• 07Jul

    IM002956.jpg‘Th’state says I can’t sell that to you’
    What do you do with it?
    Well, I do got seven kids…
    How about I pay you for a reeealy expensive chicken, and you give me the milk as a present?
    I c’n do that…

    In southern Virginia there has been an unlikely meeting of the minds on the subject of organic farming. The hippies do it to live a natural lifestyle and to take power away from the man. The far right does it for the same reason they homeschool: ‘ I jus’ wouldn’t put that stuff they sell into my kids.’
    Raw, organic, unpasteurized, non-homogenized milk may not be for kids or pregnant folks, and of course, technically it’s illegal. As a rule of thumb, drink without guilt if you’re comfortable eating chocolate mousse; the infection risk is about the same as that posed by raw egg whites (tho the diseases can be worse). This is what we did with the raw milk of Louisa the Jersey cow:
    We drank it. Raw milk tastes like a thin, sweet, milkshake.

    Because the cream had risen out into a sluggish, yellow strata on top, a straw helped get down to the layer below.
    IM002961.jpg
    Some folks didn’t bother with such advanced technology
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    Then we skimmed off the top layer of cream…

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    …and yeah, we whipped it up and stuck it on pie and in some coffee and stuff, but mostly, we made butter. Here’s how it’s done.
    All-natural, organic, silky, wonderful butter
    If you aren’t lucky enough to have an entrepreneurial farmer nearby, I suggest starting with heavy organic cream. Get the most natural, hormone-free stuff you can find. I know Whole Foods has it, not raw but as close as you can buy ‘round here.
    Pour about 2 pints…or as much as you want really, into a blender. I found out the hard way that using regular beaters doesn’t cut it. Blend on high for about 7 minutes. First it will whip up, then it’ll deflate back down and start getting all grainy-looking.

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    Use a Pulse setting to keep churning until the grains are blobby and fully separated out into yellow butter and white buttermilk.

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    Now wash it! Take a bowl of ice water and stick your hands in it till they’re totally cold. Scrape the butter in, and pat the little blobs into…a big blob. Don’t worry, it won’t dissolve in the water. I mean, it’s butter.

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    Wet down a cheesecloth or some similar, stick the butter in and twiiiiist. Gently. That’ll get rid of the extra buttermilk and water.

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    That’s it! stick it in a dish. cool it down. put it in your mouth.

    I can’t beleve it’s butter!
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    MHF demonstrates the correct eating technique
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    Oh, and we also made some Flan. Lots of Flan. Recipe in Part 2.Thanks Louisa!

  • 07Jul

    Looking for a place to dance away three days of hard, post-July 4th work? Head over to Bluestate this Saturday, July 8th. Your favorite local food bloggers (okay, maybe just us) will be there. Good music, good beer, good fun. What else do you need?

  • 23May

    The last mate post was in January 2005, so I am going to renew the buzz…
    mategourd.jpgI absolutely LOVE yerba mate. I’ve been drinking it for about 3 or 4 years now, and I still just love the taste. According to Wikipedia, Yerba mate is: “A highly caffeinated herbal tea called mate prepared by steeping the dried leaves in hot water. Drinking mate with friends from a shared hollow gourd (also called a mate) with a metal straw (a bombilla) is an extremely common social practice in Paraguay and Argentina.”
    I started by buying a bag of Guayaki (tea bags) from Whole Foods in Chicago out of curiosity (I am addicted to buying different teas), and have since purchased my own gourd and bombilla straw, along with loose mate leaves from Teavana at Tyson’s Corner mall. I love being able to relax at home, drinking mate. It’s so great. I am considering planning our next vacation to Argentina just so I can sit around with some locals in a village and drink some traditional mate.
    I enjoy drinking mate over coffee anyday, because I feel more energy without feeling jittery or nervous (like I’m having a panic attack) when I OD on coffee. It’s better than tea to me, because it’s a better stimulant. Plus, it’s rumored to be an appetite suppressant as well, but I haven’t noticed too much of that lately. I did notice it more, when I drank it on a more consistent basis.
    Today, I received my shipment of 2lbs loose leaf mate from Nativa. I recommend this company, my order came quickly, and the products (mate and herbs) are delicious!
    Another great site to order from is EcoTeas, and Aviva. Also, for more local suggestions, check out the January 2005 archive.
    Enjoy!

    Permalink Filed under: Drinks 2 Comments
  • 12May

    cupcake-1.jpg

    Cupcakes have become a national pastime, thanks in part to the now famous Magnolia Bakery. But where, oh where, can you find a good cupcake in DC? Have no fear — the cupcake craze is already well underway in D.C.
    Todd Kliman takes on the subject in his

    weekly chat over at Washingtonian and resurrects an old battle topic, Cakelove. Kliman’s feelings are that true cupcake seekers should “Forget Cakelove — they’re crumbly and dry, with a too-thick layer of buttercream frosting.” Instead, he sends them in the direction of Georgetown’s Baked and Wired. We haven’t yet made it there, but the articles and pictures make it look delicious.

    DCist, in fact, gave Baked and Wired just an honorable mention, awarding top prize to Falls Church-based Le Cupcake and second place to Reeves Bakery on G Street.
    We’ve yet to reach our own conclusion and, as such, we turn it over to you, loyal readers. Who really does have the best cupcakes in D.C.?

  • 20Mar

    Water%20Buffalo%21.jpgMilk gets squirted out of a cow, whittled down to 2%, and poured into my tea. Or a bowl of cereal, or a batch of mac and cheese, but the point is, it comes from a large female cow and gets processed. But it doesn’t have to. In India, neither cow, nor processing are any part of what ends up in my Earl Grey, and it tastes fabulous. And why is that? Unpansteurized, Roamin’ Buffalo Milk.
    This stuff is lower in cholesterol, has more proteins and minerals, and more lactoferrin, lysozyme,and lactoperoxidase than cow milk. And who doesn’t want more lactoperoxidase! But the best thing about buffalo-excretion is a lower water content. Remember how good it tastes when Thai restaurants use condensed milk? Now imagine that, but thicker. Incidentally, it’s what makes Buffalo Mozzarella so nifty.
    But what about processing? Well, it isn’t, and that means that buffalo milk is so fatty and thick that you could practically stand a spoon up in it, the entire surface covered with globules like chicken soup.
    My point here is a recent realization that all Chai I’ve ever had is wrong. Real Chai is thick and rich with fatty buffalo milk, not the thin, limp-tasting white-liquid-with-cinnamon that passes at Starbucks. But no fear! Here is how to thicken your chai, buffalo-style (without a handy buffalo)
    Buffalo-esque Chai
    Mix together a piece of cushed ginger, a crushed piece of cinnamon, a tablespoon peppercorns, a teaspoon of vanilla, 6 cloves, 2 tsp cardamom, 2 whole star anise, a tsp fennel seeds, a teaspoon aniseed, and half a tsp nutmeg.
    Boil three cups of water and add 4 Assam teabags. Then add the spice mixture and simmer for 20 mins.
    Now here’s the tough part. Add 3.5 cups of cows milk. Bring everything to a boil and then immediately turn down the heat. Then bring it to a boil again, and turn it down. Repeat that maybe 3 or 4 times and the result should be just as thick and creamy as if you were swimming in buffalos.
    Sweeten it with honey, strain, and serve. Buffalo-rific

  • 14Mar

    sbuxlogo.jpg
    Need your morning fix? Get it for free.
    From 10 a.m. to 12 noon, Wednesday, March 15, most Starbucks will be hosting the first annual “National Coffee Break”, giving away a free tall (12 oz, or small, to the rest of the world) cup of brewed coffee. WIth 62 Starbucks in D.C., you’ve got plenty of choice. In fact, if you’re vigilant, you could probably hit up at least 15 or 20 of them during the two hours of free coffee. So go out and get your free caffiene dose!
    Link from Starbucks Gossip.

    Permalink Filed under: Drinks 2 Comments
  • 10Mar


    Bluestate.
    Saturday night.
    Drink beer. Listen to good music.
    Be there.

  • 10Mar

    caffeine.gifI owe MAW a beer. Why should this be? Because last night in a moment of drunken musing I bet him that tea had more caffeine than coffee. So the real question is, why did I believe this odd piece of urban legend? I’m not sure, but it’s wrong wrong wrong.
    Depending on where it’s from, tea has between 40 and 60 milligrams of caffeine. Now true, this is more than a coke (34) or a pepsi (37), but it’s less than your average drip coffee which comes in at up to a heart-racing 175 for the same sized cup. A can of Red Bull contains a paltry 80, despite being banned in France for it’s negative effects.
    But what of milk, I hear you say. Popular notion says that it bonds with the caffeine and makes it less painful. Well, drinking milk can prevent caffeine-instigated bone loss, especially for the ladies, but I’m not sure where I heard the other stuff.
    Anyway, it’s not true, and now I owe MAW a beer.

    Permalink Filed under: Drinks 2 Comments
  • 09Mar

    Brickskeller.jpgSomehow, in all our postings, DCFUD has neglected the best place drinking in DC: The Brickskeller. I’d say I’m unsure how we missed posting about The Brickskeller, but I’m fairly certain I know why. Everyone reading DCFUD knows about Brickskeller. In fact, everyone who has ever lived in NW DC knows about Brickskeller. It’s the pub/restaurant (whith a heavy emphasis on pub) up on 22nd that holds the Guinness world record for most beers. And it’s a great place to go when you want to have several very good and very large beers.
    Brickskeller is an institution, but it’s not quite like the normal drinking places in D.C. You don’t generally go to Brickskeller for a drink. It’s not akin to Mackey’s or Sign of the Whale. In general, when you go to the Brickskeller, you’re going for a night of drinking. You may say you’re going for just one drink, but in four years of going, I’ve never succeed in ordering just one beer. Once you end up at the Brickskeller, you’re not leaving until a) you’ve tried at least two beers you’ve never had before, b) you’re worried about missing the last metro out, or c) they’re closing the bar and threatening to chuck you next door into the Fireplace unless you pay your very large bar bill. In fact, my three largest bar bills (one of which topped $600, although it was on a company cc and involved 14 of us) have occured at Brickskeller.
    So why do you go to Brickskeller? Two reasons:
    1) The Beer. They really do have some of the best beer in the city. Check out zaf’s favorite, the Dogfish Head Rasion D’etre, my new favorite, Schneider & Sohn Aventinus, or one of the hundreds of Mexican, Belgian, Chinese, Italian, Russian, or about eighteen other country’s beers. Drink and be merry.
    2) The Waitresses. I’m not sure how they do it, and it really can’t be legal, but the Brickskeller has the most attractive waitresses in town. They are all very cute and they all know it, which makes spending $75 for beers for three people siginificantly less painful. Order a Dunkelweiss and you’ll understand why.
    So, next time you’re looking for a real night of drinking — no happy hours here — head to the Brickskeller. It’s a place to catch up with friends, have a couple of beers, and wander out at 3 a.m. wondering what the heck the Scandinavians put in their beer to make them worth $8.50 a bottle…and you’ll always go back.
    The Brickskeller Dining House and Down Home Saloon
    1523 22nd St, NW
    Washington, DC 20037
    Image blatently borrowed from beerblog.motime.com.

  • 31Dec

    cursedstarbux.jpg
    If you’ve lived in D.C. long enough, you know the story of 1801 Columbia Road. In what should be a good location to open a business, right at the top of the 18th Street corridor on the way to the Metro, the large storefront cycles through businesses every few years, with each owner chastened by the experience, proclaiming the truth of the curse rumors.
    As the legend has it, there was nothing wrong with 1801 until the early 1970s, when the storefront was occupied by a pizzaria. A killer worked there, tossing dough in the air when he wasn’t terrorizing Greater Adams-Morgan. Ever since the pizza place closed, no business has ever been able to succeed, perhaps due to the ghosts of the pizza man’s victims.
    Strange things happened to businesses in 1801. During a short-lived turn as a tapas joint, I went in for sangria, lured by the big sign advertising a special on sangria. There were out of sangria on a Wednesday night.
    Right now, 1801 is occupied by a Starbucks, which has survived longer than the average business, probably due to support from the head office, which does not have a history of shutting down branches. No matter how much money they lose, Starbucks is not going to shut this place down.
    The ghosts have other plans.
    Yesterday morning, I went into the cursed Starbucks and ordered a venti coffee. Shouldn’t be a problem, right? If they can make an iced quadruple-venti soy nonfat caramel white mocha with whipped cream, they can fix me a cuppa joe.
    “We’re sorry, but the coffee machine hasn’t been working all day. We don’t know why and we’re still trying to fix it.”
    It isn’t an urban legend if it’s true, you know.

    Permalink Filed under: Drinks 1 Comment

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