, there are bits of thousands of cows. Then, there is the runoff of feces into our drinking water or into nearby vegetable crops, which can cause the instances of E. coli in our vegetables.

! Corn has taken over the world. No, really, it's in damn near every processed food that you can think of. Anything that has high-fructose corn syrup, xanthan gum, and other corn created chemicals (which are many) has corn in it. This is a testament to how lazy we are, that we're just searching for more uses for the same goddamn plant instead of trying something new. Should our bodies have this much corn inside of them? Every condiment, every snack food whether sweet or salty, every sugary drink including fruit juices, the farm-raised fish(!) are being fed corn...

! They used to hire poor blacks to work for the companies in their factories. Now they exploit undocumented workers, busing people in from 100 miles away to treat them just as bad as the animals that they've slaughtered. One town, Tar Heel, North Carolina, is home of the largest slaughterhouse in the world, operated by Smithfield Foods. They appear to have a deal with immigration to turn in 15 of their undocumented workers every...week, I think, so they will be deported and no one will fuss about their rights or fair wages or promotions. They just hire another 15 at the same rate, so they're not really losing anything. While working there, these workers inevitably get infections after coming in contact with feces, urine, and blood from the animals that they're processing.

! One thing that stuck out for me was how impersonal we've made animal processing. One of the first things that they showed was a woman killing baby chicks. They came down a conveyor belt and she grabbed them one by one and pressed their heads against what I assume was some sort of sharp protrusion at the end of her counter. Then the chicks stopped squeaking. No blood, no ickiness, just sudden quiet. Not an ounce of emotion on her face. These companies have made it so that no one has to rationalize killing animals or deal with the goriness of it. When they showed how they kill pigs, they just pushed them into a large metal box using a large sweeper, and when they came out the other side they were dead. On the other hand, when they showed an organic farmer, one who hasn't succumbed to these factories, the process of killing chickens was very unpleasant to watch, there was much blood, and where they processed the meat was outdoors. But, still, I bet a million farmers like him would make much fewer of us sick than the few large factories that we have today. The animals are living in sanitary conditions, eating what they should be eating, and not being fed hormones or antibiotics. And it would be easier to regulate. You could trace any sickness back to one farm, make them change what they need to change, and if it happens again, shut them down. In trying to get rid of the ickiness of farming and turning animals into food, we've made it even more disgusting by using completely unnatural methods.

! I was shocked to find out that the average farmer who's in business with a big corporation has to pay for upgrades themselves. Upgrades are constantly demanded by these large companies, or else their contracts will be terminated. An average farmer will take out $500,000 in loans over his or her lifetime. They will make about $18,000 a year. That means that I, in 2008, made more than the average farmer with a major contract made, while working at a store in the French Quarter. In so many ways, grocery stores would be better off buying from local farmers. They wouldn't have to deal with recalls and people getting sick from their products, and I imagine a farmer with a contract with a couple of stores would make more money.

! They also talk about the issues that most people already know about, like pesticides, cloned foods, the fact that it's cheaper to eat unhealthy than it is to eat healthy, needing nutrition labels on restaurant foods, the fact that for all the bullshit that we do to make more food for less money, there are still people in other countries who are starving to death, partially because we're out-competing their farmers.

! 1 in 3 children born after 2000 will have type-2 diabetes. For Black people, half will have it. Keep in mind, this is a disease that was almost exclusive to adults not so long ago. My future children will never know what a fast food restaurant is, not if I can help it.

That's most of what I remember, but there is much, much more and everyone should hunt down this movie in their cities and towns. With certain diseases on the rise, I've been wondering lately what have we changed in the past 50 years about the way that we eat and live. Cases of cancer have increased so much, and cases irritable bowel syndrome, the icky thing that I have, seems to have increased exponentially in the past 10-20 years. There are many digestive disorders that are becoming more prevalent, too, and while there is much discussion of how the way we eat is making us fatter, I don't understand why there isn't a national conversation about how something about the way we process food might be making us sicker and weaker. I'm convinced now, that this is the cause, because all of the changes that I've mentioned above? Made within the last 50 years. After thousands of years on this earth, I can't imagine that our bodies and digestive systems have decided now to fall apart without help.

What am I going to do? Well, for one, my visit to the Crescent City Farmer's Market last Saturday came right on time. I found a woman who sells fresh fish, shrimp, and crab meat, who told me that I'd be back, and since fish is the main meat that I cook for dinner, she was right (no more tilapia farm-raised in China). There's always produce there, but I wish that there weres a few more vendors who sell multiple veggies and fruits. There was only one who had a variety of things, the rest sold tomatoes. There was also a woman who sells homemade bread and pastries. A worker there told me that they're extending their food stamp match program through October 15th, which means that if you buy their tokens with food stamps, they will give you double the amount that you purchased. It's good enough that they take food stamps at all, since one of the main reasons that poor people don't eat well is that they can't afford to eat organically. Also, I'm looking forward to joining the New Orleans Food Cooperation by the time that they have a store location early next year. They hope to be able to take food stamps, as well.

If I cook for all three of my meals, going organic will be much easier. But obviously that also takes a lot of time, and the job I start September 1st is an 8am to 5pm (ugh). Still, I can at least try to cook my lunch and dinner, and the homemade bread that I bought at the farmer's market was filling enough to hold me until lunch. I'll have to figure out natural snack foods. I recently got turned on to Tostitos corn chips and salsa, both of which are all natural. But for my sweet tooth, I may look into local shops where I can buy their organic sweets week by week. La Divina Gelateria sells their gelato by the pint. It's not cheap, but it's organic, local, and delicious. There's also another place that I've been to called Bee Sweet Cupcakes on Magazine Street that, as far as I could tell, home makes the most delicious (and huge) cupcakes ever. I think I remember cakes being there as well. The good thing about such a large city that has a stake in remaining quirky and historic is that there are a lot of small businesses, and New Orleans is a food lover's paradise. Many of them make their items from scratch, I've just got to put time into finding them next week since I won't be working until September.

I'm very glad that I've already given up beef (going strong for a year and half, now). Pork may be next, but it's so hard in this city. If I were to rank meat usage in classic New Orleans dishes, number 1 would be seafood, number 2 would be pork, 3 chicken, and 4 beef. And I love breakfast sausage, ham, and bacon. What meat will I have when I eat out for breakfast? Maybe when I move to California, it should be easier there...eh, I'm still working on the pork thing. Chicken I don't cook much because I'm lazy and fish is easier, but when I eat out I enjoy it. I suppose I can give it up though until I find an organic farmer who sells chicken, then I'll learn to cook what I've been missing. I can't guarantee perfection: obviously, not eating out would end this internal conflict (and save me money), but I love the sesame chicken lo mien from China Wall and I'd hate to limit myself from trying new things. But cutting back will probably do me a world of difference, and maybe help me look better and live longer. Here goes nothing!

Bad Morning

Ugh. White Linen Night was fun, but now I'm at work paying for some Saag Paneer that I ate there. With my stomach condition there are certain things that I just shouldn't eat. Spinach, tons of cheese, and anything spicy almost top the list, so of course I ate something that contained all three. And I ate this because I didn't want to waste $5 worth of tickets that I had left at the end of the night. Of course I realize now that if someone said that they could take away this pain for $5, I would readily take the deal...and I'm supposed to be going to the free dinner at Hare Krishna tonight...ugh.
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Bayou Boogaloo Finds

The last day of Bayou Boogaloo was today, so I hung out on the bayou for a couple of hours. The music was good, and the food was even better. Worth mentioning was the veggie plate that I got from Bozwell's Jamaican Grill, which included the first plantains that I've had that can compete with the ones at Bennechins. There were so many dogs there that I kind of wish that I'd brought my Biko with me, but it's hard to handle a big dog by yourself when you want to walk around and look at art and jewelry and stand in line for food. But he looks like such an angel, doesn't he?



Anyway, the day was beautiful, as you can see if you check out my Flickr pics in the sidebar. And best of all, I bought a pair of handmade earrings for $5 from Art of Sole, a local jewelry maker.



$5 for cute, handmade earrings? I may end up with their entire collection.