Eating America with Toddy J

Anarchy in the OK - Dumpster Divin'

2011-03-26T14:28:00.002-05:00

Levi and Toddy J star in the first episode of Anarchy in the OK. The folks at Delo Creative and Tate James filmed and edited this entertaining and tasteful (literally) segment. We had a blast filming and eating what we found that night. I had serious reservations about drawing this kind of attention to our lifestyle for fear of drawing competition and a crack down on us freegans by the stores and police. I trusted Tate though to keep all our spots anonymous and not make us look like a couple of idiots. The music by Brother Gruesome is a nice touch. Thanks Katie and Tate!

On a different note. I went to SXSW last week. Its pretty much a four day long buffet of free beer and free food. I wound up at Steve Maddens party and inadvertently table-scored a bottle of the shoe designers wine. I think I would have still taken it if I had known who Steve Madden was. He and his party had just left to go watch a band and there was like 3/4 of a bottle there at the table. What else could I do? After that my friend Tom suggested that I take some of the VIP salad home with me. Being drunk enough off the free wine Toms idea sounded like a really good one. So I grabbed the giant plastic bowl of romaine lettuce, gave the door man a nod and made my merry way out to 6th street with a couple pounds of salad. I ended up sharing a lot of it with hungry drunkards on the street, then spilling half of the bowl when i crashed my bike 2 blocks from home. Pretty much par for the course for a night at South By.

I got to check out The Antlers, Nicole Atkinson, Owen Pallett, Okerville river, Hurray For The Riff Raff, Dodos and a bunch of friends. Until next post. Happy dumpstering!

Anarchy in the OK

2011-03-25T00:53:00.003-05:00

Thanks to Tate Kate and all the folks at Delo Creative for putting together an awesome video about dumpster diving. Levi and I had an awesome time shooting this footage. Cant wait to see some more from these folks. To watch our dumpster webisode click below.
http://www.youtube.com/user/changeyrlifeokc#p/a/u/0/zCdcoLdKHLo

Food Not Bombs OKC! They Made a Movie about Me!

2010-05-06T13:11:00.010-05:00

Hey folks,
I have a couple things to share this spring besides all the free dumspster food that I have been collecting. Although Eating America has been silent since November I have been very busy dumpstering, distributing liberated food, and getting hassled by the cops.

OKC Food Not Bombs!

This is something I have been getting excited about and involved in. Folks at the Scissortail Social Space are organizing a local Food Not Bombs chapter and are having their first feed this Saturday. If you want to be involved join the facebook at the link above or better yet meet us at 30th and Walker Saturday at 7pm. This is a great way to redistribute all the food that is going to waste in our city.
If you have extra food to share you can also take it to Scissortail. They have a free store where there is usually some food or clothes or cassette tapes to take home. Check out the website and donate money if you feel compelled.
This is an awesome evolution of the OKC Infoshop. They have free internet, computers, coffee, radical lending library, and bike workshop, and concerts featuring local and touring musicians.

This Movie will be playing at the DeadCenter film Festival

I wonder if these guys read my blog. I doubt it, but their rules for dumpster diving seem very much like the ones I follow and have written about. Although each person has their own set of guidelines they dumpster by. I'm not nearly as eager to take meat out of the trash as these dudes. Occasionally there will be some nice looking lunch meat that isn't gooey and all puffed up. Once i found a case of JP Potter breakfast sausage still frozen in its original box. That is the condition meat should be in if I am going to take it home. Ill be curious to see what this film has to say about the cops and dumpstering.
Recently a friend and I were approached by a police officer as we were about to score some eggs and cabbage. He ran our IDs and told us we had an expired tag but didn't give us any crap about digging in the trash. In fact he told us of a place we could get free bread. I simply told him I couldn't afford to buy this kind of food so I opted to get It out of the dumpster. Lucky for us he was sympathetic to our position. I have heard stories of people getting arrested in other cities for dumpstering, but i think as long as your honest and respectful to the cops here in Oklahoma you won't get in trouble. My friend called the police station the next day to see what was on the books about dumpster diving and has a cop on record saying that its not illegal to take food out of the dumpster.
Thanks for reading its been a long time since I have blogged so here are a few shout outs. thanks Cody and Chris for giving me shit about not blogging in so long, thanks Tate for the shout out in The Apache House article, and that dude who yelled out "Toddy J Eating America!!" at the Evangelicals show at Norman Music Festival.

Table scoring at Airports. Or How I ate for free in San Francisco

2009-11-06T21:16:00.014-06:00

Here are a couple items I thought worthy to share at this point for some comic relief.

Killer Combo

Is this really food?? and Is this really worth 10 bucks. I think if i found this inside a dumpster i would leave it. I want to meet the marketing genius that came up with this one. This was in the freezer case at Buy For Less. No small wonder in a state where diners frequently ask for an "Bowl of ranch" to go with whatever they order out.

Here is a man after my heart,

digging in the dumpster outside of the Hemlock Tavern in San Francisco. If I thought there might be something other than broken glass and cardboard I would have joined him. Thanks to friends of Evangelicals Ben and Blake I didnt have to resort to digging in scary San Francisco dumpsters. They gave us floor to sleep on and allowed me to raid their fridge to make a delicious medley of sauteed potatoes, leeks, broccoli, onions and garlic.

Eating for free at his house allowed me to to purchase some delicious late night donuts after the show at the Hemlock Tavern.

Free Headphones Anyone?

Hell yes! even in the midst of this dark day while I travel home to my grandmothers funeral there is still something for a scavenger to celebrate. If anyone needs a free set of cheap ass ear buds hit me up. Or next time you have to book a last minute flight out of Portland travel Frontier airlines
The unexpected death of my Grandmother has found me leaving the tour for a couple days to be with family in Kansas. Today I find myself in the Portland Airport flying to Wichita Kansas. Ill be meeting up with the band in a few days in Salt Lake City after the funeral. I wish I were writing under happier circumstances. I owe so much to my grandmother, including many of my cooking skills and sense of thrift to my grandmother Im going to miss her more than I can comprehend at this moment.

I was starting to feel hungry and sorry for myself until I saw a hot dog stand called Bad Dogz. They had a fixings bar complete with sauerkraut onions and jalapinos. Free condiment bars are a welcome site. I got some fresh corn tortillas and fresh cheese from a Mexican grocery in San Francisco. This was breakfast today.

Free condiments from the hot dog bar at gas stations help to supplement the road diet. Pilot Travel stops have particularly good condiment bars including sauerkraut, tomatoes, onions, hot peppers, and salsa. Thanks to an empty pickle jar I found at Josh's house, and the U2 360 tour catering room, I have been enjoying free hot tea this tour. I pocketed enough free tea bags to last me the entire month. Hot water is free and available at most gas stations on a red tab next to the coffee makers.

On tour a friendly dumpster is often hard to find. This leads me to employ other methods of scoring free food. Today i found myself in the Seattle airport at lunch time. I wasn't content to eat corn tortillas so I began searching the food court for "Table Scores" or half eaten and abandoned food. after 20 minutes of looking I was still hungry. Travelers are reluctant to let their overpriced airport food go to waste. So my next recourse was to begin asking cashiers for damaged or throw away food that they couldn't serve. After being turned away at a sandwich shop I decided it was time to stop begging and broke down and bought some Wendy's. I had some buyout money from the Portland show. I hope my readers will forgive me for breaking with my free food lifestyle. Life on the road requires some creative adaptation. I did gain enough courage after eating my chili, potato, and side salad to swipe a fruit parfait and coffee from an unassuming coffee
shop.

Such a rebel am I. Desperate times cal for desperate measures. I needed that desert and wasn't about to pay 5 dollars for yogurt and a coffee. I made it to my flight just in time all the while wondering if airport security was after me.....

Norman dumpsters yield cheezy treasures

2009-11-02T20:41:00.004-06:00

It has been a long silence. Ahh The last meal before leaving Norman for Evangelicals tour. I scored several packages of this ravioli, as well as a variety of specialty cheeses, red pepper hummus, and olive oil butter while touring Norman dumpsters on my bike. The last home cooked meal before tour is always a memorable one. Its a good time to start up the blog again. I have not posted for a long time but I feel it is time to begin a new season of Eating America with Toddy J. I have had a lot of dumpster diving adventures over the summer and look forward to sharing more in the coming months. I have been very encouraged by the feed back Ive gotten from readers of the blog. We have a rich dumpster culture in the Oklahoma City area. Ill be linking Eating America to Kyles Tour Blog so you can follow our progress as we travel across the country this month. Just click on the title.M Here is the tour schedule:

10/31/09 Norman, OK - Opolis Productions
11/02/09 Phoenix, AZ - Modified Arts w/ Holiday Shores
11/03/09 Los Angeles, CA - Echo w/ Port O Brien
11/04/09 San Francisco, CA - Hemlock Tavern w/ Holiday Shores, Fake Your Own Death
11/05/09 Portland, OR - Holocene w/ Holiday Shores
11/06/09 Seattle, WA - The Vera Project w/ Holiday Shores
11/07/09 Missoula, MT - The Palace w/ Holiday Shores
11/08/09 Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court w/ Holiday Shores
11/09/09 Denver, CO - Hi Dive w/ Holiday Shores
11/11/09 Kansas City, MO - The Record Bar w/ Holiday Shores, Eli August
11/12/09 St. Louis, MO - Firebird w/ Holiday Shores
11/16/09 Washington, DC - The Red and the Black w/ Holiday Shores
11/17/09 Philadelphia, PA - Kung Fu Necktie w/ Holiday Shores
11/18/09 Brooklyn, NY - Union Hall w/ Holiday Shores
11/19/09 Allston, MA - Great Scott w/ Holiday Shores
11/20/09 Buffalo, NY - Mohawk Place w/ Holiday Shores
11/21/09 Cleveland, OH - Beachland Tavern w/ Holiday Shores
11/22/09 Chicago, IL - Schubas w/ Holiday Shores
11/23/09 Bloomington, IN - The Bishop w/ Holiday Shores

If you live in one of these cities let me know of any good spots to hit up in the area.
More to come...

Evangelicals and Starlight Mints tour days 5-10

2009-06-18T14:52:00.005-05:00

I set the bar high for myself this tour. My goal was to eat for free, and adopt a wheat/gluten free diet at the same time. I quickly found that having a restrictive diet and touring around the country on a limited food budget are hard to reconcile. To make a long story short I found myself breaking my diet almost as soon as I decided to adopt it. I was just too hungry!

My plan was to dumpster dive throughout the tour to supplement the free food I received from clubs. I only had one successful dumpster dive. The only other time I dumpstered I came up empty handed at Pizza Hut and Mazzios in Tulsa. Lucky for me the venues and our friends were very generous with food.
The remainder of the tour found Evangelicals in Madison, Milwaukee, Chicago, Campaign, and St Louis. In Madison we played at the Annex where I ate a lackluster fried fish sandwich that was more bread than anything. Lucky for me my good buddy and organ player for The Hex, El-Tin-Fun put the band up at his place and ordered us a large pizza with peppers and onions.

MMMmmmm MMm!
The next day we were in Milwaukee at the Turner Hall We got the royal treatment. A catered Mexican dinner

Fresh fruit and vegetables

and all the beer, we could drink.
No photos survived from our Chicago show. At least none were on my cell phone. I had a pretty good pulled pork sandwich from the Bottom Lounge.
The Next day we drove to Champaign and met up with our dear friend Tristen from the band Headlights. He had The grill and hamburgers ready to cook.

Its always a treat to hang out with the folks from Headlights. Evangelicals did a 6 week tour with them in the winter of 2008 and we became close friends.

hamburgers were also consumed at the after party and for breakfast the next morning. Collectively the band consumed more than 10 burgers. The farts on our ride to St. Louis were incredibly vile.
Finally In St. Louis we ate at our favorite Pho house on the road at Pho Grand.

I had the duck leg Pho it was the perfect bookend to our tour. The first and last meal were both at my favorite Pho houses. For the most part on our tour ate complementary food or meals bought with band cash I did break down a couple times and buy fast food. Im leaving tomorrow to begin the 2nd leg of our Starlight Mints tour. This leg is taking us south through Texas and ending up in Florida. Also don't forget to vote for your favorite blog on OK Gazette Best of OKC.

Jun 25 2009

8:00P

Granada Theater

Dallas, Texas

Jun 26 2009

8:00P

House of Blues

Houston, Texas

Jun 27 2009

8:00P

One Eyed Jacks

New Orleans, Louisiana

Jun 28 2009

8:00P

Alabama Music Box

Mobile, Alabama

Jun 29 2009

8:00P

The Bottletree

Birmingham, Alabama

Jun 30 2009

8:00P

Drunken Unicorm

Atlanta, Georgia

Jul 1 2009

8:00P

Common Grounds

Gainesville, Florida

Jul 2 2009

8:00P

The Social

Orlando, Florida

Jul 3 2009

8:00P

New World Brewery

Tampa, Florida

Evangelicals Tour days 2-4

2009-06-08T10:39:00.003-05:00

The Dumpster Gods have smiled upon Evangelicals this week. At a random lunch stop in Kansas I spotted an Aldi store and took the opportunity to stock up on some fresh fruits and vegetables.

I found bananas, apples, tomatoes, and jalapenos.

The food provided me with the energy to make it through the 8 hour ride to Omaha. An office depot dumpster yielded a nice pleather binder to help us organize our new Mailing List. Be sure to sign up if you are out at a show. After playing a show at the Slowdown in Omaha we went out to Amsterdam to eat some late night Doner Kebabs.

I had the spicy garlic with an order of Curry Fries.

This small restaurant is open late to serve the bar crowd. No trip to Omaha is complete without a visit to Amsterdam.

After a stormy night spent in the E-van we drove to Des Moines to play a show with our friends Hurray for the Riff Raff. They were happy to share an apple with me on the street corner.

We had fun playing a show to each other at the brick house in Des Moines. Sunday is Steak Day at the Brick House but unfortunately they do not feed bands. Lucky for us the Asian market next door had wasabi peas and the promise of milk in the future.

Hurray for the Riff Raff played an awesome show despite the thin Sunday crowd. Today they are doing a Daytrotter session, just a day after Starlight Mints did their daytrodder session. HFTRR just started a 6 week US tour check them out if they come to your town. Hurray For The Riff Raff tour Dates.

Right now the rest of the Evangelicals are in the Mall of America running around having fun, farting in stores and staring at strangers and i am eager to join them. The Ihop employees are starting to wonder why a blue haired FrEAK is sitting in the entry way stealing power next to the cash register. So here is another photo round up to finish out this post.

Tomorrow its off to Madison Wisconsin to see my friend El Tin Fun (download his new album "the golden silence of Tin" for free).

Evangelicals and Starlight Mints Tour Day 1

2009-06-05T11:24:00.005-05:00

Greetings from the road friends! Evangelicals just started tour! This Thursday morning found me eating my favorite Pho waiting to be picked up by the E-Van. I decided to treat myself as I was uncertain about the quality and quantity of my next meal.

The tour has started off right with a Delicious 3 course dinner from the Record Bar in Kansas City. After searching for snacks in the alley behind the venue and finding only a used hair dryer, I decided to order a complementary band meal from the Record Bar

The mixed green salad and and french fries made this meal very filling.

Next to my mothers this was the best meatloaf I had ever eaten. If you ever go to the Record bar order the meatloaf sandwich sans bread. After dinner Josh and I walked around Kansas city and found ourselves at the Tea Drop where a Norman Transplant made us free iced tea drinks. Thanks Lindsey! We played with a cool band from Lawrence called Another Holiday.

www.anotherholidaymusic.com/

Im writing this from Henry's coffee shop in Lawrence Kansas. Thanks Alicia for the coffee and spinach feta Scone.

When in Lawrence go to Henry's and order Alicias creation the Latt-Yay!

Im Attempting to weed out wheat and gluten from my diet. (Im breaking the diet while writing this with the scone. No one is perfect) I think I may have an allergy to one or both of these things Goodbye to beer whiskey, and my personal favorite Carrot Shooters.

If anyone has this allergy or info on how to live with it I would be grateful for any advise.

Ive been a bit lazy keeping track of the dumpster meals ive been eating. Here is a photo recap of some trashcan cooking and fine dining from recent weeks.

Were headed to Tulsa tonight stay tuned for tour updates.
Josh made a funny video for the tour check it out.

Until next time.

Happy Dumpster Birthday (Part 1)

2009-05-29T15:44:00.010-05:00

It has been a few weeks. There are a few reasons for my blog procrastination. I have been in Norman feverishly working on new tracks for Evangelicals.

I have also been selling some dumpster items on eBay Including Crest white strips and a couple DVDs.

Most recently I went on an epic excursion to get food for my birthday cookout. Thank you to all who came. It really means a lot to me that my friends and peers support my dumpster lifestyle. The day was perfect. Josh and Sarah brought me an awesome Oscar the Grouch theme cake, We drank beer and grilled in the back yard, I went to a bar with my brother, and the evening was topped off with a trip to Riverwind casino and a waffle house trip with the winnings. Thanks to Brian Chase and Chris from The Ghost of Monkshood for chiping in 5 bucks that turned into 15 later at the Casino. There was a delicious Dumpster stew and salad along with pickles sunflower seeds burger fixings yogurt, and buns from the dumpster. I must confess though that on the occasion of my 26th birthday decided to buy hamburger, hotlinks, and beer. All other food was Donated. Here are some highlights.

The Boys from Depth and Current enjoyed some beers and burgers. Thanks Chris for the Subway and awesome CD release show. I really liked the Chainsaw kittens song.

Thanks Sarah for the cake and 72 slices of American Cheese

The lovely hostesses overlook the party.

Dumpster fixins.

Thanks Alicia for the Grapefruit, and Nicolas for the cool watercolor picture!!

Yang takes a brief break from eating the hotlink I dropped on the ground.

Dibs on the rock!! It actually keeps the cooking surface level. I found the grill on a street corner in Edmond.

I cant believe people showed up thanks for the Herbs Sarah and for loaning me your sweater Margaret. I'm still wearing it by the way.

I wish to find cash in stead of pornography in Dumpsters!

Extra special thanks to Josh for taking all the photos and helping get the word out about the freegan cook out. You made it a very memorable 26th birthday. Also thanks to Kyle for helping me get a great deal on the 96 beers that were consumed. Thanks also to La brooka for the awesome pants and shirt combo. Thank you ladies of linn for the awesome party space and all you did. I hope I didn't forget anyone.
I'm leaving for tour in a week. Tonight I go out to gather provisions for the road. In the coming weeks my resourcefulness will be tested as I travel around the country with a $0 food budget. Here is a link to our tour schedule at DeadOceans.com
If you have a chance give some of the other bands on this site a listen. Until next time...

A Beginners Guide to Dumpster Diving

2009-05-12T07:20:00.004-05:00

A couple folks have expressed interest in going dumpstering with me after reading my blog. I welcome company but I usually go out on short notice at weird hours. This morning I left at 5:20 am. Message me and lets make a dumpster date. Since that probably wont happen I have prepared answers to some FAQ's to share with those interested in the lifestyle.

Toddy J where Do you go to get all this stuff?

The best places to go are grocery stores that have Dumpsters

Open a door or flip a lid, but try to be quick and quiet.
Avoid places that have trash compactors that look like this you will find nothing useful here.

*Places you wont find food are Wal Mart, Target, Buy for less.
*Try smaller places

*Make it a habit to look behind your local grocery stores to see what kind of trash system they use. If they have open trash bins get yourself ready to hop in!

Wont eating trash make me sick?

*I have been eating trash for over a year now and have never once been sick from it.

Do I Actually have to get inside the Dumpster!?

You may be lucky and find a dumpster bursting with food that you can reach from outside but quite often you will find better and more stuff if you climb in and start digging.

* There are a few important rules to follow.
1. Dont take any food that is sitting in dumpster juice
2. Inspect each item for visible rott, moisture, mold and bad tears in packaging.
(if stuff is dented or ripped its usually still good)
3. Always wash questionable items, like things next to meat.
4. Sometimes it pays do dig deep and rip open a few bags.

Shot of a full dumpster, too bad I was on a bike

When is the best time to go?

*I find its safest Late at night. Like a couple hours before dawn very few people are out at this time. since October Ive only been caught in the act once by some nosy store manager at Homeland. He threatened to call the cops but that's all. Before that I would go in broad daylight all the time. Just after a store closes is a good time to go also.

*Go on the day before trash pickup or anytime after a power outage other than that just feel it out with each location. I'm still trying to figure this one out.

What else should I know about dumpster diving?

*Have fun with it make it a group activity.
Two or three people is good.One person sorting inside the dumpster, one outside taking food to the vehicle and one in the drivers seat keeping look out is ideal. It also helps to have multiple people to sort and wash the food when the trip is complete.

* If you have time be adventurous and look in non food dumpsters like hobby stores pet stores etc. You never know what you will find. I know people who have paid rent with stuff they sold out of a dumpster

*Don't get discouraged you may find 3 empty dumpsters before finding an awesome one.
*take a flashlight, gloves, and old clothes.
*Don't leave the area a mess around the dumpster if you make one. Close the door when your done. We don't want places to start installing security cameras or putting better locks on their dumpsters. Keep a low profile if possible.

ToddyJ what if I'm hungry NOW!?

Relax, chances are your neighborhood has a variety of fast dumpster food options. Here is a guide to reliable fast food for freegans on the go.

Pizza

I have had good luck at Little Ceasars, Mazios, and dominoes. Look for cardboard pizza boxes.

Donuts (always a sure snack)

Photo taken after grabing 2 donuts on way to OKC arts fest.
*Try Dunkin Doughnuts, Krispy Kreme, or any other doughnut shop. I have never come up empty handed at one.

Bread Shops

*Panera bread has bagels and bread sometimes

Kentucky fried chicken.
They always have chicken.
(always give meat and dairy the smell test)
And Last, always share the wealth. Some have said America throws out enough to feed the ones who starve. From my experience I believe it.

Bands I'm listening to:
Agoraphobic Nosebleed
Wye Oak
Pomegranates
Aurthur Russel

Crackers, Cookies, Donuts, Produce, and Pornograpy

2009-04-13T20:57:00.007-05:00

(This blog may not be suitable for younger readers)

On a whim I stopped at a dumpster that has never yielded anything useful. What was there I have never seen before. It was snack heaven. Trembling with delight I jumped into the dumpster and frantically gathered arm-fulls of crackers, cookies, and cheeze-its. It was broad daylight, I remember some kids on the way home from school stopping to point and laugh. There was no time to care. My truck was running and I didnt want to get caught.
Here is an estimate of what I found:
8 boxes of Cheese-its (white cheddar and sponge bob shaped)
10 boxes of Zesta saltine crackers
6 boxes of Club crackers
4 Boxes of Honey Graham crackers
6 packages of assorted Keebler Cookies
8 boxes of Yogos fruit and yogert rolls
4 boxes of Rice Crispy Treats

In all 5 large cardboard boxes were filled with snacks and was on my way. My friend Chris from The Grammarians came back with me and helped load the truck.
The exceptional thing about this score is that the packages on top of the pile, were un-opened and newly expired. Some of my friends who normally find dumpstered food revolting were quite excited to take some of these snacks home.

Pictured above is my fellow dumpster warrior Levi. We always share what we find with each other and our friends and neighbors.

A couple of days later a refrigerator at our friends gas station broke. Making us the beneficiaries of several packages of BBQ Burritos, Turkey Corn Dogs, Jalapeno poppers, and Egg rolls. After working a stage hand gig, Levi and I returned home to feast on BBQ Burritos and left over Wedge Pizza.

This food is just as good out of a toaster as from a deep fryer, in my opinion.

Since the last post I've managed to eat every meal for free. Lucky dumpster scores, and generous friends and family have kept me well fed. My room mate Megan and I went on a dumpster run last week and came home with enough food to last up to now. The abundance of food lately has made keeping a detailed log time consuming and difficult. From now on "Eating America" will be less daily food log, and more to a guide to how I live as a freegan.
Here's some of what we found.

Fresh Produce, Bread, Home made Lasagna, red potatoes, and Oklahoma Cheese (a little moldy)

Krispy Creme Doughnuts!!!!! all we could carry.

We could have made off with more if not for a stupid Rent-A-Cop.

On this night like any other night we came up empty handed in some of the dumpsters we jumped in. However in one foodless dumpster fortune smiled upon Megan and I. We found a trashbag full of Porno DVDs

25 Bondage DVDs to be exact. Someone thought that their secret was going away for good. My apologies to whoever threw this smut out. Bondage isnt really my thing. If anyone out there is interested in adding these videos to their collection shoot me an email to let me know. They are previously viewed but in pretty good shape. One had a price tag of 39.99 on it. I cant believe someone threw them out. Titles include Doing Chyna (From the WWF), Sweet Surrender, and Big Tits in Bondage.

Food Highlights from the past 2 weeks:

These are potatoes I used to make Mashed potatoes for my friend Davids cook out. Thanks David, the 7 different meats were badass.

Brian and Carissa's Home made Oreo Cookie ice cream.

A Vegetable stew I made. I forgot the recipe

April has been generous so far. Thanks to Brian, Nikolas, and his mother for filling me with ham and beer on Easter Sunday.

I don't know what it is but everywhere I turned this Easter there was swine. Whats up with that? Can some one tell me why ham is the thing on Easter? I have no idea.

Until next time This is ToddyJ saying "One mans garbage is my food."

P.S.

If anyone has pictures of the Kite Flying Robot show last Tuesday can you send them to me?

Allergy Scares and Dumpster scores

2009-03-31T08:42:00.003-05:00

It was the last Friday in March and lunch had worn off. I began searching the kitchen for something quick and tasty. I had some rice left over from the lunch I made for Nicolas and myself.

It was some Thai style vegitables with coconut milk. I guess the coconut milk is the only thing "Thai" about it. I just used the usual stir fry ingredients from my last post.

Lunch turned out great but now it was dinner time, and my plan was to mix a can of 5 bean soup with the leftover rice. A close friend of mine had gone on a dumpster mission the night before and came home with an epic score. Probably 10 boxes of food. She was generous and let me fill up 3 shopping bags, which has been the majority of my diet since last Thursday. Here is what I got
:

Produce

Roma Tomatoes (8pack)
Bell peppers (3pack)
Fresh green beans
whole mushrooms
Aspagagus
Eggplant
Mango
Garlic
Lemon/Lime

Staples

Cheese
Butter (2 sticks)
Loaf of bread (not dairy)
3 Yogurt Cups
50 DVD-Rs( yeah I know thats not food but its still awesome I cant believe these were thrown out. Its a brand new pack the plastic is just ripped a bit.)
Fish Oil Suppliment. (Also not really food but just what I needed, Ive started taking these to see if they will help with dry skin.)

Dry Goods<

Oranic Lime Tortilia Chips
6 pack of Boisenberry Spritzers (100% Juice Hooray for no Corn Syrup)
and 4 cans of Various organic Bean soups (or so I thought.)

Ok I was telling a story about making beans and rice. I grabbed a can of what I thought was 5 bean soup from my cabnet. You see, the label had come off of the can when I washed it the previous night. After opening the mystery can I found lamb and rice wet dog food. I though I had looked before washing the label off the cans. Horrified I grabbed another can with no label and found the 5 bean soup. Unfortunately one of the 5 beans were garbanzos which I am allergic to. After picking them out one by one I ate my pot of beans and rice. I dont know if there is a lesson here other than carefully read the label.
I had another allergy mishap this week when I eagerly dove into a package of eggrolls that were made with ground peanuts instead of pork.

I drank a shot of vinegar and took a benadryl which helped with the irritation of my throat. Lucky for me I'm not deathly allergic to peanuts, and had only eaten 1/2 of an eggroll before realizing it was made with peanuts.
All of that happened in a 24 hour period last Friday. Other than that slight misfortune It has been a great week of food and eating.
Saturday:
Nicolas and Megan asked me to go to breakfast at Jeff's Country Cafe this morning. Being tired and broke i opted for making my own breakfast.

Hashbrowns with bell peppers tomatoes and garlic and toast with almond butter.

The next meal was in the evening I made a pasta sauce with eggplant, 3 roma tomatoes, spinach, fresh garlic, and one can of tomato paste. This sauce was enough to feed my room mate and I.

Saturday evening I played Trivial Prisuit-drinking game style with my room mates. The rules are simple go in a circle and ask the person across from you each question on a card. For each question they get right you take a drink for each question they miss you take a drink. It gets more fun as the game goes on. After a couple hours of this we all agreed it was time for a pie from Pizza palace.

Nicolas and I ate pizza palace around 2:30am. Its the best pizza place open all night that ive found in OKC.

Sunday 3-29-09
Toast with almond butter and molassas

Sonic Food: Sonic burger with tots, Rt 44 Dr Pepper, Jalepeno poppers, french fries, oninon rings.

Thank you to my grandmother Nan for all the free Sonic food. My father and I visited her this day to watch the OU v. NC game, quite depressing loss for OU.

Pastrami Sandwich with tomato pepper jack mozerella, and an egg.

thanks David for the awesome free dinner.

Late night:
Megans Delicious white bean and garlic soup.

Monday morning

8:00 am
Hashbrowns and almond butter toast with yogurt.

Lunch Turkey sandwiches with soy cheese red bell peppers and organic corn chips

dinner:

Pork chops asparagus kim chi, rice, and fresh salad. Thank you Shannon and Shana for making this awesome dinner. Chris the steak you made was delicious also.

This was a great week of eating. I still have a lot of dumpstered food from my friends. Today I stopped at a grocery store on the way to pick up a friend and holy shit what did i find........

Cabbage and Potatoes and Big Budget Shows

2009-03-27T00:34:00.006-05:00

Ive been home from SXSW for 4 days now. I had a photo shoot with Evangelicals, recorded some tracks for Brother Gruesome, got to see Lil Wayne up close, and worked a Broadway show, and told "The Skunking Story" to a lot of people.
A lot of the food I have right now is stuff left over from my last dumpster trip before going to Austin. Mostly tomatoes, red/yellow potatoes, cabbage, carrots, zucchini, garlic and rice. For three days I've been experimenting with various recipes using these ingredients. After trial and error i think i have a combination worth sharing. Its definately time to get some more food. Although cabbage and potatoes are delicious, it has lost its luster after 3 days.
Potato and Cabbage Meal or (Todds Irish Stir fry-thanks for the name Levi)

A plus to this dish is that its delicious and the ingredients are extremely cheap.

Serves 1 very hungry person

1 small red potato sliced thin
3 Roma tomatoes quartered or 15 cherry toms cut in half
1/4 head of cabbage
1/2 zucchini sliced thin
3 carrots sliced thin
1/2 cup of rice
2-3 cloves of garlic minced
(You should however, have a solid stock of these spices,you may have to borrow or purchase from a store.)
1-2 tablespoons vegetable oil
soy sauce 1 tablespoon maybe more
dark molasses
4-5 cap fulls apple cider vinegar
Cayenne pepper to taste

Preparation:
start cooking the rice. while its cooking cut up all the vegetables. Heat up oil in a pan, cast iron if you have it. I love cooking in cast iron my new room mates have one and its seriously the only pan I like to cook in. When its hot throw in vegetables stir while adding the spices and garlic. I like to add the garlic last so its flavor is still strong. Cook it all together on med heat for about 15 min.

I ate three variations on this dish so far this week and found this combination of spices to taste the best.

On Wednesday my totally awesome roommate Megan made an awesome stew with carrots, tomatoes, green, beans, corn, and tiny little star shaped noodles. The spices seemed to have an Italian flare.

I had two helpings of this dish, one Wednesday night and one Thursday morning for breakfast. I started to feel guilty when I realized I ate more of it than both of my roommates.

Wednesday morning my friend David invited me over to make and eat breakfast at his place. He has a well stocked fridge and pantry. I made bagel sandwiches for us both.

cowboy coffee made from some crappy, but free, 1/2 the caff Folgers.

The fix ins.

The finished product.

Monday: Lil Wayne show.

Breakfast 6:30am - One apple, a corn Pancake, two-three cups of coffee and two packaged
raisin danishes at the Cox Center.

I hung lights for the lil Wayne show. The highlight was during the load out when I was picked to follow lil Weezay from the stage to his tour bus carrying some of his bags. His dreads are awesome and he is shorter than me, but incredibly buff.

Lunch 12:00pm - Catered food from the stage hand job. This was the best meal I had eaten in the week since leaving for SXSW.

Dinner 8:30pm - Irish stir fry. (See Above)

Here are some of the Delicious snacks I ate this week:

Sardines in tomato sauce Tue 2:30am:(thanks Levi)

Bagel and creme cheese with orange, banana, and green apple:(Thursday on my work break at the Dirty Rotten Scoundrels Broadway show with Levi)

What I have listened to this week.
Early Beat (live at the Hilo)
Lil Wayne
New Secretly Canadian releases

SXSW Recap (or how I learned to make a noodle sandwich)

2009-03-24T18:23:00.010-05:00

Where do I start. Taking stock of the past week is quite difficult. I saw more bands than I can remember, was given more free booze than I could drink, and had the most erratic and unhealthy diet in recent memory. That said however, I managed to survive for 6 days at SXSW without paying for a single meal, with a couple exceptions. Evangelicals played seven shows over six days in Austin. We had a much needed day off on Tuesday to recover from the skunk attack that happened in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. Our busy schedule affected what and how I ate this week. With all that said, I give you SXWS 2009 as experienced by Toddy J.

After a sleepless Sunday night in Norman, fueled by an early morning Waffle House breakfast we set off to Mohawk in Austin to play what would be our biggest show of the week. Eating nothing on the 7 hour drive Josh and I began wondering the streets in search of free stuff.
We soon found some free Wild cherry Dr. Pepper on 6th street.

Then we met up with Our friends from Dead Oceans for a delicious meal at the Iron Cactus. I had a ton of chips and guacamole and a bowl of tortillia Soup. (picture lost in the madness) Thanks again Phil for the awesome meal. It would be my last dinner out for the remainder of SX. What follows is a photographic record of the weeks food. I would take the time to create a detailed time line outlining each day of the festival and each show, but im not trying to write a novel, and honestly I cant remember when or where I was when eating some of this stuff. The photos are however mostly in chronological order.

4 Packages of instant oatmeal (assorted flavors)Juice and coffee and coffee Tuesday Mar 17th after de-skunking. I suplimented this with snacks from the van. until Wednesday.
Below is a picture from outside the Super 8 hours after the Skunking

Dickies lounge snacks fresh fruit chips salsa, and pigs in the blanket.

I also made off with all the free Dickies clothing I could carry. We made two visits to the Dickies lounge last week where we enjoyed free beer and cocktails free food and clothes.

Thank you Matt Fowler and Ninelle for the Delicious late night drunk slice of pizza.

This was the scene at the After The Jump Pizza party when we showed up. Believe me I was sad too. After I saw there was no more pizza I went to the van to drown my sorrow in an over sized jar of pickles and a noodle sandwich.

Noodle Sandwich- Ingredients: slice of white bread, one can of condensed chicken noodle soup. Preparation: remove slice of bread from bag being careful to avoid the heel, unless you like eating the heel of the loaf in which case go for it! Remove lid from chicken noodle soup (this part is important) drink off about half the juice before dumping noodles on the bread. dump about 1/3 to 1/2 half of the noodles on to the bread at a time depending on the size of your mouth. Repeat this procedure until your hunger pains are satisfied. Tip- try adding some tabasco sauce if you have a spicy personality.

I ate this toaster pastry after our show with Women and Arizona. Two bands worth checking out.

Two family sized boxes of macaroni and cheese mixed with a can of tuna is more than enough to feed a four piece band. The Previous four pictures represent the corner stone of my diet while at SXSW this year. Thank you Josh for getting this stuff before we left. Without I would have no doubt spent a lot of cash needlessly on expensive food vendors.

Aside from the Dickies lounge and our semi skunked snack box in the E-van There was one other sanctuary from the madness of SXSW. It was Blakes Parents house. A place known and loved by many Oklahoma travelers over the years. Blakes Stepmother Beverly and his dad Joe are always welcoming us with food, blankets and pillows, showers and whatever else we may need. This year I found out that Beverly has her own Karioke Catalog with over 3000 songs.

Here are some of the things I ate there.

A delicious turkey sandwich with coffee and Frito's with bean dip and salsa.

Cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

I cant tell what this is, but I ate it and I'm sure it was delicious.

That's about it for eating SXSW. Overall food was at times scarce and rarely wholesome. There was enough though to propel me to 6am most nights. I snuck into some exclusive party's got a lot of free drinks and mooched off my friends enough to where I only spent 25 dollars. Josh and I made a 4am trip to Whataburger and I paid for us both to repay him for all the coffee he has bought me at The Earth and Cafe Plad the last couple months. If you'd like to see more pictures of the shows we played check out my Facebook or search Evangelicals on Flikr. This link has a lot of our pictures from SXSW on it mixed in with a few pictures of random churches.

Here are some Links to bands I saw this Year, all worth checking out in my opinion.

Hurray for the Riff Raff

Prince Rama of Ahodhya

What Listened to while creating this post.

Swan Lake, Mt. St Helen's Vietnam Band, These are Powers

Thank you Tom, Dawn, Phil, Chris, Jon, Matt, Beverly, Joe, Blake, Kyle, Josh, and Austin for an awesome week.

Until next time.

-Toddy J

SXSW Recap (Monday Skunk night)

2009-03-23T00:01:00.004-05:00

Click here to read about what happened Monday night in KylesTourBlog. This was the result. Yes that is me standing in my underware in a Starbucks parking lot at 4am.

I just walked in the door to my house and got to my laptop. I took a ton of photos. I will post a detailed recap of my demented eat and sleep schedule, as well as the bands and people I encountered at SXSW. Right now I can barely form a sentence.

Last Meals before SXSW

2009-03-16T09:16:00.003-05:00

Here it is, Monday morning. Evangelicals are about to embark on a one week journey into the madness of South By Southwest. I have had 4 hours of sleep in the past 48 so im already in the right state of mind. I have made the decision to leave my computer in a safe place here in Oklahoma. I had a premonition that our van might get broken into, or I would be drunk and drop my computer in a gutter or something this week. Expect a SXSW recap post upon my return next week. Here are the final two meals and this weekends urban foraging:

I couldnt sleep sunday night so I hit up the usual places and found:
20 pounds of new potatoes
brussl sprouts
asiago cheeze bread.

Thats one happy sunday morning breakfast.

A few hours ago Josh and I after not sleeping all night went to Waffle house for a fatty 3 egg breakfast. This is my first picture with blue hair. I recomend the locaton on Robinson. They have good service and clean tables.

Happy foraging.

-Toddyj

March Madness

2009-03-14T22:44:00.003-05:00

Thanks Cameron, Diana, and Jim for your comments and suggestions on ways to eat free, and free food culture. I am always open to new ideas and alternate ways to get food or what people think I need more or less of in my diet. Lately I've had a bit too much of this:

I woke up early today and began work on my room. My friend BC, who works at the Omniplex science museum, gave me these panels that have the periodic table of elements painted on them. My room now resembles some kind of an insane asylum.

I ate some more Visailia Grapes and a Sobe Immunity water while working. The work kept me too busy to eat a meal so I had to go to my sound gig hungry.

My job was running sound for a shadow puppet show I helped BC record last week titled "Big Swamp Mermaid." Lucky for me the Plaza District art walk has plenty of good free food and wine.

The plaza district art walk gets my endorsement as the best art walk in OKC. It typically happens the Friday following the Paseo Art Walk, or should I say Stingy Hoity-toity Yuppie walk. The Plaza District is located on NW 16th Street Between McKinley and Indiana. I hope to see you there next month. If you go there be sure to pay a visit to the "Bad Grannys" shop They sell all sorts of granny's attic style clothing, crafts, art, and other cool junk. I got a big jar of old 2" pins/buttons, and a musical instrument for my good friend Peninsula, all for 5 bucks.
Later my roommate Nicolas and I went to the Hilo Club to see some friends and have a drink. The night ended as every Friday should with a Jalapeno Garlic Tomato and Pineapple pizza from my new favorite late nite grub Pizza Palace.

Saturday March 14.
"The Big 12 Ultimate Fan Experience!"

My pizza and beer coma left me only minutes to be at work today. I drank 2 jars of water and left for the Cox convention center to take apart "The Ultimate Fan Experience." Yes the Big 12 college basketball championchip took place in Oklahoma City this year. I work as a stage hand for various concerts, Broadway shows, and conventions that happen downtown. Bricktown was so packed due to he big 12 that I was forced to park at Toby Kieths "I Love This Bar and Grill!" Thats the stupidest fucking name for a restaurant. While running the half mile from there to the convention center I picked up a free beverage from a Big 12 sponsor.

My thirst for sugar and caffeine satisfied it was time to look as busy and do as little as possible. (its a union gig)

On my break we were allowed to help ourselves to some wholesome snacks that were left by our generous sponsors.

Thanks to Kraft foods, Frito Lay, Nestlie, Quaker oats, and Deer Creek water for providing me with the days first meal.

When I got home from work Nicolas had prepared a delicious tomato soup from the excess of tomatoes I dumpsterd from the Aldi in Moore.
I ate 2 cups of soup while boiling some noodles.
The tomato soup ingredients were: fresh tomatoes, fresh garlic, basil, oil, and soy sauce. I mixed it with 1/2 a can of tomato paste to make a sauce for my noodles. It was delicious.

Thanks aunt Suzanne for the noodles you gave me for Christmas. I have found them very useful.

SXSW is 2 days away!!

What I'm listening to:
Final Fantasy- "He poos clouds"
Jeff Buckley- "Sketches for my sweetheart the drunk"

2009-03-13T04:47:00.003-05:00

I just discovered that my spell check application does not recognize dumpstered as a word. This means I have a lot of work to do educating people on the joy of dumpstering. The dictionary on my computer has this definition:

Dumpster Diving - noun
the practice of raiding dumpsters to find discarded items that are still useful, can be recycled, and have value.

Im proud of apple for having such an enlightened perspective on dumpster diving. I would like to take it a step further and say that dumpstering food is actually liberating food that has been wrongly thrown out. It is criminal and quite revealing of our society that we throw out so much food that is completely edible, and that it is a common business practice. Its fucked up that its easier for business to waste tons of good food than to give it to people who can use it. I understand that there is a bottom line. For profit companies cant give away food and expect to turn a profit. It just seems strange that so much waste is built in to the way food is distributed in America.
It is exactly for this reason that I feel compelled to liberate the food I eat from a premature death inside a dumpster. Ok to be fair, it also makes sense for me to eat for free since I have limited income at the moment. I believe however, that this blog will show I am able to eat as well, if not better than folks who have the money to purchase new products from store shelves. The meals I ate today are 98.9% liberated food. (some of the spices were purchased)
Breakfast:

Toasted english muffins with raw organic almond butter and honey, one open faced swiss and tomato muffin, black cherry yogurt, red grapes, and 2 cups of folgers coffee.

The grapes I ate for breakfast today were King Fresh brand from Visalia California. Kyle I was Chillin' Down with those grapes...they were Hella fresh!

This was a late breakfast. My Brother Gruesome band mate Levi came over today and helped me install insulation in my room. We snacked on some grapes. After work was complete we went to his place to eat some BBQ that he had been preparing.

We at it with sauteed potatoes with onion garlic and red bell pepper, fresh sliced tomatoes and toasted bread. Levi made his first ever crock pot meal and it was delicious. He made the BBQ sauce from scratch ( it looks orange but it was the best ive had since Chatanooga TN after the Parenthetical Girls show.) These ribs were seriously delicious, if someone wants the recipe let me know.

If anyone is worried the meat we ate tonight was labeled Sell By March 18th.

Thanks to Oklahoma city area grocery stores for the following ingredients:
Boneless beef ribs, english muffins, small yellow potatoes, red bell peppers, roma tomatoes, red grapes, Soy swiss cheese, raw organic almond butter, Yoplait yogurt, Folgers Coffee

Todays Soundtrack
Leonard Choen - "Songs of Love and Hate"
Black Mountain - various tracks
Bruce Springsteen- "Nebraska"

Wednesday March 11th

2009-03-12T04:01:00.003-05:00

My diet today consisted mainly of beans and rice and left over cheesy bread from Pizza Shuttle. Usually I eat a wide variety of foods in a day, but today was all about sustenance.
I ate beans and rice at 7pm, 3am, and 4am. I realize that those times don't really count as food eaten on Wed March 11th. I will count food eaten in a waking period as food eaten in one day. Lately I have had a bizarre sleep schedule.
These are some of the beans I made today.

I woke up in Norman late today around 3pm. I needed the sleep to help me get over my illness. Josh and i went to Cafe Plaid for coffee. On the drive home from Norman I stopped at a grocery store in Moore and found a bunch of tomatoes, carrots, grapes, and bell peppers. I was inspired to make a salsa when i got home. Here is the recipe:

Todds Fire roasted salsa
4 jalapenos
6 roma tomatoes
1.5 yellow onions
.5 large bell pepper
5 small sweet yellow red orange peppers
4 cloves garlic
the juice of one lime

Thinly coat each ingredient in vegetable oil or butter. and cook over open gas flame on a stove until the vegetables begin to turn black on parts(about 1/4 blackened then cut in halves and put in a blender.) Use the pulse setting so the salsa doesn't become too liquefied. If no gas stove is available substitute a real fire, or just don't fire roast the veggies. If no blender then use a knife.

Yesterday I left out two of the bands I am a part of so here is a complete list with web addresses.

Brother Gruesome
www.myspace.com/brothergruesome
Evangelicals
www.myspace.com/evangelicals
The Grammarians
www.myspace.com/thegrammarians
The Hex
www.myspace.com/thahecks

Check out www.kylestourblog.tumblr.com for info from the last Evangelicals tour as well as my first Eating America web logs.

Today's music:
Smashing Pumpkins- Adore
Say hi- New album
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

Tuesday March 10th

2009-03-11T21:13:00.005-05:00

I hit the garlic hard today, consuming nearly an entire bulb in a 24 hour period. (photo). Total consumption was 3 fresh cloves and 7 cooked. I had a rather vicious chest cold that had to be knocked out.

The readers of this blog probably know me fairly well so I wont spend too much time introducing myself in this first post, but here are a few details. I am a thrifty Indie rocker who loves flavor. I consider myself a freegan. A freegan is someone who believes food, among other things, is a basic human right and should therefore be free. Enough food is thrown away in America to feed everyone who goes hungry. I decided to take advantage of this fact. live in a small shack in NW Oklahoma City. I play in the bands Evangelicals and Brother Gruesome, and The Hex/The Grammarians my weekly food budget is roughly 10 dollars (when i treat myself to a large bowl of pho once a week.) With that out of the way lets get back into what I ate on Tuesday March 10th.

7:00AM
I ate an apple and a frosty delight for breakfast. All washed down with a tea steeper full of coffee and a spoon full of Folgers instant coffee to make a "shot in the Dark"

Haven't heard of Frosty Delights you say? Spend some time in an Aldi Food Store (or their dumpster) and you will. They throw out case after case of these things. I have a scheme to make a lot of money off frosty delights send me a message if your interested in getting in on this with me!
After breakfast it's off to the Cox Convention center to work where I ate a stale glazed doughnut that the local stage hand union was so generous to provide.
(picture removed by TPSO due to incriminating content)

When i got home at 11 am I worked insulating my shed against the coming cold weather.

2:30pm
4 slices of cheese pizza from Dominoes toasted with fresh jalepeno and garlic. This pizza was a costly score because shortly after acquiring it at 4:30 am monday night I wrecked my bike in a construction zone hurting my wrist. I can however still play guitar.
7:00pm.I cooked a bowl of pinto beans and rice with Jalepeno peppers and fresh garlic.

Special thanks to Dylan for giving me that rice last time I was in Norman.

Brian came over to record some bass tracks for Brother Gruesome. We drank coffee with whiskey.

At 1:00am I got a call from Kyle (check out his blog) in Norman telling me that our free Dickies had arrived and it was time to try them on (Thanks Post Hoc for the awesome coveralls!). After trying the clothes and drinking a Coke Zero I found myself eating Pizza and Cheesy bread with Josh and Kyle. That concludes the day. The coming week will find Evangelicals at SXSW. I will be eating free for a week. I plan on carrying a backpack and loading up on every grub spot I come across. I cant wait we are playing with some awesome bands including Women, The Pains of Being Pure at heart, and Abe-Vigoda. Until next time eat free!

Songs I like this week this week:
Bowerbirds - In our talons
Donovan- The magpie
Cass McCombs- "What isnt nature"