Make a Dish

Below is a list of all the glorious food donations we have received.  If you are feeling creative, let us know what kind of delicious dish we could make out of them.  We may make your dish for the Free Store Food dinner!

 

1 bag yellow onions

 1 bag garlic

 3 bags carrots

 1 bag idaho potatoes

 6 green peppers

 1 bag Jacobs cattle dried beans

1 bottle Montgomery inn bbq sauce

1 can casa fiesta green enchilada sauce

2 hunts tomato sauce cans

2 cans Brunswick sardines in spring water

1 bottle white and apple cider vinegar

3 can coconut milk

1 evaporated milk

1 can Goya black beans

1 can flaked light tuna

35 fl oz free range chicken broth

1 package nutcrusters coating mix, pistachio

1 jar apple butter

1 bag Goya barley

1 can organic sweetened condensed milk

2 cans libby’s 100% pumpkin

Jello – 2 lime, 6 raspberry, 1 strawberry kiwi

Pudding mix – 4 butterscotch, 2 pistachio, 3 chocolate

1 package Louisiana seasoned shrimp fry

1 box White minute rice

1 box falafel mix

1 box lundberg risotto, garlic primavera

1 box orzo

1 box elbow macaroni

1 box tri color rotini

1 box thai stir fry noodles, garlic basil

2 boxes instant polenta

2 packets Martha white pizza crust mix

1 container quick grits

1 container instant grits

2 can progresso light vegetable & rice soup

1 can quartered artichokes

1 can tomato soup

1 can extra large pitted olives

1 container wondra quick mixing flour for sauce & gravy

4 dcans starkest solid white tuna

1 can fancy pimientos

1 can pineapple juice

1 bag dried chile guajillo

1 packet honey lemon tea mix

1 can monster energy drink

7 1.7 oz bottles davinici papery syrup

4 packets good season Italian dressing mix

1 packet spicy pecan coating mix

1 bag white flour

1 box cornstarch

1 box buttermilk mix

1 box garlic instant mashed potatoes

1 box instant tapioca

1 box turkey gravy mix

1 jug vegetable oil

1 bottle olive oil

1 bottle grapeseed oil

1 bottle white vinegar

1 bottle cooking wine

1 box confectioners sugar

1 box white sugar

1 bag whole wheat flour

5 cans tecate beer

1 jar sea salt

1 jar molasses

1 pure vanilla extract

1 box chocolate con canela

1 package tamardind

1 jar mole sauce

1 packet chicken bouillon

1 box vegetarian broth mix

Flower sugar cake decorations

1 jar mincemeat filling & topping (made with apples, no meat)

1 can cannelloni white kidney beans

1 jar thicken up instant food thickener

1 can sweet corn

1 packet knorr French onion mix

1 bag dried black beans

1 bag dried lentils

 Spices/ Seasoning

Rocky mountain seasoning

Horseradish dip

Chicken and rib rub

Grained mustard

Chesapeake bay seafood seasoning

Tuscan sunset Italian seasoning

Adobo seasoning

Onion soup mix

4 packets good season Italian dressing mix

Cream of tartar

Basil

Oregano

Cinnamon ground

Bay leaves

Onion powder

Crushed red pepper

Ground ginger

Ground sage

Paprika

Celery seed

Curry powder

Ground mustard

Ground cumin

Old bay seasoning

Parsley flakes

Minced onion

Ground red pepper

Ground coriander

This Food Just In!

Thank you to everyone who has generously donated foodstuffs so far — we are really getting a hearty selection of food to work with during the Free Store Food dinner. Also, welcome to the expert foodies who will be creating interesting dish ideas for us to cook: Harley Spiller, Ame Gilbert, and Califia Suntree. If you’d like to whip up a recipe or two based on our donated products, I will be posting a list of all our donations in the next couple of days (my favorites so far are the raspberry jello, louisiana shrimp batter, and pizza crust mix). And if you’d like to attend our dinner, please visit the Free Store and enter the raffle!

What is Free Store Food?

The Free Store is a temporary art installation/storefront on 99 Nassau Street in Lower Manhattan created by the artists Athena Robles & Anna Stein. The store is run by an exchange/barter system; visitors are invited to donate clean, working items which are re-tagged and “sold” for free.

Free Store Food is an improvised dinner event aligned with the Free Store’s mission; visitors are invited to donate unwanted food items that will be used to create a beautiful dinner at the Free Store on Saturday, March 14^th. Unfortunately, space is limited; if you would like to attend, enter the raffle at the Free Store or submit a recipe here!

How can I attend?

It is easy to enter to win a seat at the Free Store Food Dinner.  When you visit the Free Store, leave your contact info in the FREE STORE FOOD box;  15 people will win an invitation. You can also enter our Best Free Food Dish contest. If we choose to use your dish at our Free Store Food event, you will win a spot at the dinner table. So enter NOW!

BEST RECIPE CONTEST

We want your ideas for fabulous dishes that we can make at the Free Store Food dinner. Our ingredients are left to chance (what food will people donate to the Free Store?), so we are looking for your most prized, easily improvised, on-the-fly dishes to tickle our culinary fancy and inspire our cook’s creativity. If we choose your dish to grace our table, you automatically win a seat at dinner. Post your dish in the Comments and check out what other people have suggested.

Donate Food

We would love your food to grace the Free Store Food Dinner table. If you have nonperishable food items for us to use for this 20 person meal, please bring it to Free Store on 99 Nassau Street, NYC from Thursday-Saturday, 12-7PM or Sunday, 12-5PM. Your generous donation will feed a small group and a larger ideal of communal sharing. If you leave us your name, we will credit you for your contribution on the Free Store Food Recipe booklet, to be “sold” at the Free Store after the event.  If you are unable to attend the dinner, you can also elect to adopt-a-dish — we will send you a picture of the dish your food contribution made happen, so that you can have your own little piece of the dinner.  Here are some foods to encourage your pantry surfing:  beans, rice & other grains, coconut milk, condensed milk, canned corn, artichokes, tomatoes, cake mixes, chiles, sugars, spices, curry mix, box falaffel, tahini, vinegar, oil, sauces — but we will accept almost anything you offer.

Help Free Store Food

Did your grandmother ever taunt you with the proverbial “one person’s trash is another person’s treasure”?  Mine actually did, on multiple occasions, while she collected a fortune’s worth of garage sale Fiestaware and furnished my bedroom with beautiful antique furniture that i subsequently spray-painted silver.  As part of Free Store, a storefront installation operating on the barter/exchange system and created by the artists Athena Robles & Anna Stein, I am hosting an improvisational dinner dubbed “Free Store Food” that aims to prove grandmother’s wisdom.  I am asking you to donate your forgotten nonperishables, like the box of falafel mix stuffed away in the back of your cabinet, the carton of black rice you never figured out how to use, the cans of condensed milk, artichoke hearts, smoked chiles and cherry pie filling that are wasting away in your cupboards and pantry.  With the help of my co-chef Alexis Bhagat, we will attempt to re-purpose these dusted-off goods and turn them into a beautiful, grand feast at the Free Store that celebrates regeneration of the unused, unwanted and forgotten. Here’s how you can help:
 
1)  Donate your unwanted goods to the Free Store on 99 Nassau Street in Lower Manhattan or request a pickup for big donations

2)  Enter to win a seat at dinner by visiting the Free Store or entering the Best Recipe Contest at http://freestorefood.wordpress.com/

3)  Come to the Grand Opening of Free Store on Thursday, February 19th and go to their webpage at
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Double-A-Projects-Presents-Free-Store/57088891257?ref=nf

 

How can I attend?

Everyone has a chance to attend the Free Store Food event by making a “purchase” at the Free Store. With each item you “buy” (and everything is free!), you will receive a Free Store seed packet. 10 lucky Seed packages will include an invitation to Dinner.

You can also enter our Best Free Food Recipe contest. If we choose to use your recipe at our Free Store Food event, you will win a spot at the dinner table. So enter NOW!

BEST RECIPE CONTEST