Missing New Orleans, singing Iko Iko

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One of my favorite songs from New Orleans is the Dixie Cup's Iko Iko! When I was a kid i thought it was amazing, and little did I know that when i was 19 years old i'd have a job at the New Orleans Saenger Theatre, I would be working with two of the singers from the Dixie Cups (Ms. Barbara and Ms Rose)... man did we have a great time on the job, alot of laughing...
I can't sing worth a poop, and I only had sticks to play... and of course Iko Iko totally needs the back ups singers... plus i left out a whole verse.
But oh my gawd, did it feel good to sit in the sun and sing something really familiar to my heart and my culture.
I miss that culture so much... (sorry mountain people, but, New Orleans does it bettah!)

Mirliton: Holding My Own Louisiana Tradition

That funny looking vegetable is called a mirliton (not the kitty, it's called Toots!) Growing up in New Orleans, Louisiana I quickly learned that this was one veggie to be raised high, honored, and cooked especially on major holidays. While the rest of the world concentrated on their thanksgiving turkey or holiday ham, we talked about who was making the shrimp mirliton. We pronounced it all kinds of funny ways like 'mella-tah' or 'merl-ee-taw' but never how it is actually spelled.

Funny thing is, I have no memory of actually eating a mirliton - only hearing about it, like some kind of legend, about as real as unicorns and fairies. So I asked my mom if she would mail me some so that I could try and grow them up here in North Carolina - she was happy to oblige, picking up a few at Whole Foods on Magazine Street in New Orleans. She asked around and some friends told her that in order to grow them, you have to just let them sprout on their own, in a paper bag... kinda like letting potatoes make their tubers (even though a mirliton is a type of squash, like butternuts!) So I have been letting my 4 mirlitons sit... and guess what? Two already started to sprout in a matter of a few weeks!!! YAY! (See pic below)

Go HERE for a traditional Louisiana stuffed mirliton recipe... ( I so wanna alter this recipe and make up my own gluten free/macrobiotic/yummy stuffing!)

"Although most people are familiar only with the fruit, the root, stem, seeds, and leaves are all edible. The fruit does not need to be peeled and can be eaten raw in salads. Cooked or raw, it has a very mild flavor by itself, and is commonly served with seasonings (e.g., salt, butter and pepper in Australia) or in a dish with other vegetables and/or flavorings. It can also be boiled, stuffed, mashed, baked, fried, or pickled in escabeche sauce. Both fruit and seed are rich in amino acids and vitamin C. Fresh green fruit are firm and without brown spots or signs of sprouting. Smaller ones are more tender." -wikiXoXo

Thistle, Crawfish & Pollution

My cousin sent me some pictures from back in the day when I was much MUCH younger. Sometimes I wonder how I got to where I am and if this is what I wished all along... I think about what I loved the most as a child, as a teen, as a 20 something year old -and if you inspect closely you can see that you are probably doing tons of the very thing you always did (maybe generations before you too)... I know I sure as hell am.This first picture made me laugh and so excited. That is me (age 19) on the far right looking like I am about to go to a gothic garden party, maybe even a jazz funeral- I am holding thistle in my hand (my cousin Vanessa Russel is next to me, and my at the time skater boyfriend Reed Elliott is at the other end looking all Nirvana.) Vanessa wrote under the picture "Down on the farm - 1997, I think we looked a little out of our element. Leslie, remember... Paw Paw said to 'get out of them pickens!' You were going to make a thistle salad! LOL Some things never change." We are at my grandfather's crawfish farm in Raceland Louisiana, all big smacking 200 something acres of it. As a child I had two places I loved to go and that was his ginormous farm and the woods in Mandeville Louisiana where my extended family lived.
This old pic above is of my totally 100% cajun crawfish farming grandpaw (paw paw ted) and to the left of him was my ozzy & ac/dc loving bookworm sister Melissa. Once Paw Paw got into his 80's he actually started telling us all about his life & how he ran his farm - even though the man went with the flow of modern society and bought shitty Bunny Bread and lemon pies from the store, he was a unreal good cajun cook who raised his crawfish in a totally ecological environment, before there was "organic farming" or "eco farmed" terms to speak of. While all the other crawfish farmers in Louisiana were throwing their crawfish nasty man made pellets into their ponds for feed, Ted Grabert learned how to make his pond a natural environment by speaking to a man in the LSU agricultural department, then spending a year planting the correct grasses for crawfish to eat and making the swampy eco system a place where they would thrive naturally and not over populate. That's why people all over the world sought out his crawfish & why crawfish boils at his house rocked - he had the biggest, reddest, healthiest tasting crawfish of anyone around!
This is the Pontchartrain Lake. Remember how the big hurricane came & busted the levee that destroyed New Orleans... this is the lake water that poured into the city, and this is the lake where the contaminated (lead, chemicals, gasoline, dead animals, bodies etc...) water was poured back in when they pumped it off the houses. When my mom was growing up they could actually swim in this lake & called it a "beach", by the time I was a born and 12 years old in this picture swimming was not recommended since city sewage and other chems had been dumped into the lake to the point of total destruction. At that age I was told they would clean the lake up and in 10 years they promised we'd be able to swim in it again. ha! In the front of the pic is me in a neon colored Ocean Pacific bikini, my sister Melissa behind me, and my cousin Jessica Quinn behind her. We were fishing in that polluted lake, catching catfish and then throwing them back- while watching the filth, garbage, bottles, cans, litter float all around the dock. The water was dark with a un-natural looking green tint to it and smelled like hell sauce on rotten fish head. It didn't help that it was 98 degrees with 100% humidity - we were sweating our asses off at that fishing camp, at night I slipped in sweat on the pleather sleep sofa like I was on a soapy bathroom floor. Other kids were actually jumping in the lake with inner tubes, but my evolving eco mind was thinking WTF!?! I just said there was no way I was jumping in a lake full of visible garbage and felt sad at what I was seeing, but believed they would really clean it up like they said. Instead people just drove around with bumper stickers on the backs of their cars that said "save the lake", while chucking litter out their car window.

XoXo

DIY: Upcycle & Organic Voodoo Doll

Voodoo by nature is a religious practice that uses alot of upcycled & natural materials laying around. Growing up in New Orleans with a very strong voodoo oriented culture I had the privilege to see beautiful alters, dolls, bottles of dried herbs and handmade candles on a regular basis. These alters & dolls are made from all sorts of found objects, fabrics, beads, etc.. it's an eco crafter's dream come true! I decided to make a few happy voodoo dolls for holiday gifts but made one of me and my kitty Toots first to see how it would work...

Here is how to do it:
You'll need the following supplies: Fabric, cotton or some type of stuffing, needle & thread/sewing machine, scissors, & basic sewing skills. To decorate your doll you can use various found objects like beads, straw, charms, tiny pine cones, bones, sticks, sequins, jewels, etc.

Cut out the shape you'd like your voodoo doll to be. Traditionally the dolls have sticks in the shape of a cross as the skeleton and are wrapped in Spanish Moss for stuffing... but with voodoo it is very much about personal creation and innovation. So here I used organic cotton scrap fabrics and found some organic cotton stuffing.

I cut out several shapes ahead of time... those of you not on good terms with me don't worry about those other two white figures I cut out. ;) No really, those will be gifts for friends... these voodoo dolls are to help with dreams coming true & not for sticking pins in your slimy co-worker or bad in-laws.

Sew around most the edges but leave an open hole to stick the stuffing in. If you don't have Spanish Moss or dried grass you can use some good ole' cotton like me! Once all the stuffing is in, finish sewing up the little hole you used to shove it in there.
Then you can begin basic decorating - for Toots I gave her a colorful smile, golden eyes, and a little kitty charm over her heart. Adding decorations as you obtain more specific dreams and goals to manifest can be done at anytime.

Traditionally a Voodoo Doll is wrapped, so even though with this type of doll wrapping is not necessary I still wrapped it cause... I am unbelievably superstitious.

For my doll I wrapped her (me!) in purple (my favorite color), gave her a healthy red smile, and each eye is made of three clear beads put together (for a symbolic 'third eye' seeing clearly from each real eye.) I added some leg warmers, long dark hair and even tried to make some cute bangs. :) YAY! Me and Toots make some fun voodoo dolls!

When you have a specific dream or idea you would like to be part of your destiny then you add symbolic charms, notes, beads, ANYTHING you want to your doll to represent what you want to happen in your life.

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"The Voodoo doll is not used in Voodoo practices in Haiti, but rather as part of the complicated melting pot of traditions in New Orleans and the Louisiana delta areas. The Louisiana Voodoo practices combine the spiritual elements of Haitian Voodoo with the magical beliefs of Southern United States hoodoo. In the first decades of the 20th century, Voodoo dolls are believed to have been used to cause sympathetic magic on the desired recipient, sometimes in painful ways. The use of pins was not meant to cause pain in a particular area of the real person, but rather to reinforce the spell being cast.
Modern Voodoo dolls are still sold as focal points for spells, but usually with the intention of creating positive effects. Many dolls have specific concentration points for wealth, love and financial success. To use the Voodoo doll, you must call upon the powers of the Loa, spiritual beings somewhat similar to saints in Catholic practices. Spells cast with a Voodoo doll are meant to be spells of love or blessings, rather than revenge or pain. "

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WATCH more about Voodoo in New Orleans HERE.