NO-FAST FASHION
Red beans and rice looks scrumptious on a plate but appears even more delicious wrapped around your wrist. This handmade Louisiana bracelet fuses Creole flavor and culture with style and simplicity.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Written by The Independent Staff
NO-FAST FASHION
Red beans and rice looks scrumptious on a plate but appears even more delicious wrapped around your wrist. This handmade Louisiana bracelet fuses Creole flavor and culture with style and simplicity. White and black-cherry colored freshwater pearls are strung together for a circular taste of the spicy Louisiana favorite. The bracelet is patterned so the rice is more plentiful than the red beans, just like you cook it. A spring clasp unites the two ends of the circle as the pearls are dotted into a coil of 7.25 inches. The bracelet is $20 on etsy.com and sold by AoDesigns. Search for "pearl red beans and rice bracelet." - Andrea Gallo
COOL TUNES
Charm furniture store is featuring an innovative way to defeat that unrelenting heat with its new cooler radios, or cooladios, available in backpack and rolling cooler styles. The insulated backpack style has two side speakers that connect to your trusty iPod/iPhone or whichever MP3 device your ears prefer. It is available in red, blue or yellow and runs on four AA batteries and has a 10-can capacity. Those looking for something more out of their noisemaking coolers can get the collapsible rolling cooler with a detachable AM/FM radio that also has the iPod/MP3 connection. It sports a 60-can capacity and uses a single 9-volt battery, but only comes in navy. The backpack style comes in at $46, while the hefty rolling cooler will set you back $79. You can also have them monogrammed for an extra $10 at Charm on Johnston Street. - Wynce Nolley
CALL OF THE WILD
South Louisiana gets its due in Wild Abundance: Ritual, Revelry & Recipes of the South's Finest Hunting Clubs, a collaboration between Memphis-area nonprofits Conservation Through Art and ArtsMemphis first published in October 2010 and now in its second printing (just in time for Father's Day). The cookbook anthology pairs nine hunting camp cooks with nine celebrity chefs, featuring the Bayou Club in Intracoastal City and Grande View Lodge in Cameron Parish. The celebrity chefs who serve as the book's authors seem to thrive in the close-knit hunting camp setting. James Beard Award-winning chef John Besh picks up some teal hunting tips from Paul McIlhenny during his stay at the Bayou Club. Donald Link, also a James Beard winner and Louisiana native who is opening a second location of his successful New Orleans eatery Cochon in River Ranch, plays bourré with the Zuschlags of Lafayette and writes that at Grande View it's "as if he were in a room of [his] uncles." Available at Barnes and Noble, Books Along the Teche and the Tabasco Country Store, Wild Abundance is $45. Visit www.wildabundancepublishing.com for more info. - Annie Bares