Russell Warnick -

by Russell Warnick

Her Honor, Judge Gansie

Editors Note: This is going to be a long Editors Note, way too long for all italics.

Hi, it’s gansie. So I really do hate when a blogger starts getting, um, well new gigs and writes incessantly about the new gigs and stops writing about what you originally came to the blog for. Here’s an example. This is all to say, of course, that I am going to talk about myself and my new gig as a famous person.

Last weekend I was asked to be a JUDGE for a contest. Yes, me, a judge. ES’s good friend, Britannia, passed my name along to be the food judge for the third annual Progressive Dinner. (Full Dis – In order to make this contest fair, Brit decided to stop commenting and posting for the duration of the contest planning.)

But this night was way more than just a dinner. It’s 120 gay men, spending close to 10 thousand dollars, enjoying a night of: eating, drinking, dancing, lip syncing, decorating, and wearing itty bitty underwear-as-outwear. It was fucking amazing. Luckily my sister was in town to be my “assistant” as I ate my way through the night.

Continue to read about the actual food.

Clover Little Thing Aren’t You!!

I’m not one of your typical bridge and tunnel people but on occasions I will take a hike into Maryland or Virginia, passport in tow. This past weekend you may have spotted me taking a walk through Old Town, Alexandria; and what a worth while trip it was. I stumbled upon a gourmet coffee and wine store tucked off of King Street, aptly called Grape & Bean. Grape & Bean is a quaint little place with a selection of wines, cheeses, cured meats and coffee, also selling breads, baguettes and focaccia fresh from Restaurant Eve and handmade chocolate from Kingsbury Chocolates, both local businesses in Old Town.Before I get to the coffee I wanted to mention that they sell some crazy biodynamic wine, apparently the grape is harvested to the lunar cycle and with a little spiritual mysticism thrown in for fun, wtf!Back to the coffee, this is worth the trip alone, served not from your conventional espresso or filter machine but a Clover, and this is no ordinary contraption. The Clover is a performance piece, its almost as fun to watch the coffee being made as it is to drink, almost… The coffee is pretty darn tasty.

Let’s Not Choke on These Birds

My friend Tucker and I visited some friends in Manhattan a couple of weekends ago. It was a meeting of DC-transplants, as no one seems to settle in this transient city. So while we were all together, and with JH living so close to the Union Square farmers market, we decided to make dinner.

Most of our friends are students, including the gracious host, so we knew we didn’t need to impress — beans on toast would have done! But JH is a stickler for “etiquette” – it had to be seasonal fare with absolutely no repeat dishes. We started planning the menu a few days in advance, with a few options in mind (farmers markets can be unpredictable.)

Our key ingredients were onion, beets, leeks and pheasant. We cooked three pheasants, which we named Judy, Angela and Patrick. Yes, we’re a little loopy.

I mentioned in the comments of a previous posting that I wanted to cook a dish around Jerusalem Artichoke and up until this trip I had never even seen the damn vegetable. Clearly, it was going to be an interesting feat. We named this the “Challenge of the Chosen Choke!”

Dinner to feed ten… See menu after the jump.