Hope for Haiti – A Food Blogging Charity Raffle

Jeanne at Cooksister has put together a great raffle to raise funds for relief work in Haiti. Now you can donate money and have a chance of winning some great prizes at the same time. Just visit Cooksister and see if some of the prizes don’t tempt you into bidding for them. I’ve been having trouble deciding between several signed cook books and some delicious French baking goodies, but I’ve made

Be My Guest – A Review

I love cooking for people, having friends round for supper or lunch, Sunday lunches for twelve people or one of our festivals with forty. I’m great at tastes and flavours, feeding everyone well, but presentation is not my forte. A le Creuset casserole is one of my favourite inventions, going straight from the oven on to the table. We always eat at a long table in the kitchen end of our main room,

Heat, Hearts and Long Division

I opened the door just now to be greeted by a wall of heat that was almost solid to the touch. Greeted is the wrong word though. It was more like the welcome you might get from a bouncer at a happening club when you turn up in a dirndl skirt and a neat blouse. The best option would have been to retreat inside to the cool shadowy interior of our house, but determination to conclude my mission

Pizza and Cape Town Food Bloggers Conference

I found another delicious use for our profusion of bite-size tomatoes yesterday. With the weather getting close to a true February scorching summer's day on Valentine’s Day, I deemed it way too hot for a Sunday roast and decided to make pizza instead. Youngest feels hard done by if we don’t have a proper lunch on a Sunday, and pizza is one of the few acceptable substitutes for roast chicken and

Accidental Harvests

In between all the sicknesses afflicting our household, it has been a time of abundance here on our farm. A lull between the tonsillitis and the mumps had the whole family out harvesting almonds from two of our trees, resulting in a huge basket sitting on the table to be de-husked and often munched straight away, as some of the shells are soft enough to open with your fingers,a deft twist and a

Counting and iPods

Are you homeless and use one of the many colored apple ipods?

More and more in the last two years I've been seeing public uses of technology by more people experiencing homelessness than 'homies' or business people when walking the streets of Jacksonville.

My take: either they're more savvy than 'homies' and local business people...OR...there's more of them that aren't being admitted to after the last 'Homeless Count'.

The thing about the count that gets me is nobody admits just how 'off' it really is. While local 'counters' and volunteers did appear to attempt to find and engage more in the past, they still aren't bellying up to the realities.

In my opinion Jacksonville has at this moment approxiametely 18,732 people experiencing homelessness. Give or take 5, depending if you use the McKinney-Vento Act standards or HUD definition rules.

Don't ask how I know the numbers, that's classified...just as much as what's really going on that they don't want you to know.

...you figure out who 'they' are.

Accomodations: Who gets it first, kids?

It's another gimme, you run a shelter you need lighting fixtures!

About four years ago I knew this one guy that worked in a shelter, handling more things than he needed due to outdated equipment provided. While wonderful office accommodations were built for the senior staff, the fact is some of the residents were living in what was no better than a garage.

A big garage. One you could drive a semi in, park it, and have room for maybe four more.

Me, I'm against that. I'm all for having people 'satellite' off laptops accommodating the needs of those they serve, rather than their needs accommodated eight hours out of the day.

Going green differently

Years ago I used to enjoy talking about my dumpster diving antics, pretty much a 'green' thing when you can find spare computer parts. As time went by I was able to afford laptop memory to enhance products purchased for my advocacy.

I was talking to a guy this week in Cleveland who's doing the 'green' thing in his community. They're literally reusing old things in building a greenhouse project, but it's not your typical thing. Full business, plan, and they sell the produce to the local neighbors at reduced cost.

Very nice.

What stuff's made of

Ok, so readers outside of being homeless have use and need for an instant life insurance quote, but the fact is those experiencing homelessness 'might' not have like interests.

Same goes for luggage. They're demands are more realistic. Homies really don't check the product as much as homeless. I've yet to see luggage on wheels that can take two weeks of streat-beat I've personally put some through.