B-a-n-a-n-a Bread.

Inventory:
3 x Bunches of Bananas
1 x Box of Dinos and Sharks Fruit Snacks
5 x Cans of Orange Soda
22 x Cans of Cola

July 17th, 2009: This was a quick run. We only stopped at a few standbys and called it quits. Neither Kassy, nor I are big soda drinkers but it's really fun giving away the food we find so it's worth taking. Being able to share and contribute food when you see friends is awesome, we've been giving away our candy left and right and everyone has been pretty psyched on it. So as for the bananas, they will be made into an abundance of banana bread that will also be shared. On one final note, we managed to nab a box of energy effcient lightbulbs (the coiled kind). I don't know if you have every tried them but, I would say they're the only kind you should use. I've had the same three in a lamp back home that have been in there since 2004. They work, use 'em. Until next time.

-Brian

Wish Granted

Inventory:
1 x Turkey and Cheese Lunchable
10 oz. Grape Tomatoes
6 x Packaged Bagels
6 x Precious Plum Tomatoes
1 x Plum
11 x Zucchini
17 x White Onions, Yes!
13 x Cans of Chopped Pineapple
10 lb. Potatoes
2 x Bottles of Thousand Island Dressing
1lb. Organic Brown Rice Spaghetti, that I so happened to predict we'd find! I said "I feel like we're going to get pasta" and we did. Stoked. (found at a health food grocer).

Side note: I have everything I need for sandwiches! Rye bread, tomatoes, lettuce and onions. All I have to do is add the lunch meat I bought from the store and I'm set. It's a beautiful thing.

July 16th, 2009: If you want it, you will find it. I've been saying all week "today's the day we get cans" and boy did we get them. There were far more cans of pineapple than you could ever want, but it's cool we love them and cans are really easy to donate! There were also 2 mystery cans (no labels) I'm really curious to find out what's in them, hopefully corn or something. I can't even tell you how many pounds of potatoes we had to abandon. If I had to guess I'd say at least 60 or 70, we just can't eat that many. Not to mention gallons and gallons of milk and pound after pound of ground beef. It's too bad it's not winter (bite my tongue) it would have been kept cold. I'd had my fingers crossed for onions each day and today was the day man, my heart jumped when I saw 3 full bags. Just the other day I paid for a bag and I felt so ripped off, it was a bag of like 5 maybe and it was like $4. They weren't even all that great. Now we have 17 for $0. Thank you and goodnight.

-Brian

About those 36 kiwis...

They were perfect.
-Kassy

Simple Vegan Pizza - No Rise Dough!

First, acquire some tasty vegetables from your nearest waste boss. For this recipe I'm using the mushrooms and peppers we found aplenty.

Slice them and fry them in a pan until they’re cooked to your liking. They’ll toast more in the oven when you top the pizza with them, so don’t go too crazy.

Now for the fun part. To make a simple, no rise dough, I use this recipe:

- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 package active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp. if you buy it in bulk)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon white sugar
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 cup warm water (I put mine in a small pot on the stove for about 5 minutes.)

Mix the flour, yeast, salt, and sugar in a large bowl.

Add the vegetable oil and warm water, and combine all ingredients until you have a dough like consistency that can be formed into a ball. If the dough is too wet, sprinkle in a bit of flour. If it’s too dry, do the same with water.

Spread your dough out on a barely oiled cookie sheet (or a pizza pan, if you have one). Add your favorite tomato sauce and toppings (I use a combination of vegan Follow Your Heart Monterey Jack and FYH Mozzarella cheeses) - don‘t forget your garbage veggies! Cook on 350 degrees for about 15 minutes.

This is the perfect way to use any vegetables you’d normally shy away from. A little improvisation and trash is way too tasty to turn down!

-Kassy

Candied Island

Inventory:
2 x Bags of Ice pops! Perfect timing for summer
14 x Cans of Orange soda and Ginger Ale
10lbs. Red Potatoes (the only thing not junk food found hah)
1 x Half dozen Red Roses for my dearest

And not to mention all the candy in the world including -
Reese's pieces
Nerds and lots of them, along with nerds rope
Mentos
Orbit Gum
Snickers
Now and Later
Mike and Ike
Tic-Tacs
Sugar Babies
Dots
Icebreakers
Jelly Belly Jelly Beans
and on and on and on. Two milk crates in our kitchen are now full of candy. One for the good stuff, the other for gum and mints.

July 13th, 2009: Old faithful had run dry. We knew we were bound to have an off day. A man was walking away with two full grocery bags as we rolled up. This is great though, sharing is key! It's easy to take much more than you actually need because, well, it's just garbage! Kassy and I took this opportunity to cover uncharted territory for ourselves (approximately 6 miles away). Oh, how sweet it was. Literally. More candy than you could ever want. It's just disgusting. It's as sad as it is exhilarating. You know there are hundreds and hundreds of other dumpsters just like this one out there, everywhere. All you can do is gather whatever there is and share it! You can file this under Jackpot.

-Brian

Welcome to Candied Island!

Zucchini Dish

Neither Kassy nor I are big fans of Zucchini, but god damn was this good. A very simple, and satisfying recipe. First creep around until you find an onion, several zucchini, some chick peas, and some tomatoes (diced in a can works). Sautee your onions and garlic (garlic optional) in some olive oil, butter or what have you, until slightly brown. Next, depending on how much you plan on making, either add all of the following ingredients to the pan or a pot (if you have more mouths to feed). I used all 8 of our discarded Zucchini, 3 cans of diced tomatoes, 1 can of Garbonzo beans, and 1white onion. Let it stew for about 20 minutes give or take and you have yourself one tasty dish. Drain any excess liquid if desired, I find I like mine less juicy. Top with any kind of cheese if you got it! You'll thank me later. Edit: this is something my mother used to cook all the time, I was never able to appreciate it as a kid. So thanks mom.

-Brian

P.S. It was a hit, I loved making it, and we fed others with what would have been waste. Oh, delicious victory.

Is That a Cop?

Inventory:
3 x Boxes of Cherries
4 x Cucumbers (like we didn't already have enough) Sharing time!
1 x Head of Iceberg Lettuce
2 lbs. Grapes
1 x Box of Cranberry Oatmeal Cookie (deliciousness)
1 x Lemon (hooray for lemon water)
2 lbs. Strawberries
1 x Loaf of Rye Bread
36 x Kiwis (This was after we gave away 3 boxes or 18 kiwis)
A buttload of Mott's Fruit Snacks
1 x Bag of Prime Rib cut Jack Link's jerky. God they were so good I ate the whole bag between stops. Highly recommended.

July 11th, 2009: A routine has been struck. Suit up, roll out, victory! We were immediately dumbfounded by the quantity of fruit. It was good to eat, as always, and we took it all. A car pulls up...Kassy ducks, we had a good laugh about this afterwards. Like would it seriously have made a difference? It looks just like a police interceptor. The day before we noticed a cop lurking in the front of the parking lot and thought "shit". Out of the car comes two people, probably the exact same age as us asking if there was "anything good?" They apologized for startling us and just joined right in with the gathering. We showed each other some good finds, loaded each of our boxes, and traded some of our prized fruits, Kiwis to be exact. It's extremely easy to be generous in this situation, as you could probably imagine. After some brief small talk, we thanked our new like-minded friends and off we went. What a relief, they were just other creeps in the night like us. Mind you, this was at about 2:00 A.M. pretty crazy stuff.

Day four and we've already made friends. Nothing but good things.

-Brian

A Fucking Mango

Inventory:
4 x Boxes of Frosty Delights (think knock-off Hostess Cakes)
1 x Bag of Nilla Waffers
1 x Mango
1 x Turkey and Cheese Lunchable
9 x Cucumbers

We made a basic salad out of the lettuce from day one and the cucumbers from day three, nothing crazy but it hit the spot and I combined food from different days. How sweet it is.

July 10th, 2009: After two days in a row of amazing finds we thought "there's no way we could get this much variety each day". Wrong. A Mango, a fucking mango at our new "old faithful" spot. I don't know about you, but I don't typically eat tropical fruits. In just a matter of 3 days our diets had gone from mundane to vibrant. Such a backwards concept. If you'd like to eat better or maybe say, more varied, dig through some trash and you'll come out on top. Now that we have made a few trips to the same places, we begin to notice more. There is meat...if you dare. I've found Philly Cheese Steaks, 10 lbs. of ground beef (sealed), and hamburger patties. I'm not quite brave enough for ground beef that has been out in the summer heat, so I'll pass for now. Lots of cheddar cheese blocks too, but as before I passed. When I saw the cucumbers in their plastic wrap I couldn't resist, they smelled so good I was thinking "cucumber salad". And who doesn't love Nilla waffers? Am I right? Right before we made our exit Kassondra salvaged me a lonely lunchable that had lost it's box. It made for a great snack on the way home. We can hardly wait to see what the future holds.

-Brian

There's More Than Just Food in Here!

Inventory:
1 x Cantaloupe
1 x Box of Blueberries
1 x Box of M&M Cookies
2 x Bottles of BBQ Sauce
1 x Can of Tuna Fish
2 x Heads of Iceberg Lettuce
8 x Zucchini
6 x Cheddar and Broccoli Rice (Went great with my chicken strips)
1 x Alfredo Noodles
16 x Hamburger buns
10 oz. Mushrooms (Again!)
10 lb. Potatoes
5 lb. Baby Potatoes

At this point, if we supplement what we have with a few ingredients we could make some pretty amazing dishes. It's only day two!

July 9th, 2009: Curious as to weather or not lightning would strike twice for us we ventured with fingers crossed. Just as we approached our first destination I say over my shoulder "I could go for some rice". Beneath the first lid there was no rice, simply beautiful produce. Our eyes lit up as we looked at each other and then back down to the mound of good food! We couldn't help but shout out suggestions for future meals, it was all too exciting. Our arms laden with vegetables and treats we moved out to finish our circuit. Day one yielded only one successful site, but not today...everything was filled. The first thing I see at stop number two: RICE! And lots of it! I was beaming. At this point I didn't even care what else was out there, the feeling of wanting something and getting it, knowing it was being discarded was sensational. Our last creep on the way home was perfect. Nothing but a box of M&M cookies. A perfect ending to our sophomore effort.

-Brian

So This is What "Garbage" Looks Like

Inventory:
8 x Pears
4 x Cucumbers
4 x Fruit cocktails
1 x Instant Croissant
5 lb. Sugar
10 x Green Peppers
20 oz. Mushrooms

Maybe not a square meal, but certainly a substantial amount of food. One final note, this was all found in one location! Go figure, we tried about 6.
July 8th, 2009 begin: we set out armed with nothing more than one flashlight each, a multi-tool, and our best sneakers. Just to test the waters, we checked several local dumpsters, all within an estimated 3 miles of our home. All locations we creep will remain anonymous, as to avoid any unwanted mess-makers, attention, and encourage your personal exploration! Not knowing what would be around the corner we were shocked by the "success" of our first team effort. Success, meaning the acquisition of anything useful or edible. Anything edible we decide to take home is either sealed, in some kind of package, or virtually unscathed. We can only hope we are this successful in all of our attempts!

-Brian

Our Journey Begins

Lets start with a brief introduction: We are Brian and Kassy, a true pair you might say. We are adventurers at heart. One of us is a lady vegan and the other is the exact opposite. Our story starts a few years back when neither of us knew one another, yet we still shared a love for the thrift. Dumpsters, yard sales, roadsides, second-hand stores. You name it, we've been through it. Now that we have met and become an inseparable couple, we have relocated ourselves in Syracuse, NY (Central New York). It's about time we become serious about our endeavors and find some diamonds in rough. We search high and low through the waste of our dear city and as you will see, find food, goods, and happiness

And so the story goes