St. Patty’s Day Bead Recycling a Success!

Branch Out and the Green Light District teamed up with the ARC of Greater New Orleans again this St. Patrick’s Day to help them collect beads and other throws for their recycling program. The ARC dropped off colorful bins and we had them set up for the parade this past Saturday.

Parade goers could donate their throws after the parade in the bins. So thank you to the ARC and to everyone who donated beads to make this St. Patty’s Day Recycling another success!

For the Men:

The unisex New Orlenas Street Car t-shirt is perfect for a local or as a gift for a visitor. The tee features the street car map with all the local stops labeled. Available for women too!

The  men’s Sworty shoe is a great all purpose casual shoe. We carry it in both red and navy for men and navy for women as it’s a unisex shoe!

For the Women:

The Darling Dress is the perfect dress for Valentine’s Day! The flattering cut and color works on anyone and would be so cute dressed up with some hot pink pumps and pouty red lip!

We also just love the Morgan sunglass for the ladies. The glamourous slightly over sized shape is perfect for any stylish gal and they come in tortise or black!

Hope you all have a great February!  

Make your own King Cake this year and skip all the disposable packaging and preservatives that come with store bought. Plus you can involve the kids and impress your friends!

Ingredients

• 1 (16-ounce) container sour cream
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 (1/4-ounce) envelopes active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup warm water (100° to 110°)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 6 to 6 1/2 cups bread flour*
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• Creamy Glaze*
• Purple-, green-, and gold-tinted sparkling sugar sprinkles

Preparation

1. Cook first 4 ingredients in a medium saucepan over low heat, stirring often, until butter melts. Set aside, and cool mixture to 100° to 110°.
2. Stir together yeast, 1/2 cup warm water, and 1 tablespoon sugar in a 1-cup glass measuring cup; let stand 5 minutes.
3. Beat sour cream mixture, yeast mixture, eggs, and 2 cups flour at medium speed with a heavy-duty electric stand mixer until smooth. Reduce speed to low, and gradually add enough remaining flour (4 to 4 1/2 cups) until a soft dough forms.
4. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes). Place in a well-greased bowl, turning to grease top.
5. Cover and let rise in a warm place (85°), free from drafts, 1 hour or until dough is doubled in bulk.
6. Punch down dough, and divide in half. Roll each portion into a 22- x 12-inch rectangle. Spread 1/3 cup softened butter evenly on each rectangle, leaving a 1-inch border. Stir together 1/2 cup sugar and cinnamon, and sprinkle evenly over butter on each rectangle.
7. Roll up each dough rectangle, jelly-roll fashion, starting at 1 long side. Place one dough roll, seam side down, on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bring ends of roll together to form an oval ring, moistening and pinching edges together to seal. Repeat with second dough roll.
8. Cover and let rise in a warm place (85°), free from drafts, 20 to 30 minutes or until doubled in bulk.
9. Bake at 375° for 14 to 16 minutes or until golden. Slightly cool cakes on pans on wire racks (about 10 minutes). Drizzle Creamy Glaze evenly over warm cakes; sprinkle with colored sugars, alternating colors and forming bands. Let cool completely.
10. Cream Cheese-Filled King Cake: Prepare each 22- x 12-inch dough rectangle as directed. Omit 1/3 cup softened butter and 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon. Increase 1/2 cup sugar to 3/4 cup sugar. Beat 3/4 cup sugar; 2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened; 1 large egg; and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Spread cream cheese mixture evenly on each dough rectangle, leaving 1-inch borders. Proceed with recipe as directed.
11. *6 to 6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour may be substituted.

This recipe uses bread flour, which makes for a light, airy cake. You still get tasty results with all-purpose flour–the cake will just be more dense.

Recipe Originally posted here.

*Creamy Glaze

Ingredients

• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 to 4 tablespoons milk

Preparation

1. Stir together first 4 ingredients. Stir in 2 tablespoons milk, adding additional milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, until spreading consistency.

Every Tuesday you can head down to 200 Broadway for the Crescent City Farmers Market to find fresh fruits and vegetables, locally made cheeses, and local meats and seafood. You’ll also find the Green Plate Special, a fresh, affordable plate lunch that showcases the local, seasonal ingredients available at the CCFM from a local chef.

The CCFM also offers a recipe-of-the-week that uses fresh, seasonal ingredients that you can find that week at the market.  So courtesy of the Crescent City Farmers Market,

Grandpa’s Sicilian Eggplant

Branch Out is a proud member of StayLocal.org. Stay Local  is a city-wide initiative for creating strong economies based on locally owned and operated businesses. We encourage consumers to shop locally and help independent businesses compete more effectively.

Stay Local had a great list of the Top 10 Reasons to shop local so I thought I’d share them with you here. But be sure to visit their site to check out other local businesses in the New Orleans area and check out all the great information they have about how you can shop local.

1. Protect Local Character and Prosperity

New Orleans is unlike any other city in the world. By choosing to support locally owned businesses, you help maintain New Orleans’ diversity and distinctive flavor.

2. Community Well-Being

Locally owned businesses build strong neighborhoods by sustaining communities, linking neighbors, and by contributing more to local causes.

3. Local Decision Making

Local ownership means that important decisions are made locally by people who live in the community and who will feel the impacts of those decisions.

4. Keeping Dollars in the Local Economy

Your dollars spent in locally-owned businesses have three times the impact on your community as dollars spent at national chains. When shopping locally, you simultaneously create jobs, fund more city services through sales tax, invest in neighborhood improvement and promote community development.

5. Job and Wages

Locally owned businesses create more jobs locally and, in some sectors, provide better wages and benefits than chains do.

6. Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship fuels America’s economic innovation and prosperity, and serves as a key means for families to move out of low-wage jobs and into the middle class.

7. Public Benefits and Costs

Local stores in town centers require comparatively little infrastructure and make more efficient use of public services relative to big box stores and strip shopping malls.

8. Environmental Sustainability

Local stores help to sustain vibrant, compact, walkable town centers-which in turn are essential to reducing sprawl, automobile use, habitat loss, and air and water pollution.

9. Competition

A marketplace of tens of thousands of small businesses is the best way to ensure innovation and low prices over the long-term.

10. Product Diversity

A multitude of small businesses, each selecting products based, not on a national sales plan, but on their own interests and the needs of their local customers, guarantees a much broader range of product choices.

Recycling is now available for free the New Orleans area and all you have to do is sign up!

Just visit http://www.nola.gov/en/RESIDENTS/Department-Of-Sanitation/Curbside-Recycling to sign up.

There are a few restrictions so be sure to check that your residence qualifies. If your residence does not qualify for the free recycling program please look into setting up recycling for a small fee.

Some companies we suggest are Phoenix Recycling or Allied Waste Industries.

So get on board new Orleans and RECYCLE!

Fashion Week  NOLA’s mission is to take fashion beyond the bounds of the industry with verve, imagination, and panache; like no other city can! At the same time giving back to the community through charitable partnerships, such as NO/AIDS Task Force, Dress for Success, Fashion Institute of New Orleans and the New Orleans Firefighters.

The excitement of Mardi Gras can be felt all over. One of the struggles of an eco-conscious New Orleanian is  balancing a love for Carnival with an aversion to the waste that modern day Carnival generates.

Eventually, New Orleans will find a way to balance the wonderful traditions of Mardi Gras and modern environmental concerns. Until then, individuals can take the initiative to reduce their own impact on the environment during Carnival Season. One easy way to do that is to recycle your beads with Arc of Greater New Orleans.

ARC of Greater New Orleans is a 501(c)3 non-profit that has been helping New Orleanians with intellectual disabilities for years. They help both children and adults by providing family services, education, employment, personal care, etc.

One of the ways they fund their essential services is to recycle Mardi Gras beads. Seeing treasure in what others might consider trash, Arc teamed up with the Sierra Club to collect discarded beads after Carnival. Volunteers sort and repackage the donated beads during the off-season. Then the next year, Arc sells the recycled beads back to the Krewes and Clubs to be thrown to adoring parade-goers once again. According to Aurthur Hardy’s 2011 Mardi Gras guide, Arc saved over 300 tons of bead waste from the landfill last year. And they’ll be at it again this year, with increased fan-fare from eco-minded New Orleanians.

So do Mother Nature a favor and make sure to bring a bag with you to the parades to collect discarded beads to be recycled with Arc. Visit Arc of Greater New Orleans’ website or the St. Tammany ARC’s website for donation information.

ASI Federal Credit Union is GREEN! The local community development credit union is hosting a bead drive to benefit Arc of Greater New Orleans. Recycle beads at any of ASI’s 15 branches across the Eastbank, Westbank and North Shore.

It’s that exciting time of year when Thiri and I get to travel to Vegas to go shopping! Once a year, we pack up and head out to the clothing conventions held in Las Vegas. There, we get to meet with all our vendors and designers and see all new products. We also get to scope out any fun new lines we would be great for the store. It’s a lot of work, but it’s still fun!

This year we will be visiting some of our favorites, Vicarious by Nature, She Bible and Threads for Thought. And we have appointments with new comers, M2F, an organic denim line and Voices Republic, an organic t-shirt company. Hopefully they’ll meet Branch Out’s high standards of excellence!

So keep an eye out for all the new products we’ll be getting in for this Spring and next Fall!

xoxo,

Luaren + Thiri

Have a happy and eco-friendly new year!

Also thank you for all your business and support this past year, we couldn’t have done it without you!

Lots of love,

Lauren + Thiri