Many of my fellow Coastal Living staffers naturally flocked to the coast during the 4th of July holiday, but I spent the long weekend hanging out with family in Washington D.C. While they may have come back raving about incredible seafood dives, but I was the only one who could claim to have eaten the absolute freshest food on the planet. Jealous? Don't be. Just head to D.C. and prepare for a feast.

Located downtown on Pennsylvania Ave., Founding Farmers commits to provide customers with products "from seed to harvest, and from farm-to-table," according to their Web site. They're owned by a collective of American family farmers and strive to also lead the green movement by being good stewards of natural resources down to the last detail of their building design. For more on their mission and philosophy visit wearefoundingfarmers.com.

Despite being in D.C. on one of the busiest weekends of the year, when my brother and I arrived for brunch we only had to wait 15 minutes. The customer service was excellent, and the food? Well, we still can't stop talking about it. We split the New Orleans Style French Toast and Skillet House Hash—crispy potatoes sautéed with your hash choice, with two eggs poached or scrambled, served with our house-made English muffin, fresh fruit preserves and choice of: country potatoes, farmer’s salad, fresh fruit or tomatoes. Everything from the fresh squeezed orange juice to the English muffin were absolutely worth every penny. And the knowledge that you're supporting American farmers, well, how patriotic is that?

Courtesy of Founding Farmers

As if the sweltering heat wasn't reason enough to cool down with a fruity drink, today is National Piña Colada Day! Celebrate by mixing up a pitcher of this great recipe.

Image courtesy of thebar.com

According to mypunchbowl.com, this tasty frozen beverage was first created in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The drink's name actually translates to strained pineapple—one of the main ingredients. I don't know about you, but I'm going to grab some supplies and start blending.

FYI: July is also National Ice Cream and Grilling month. So if a Piña Colada isn't enough to satisfy your summer appetite, try out some of these other favorite recipes.

Ok, I'm a few days late with Day 14's post but I won't have a problem remembering what we did. For starters, it was an easy process. Then there was the interesting fermentation gasses. :-) The yeasty-winey smell was expected and doesn't perfume the air until you take the top off.

Anyway, Day 14--halfway there!--means it's time to add the stabilizer and clarifier. The mixture in the tank was golden and pretty cloudy, like apple cider.


 

After sanitizing the tools, I took off the top and added a plastic cone to the center. Stir in a couple of packages, then replace cover.

For the next 3 days, I unlocked the container from the base and rotated it a couple of times. This releases any sediment that accumulates on the walls. So far, so good. Can't wait until it looks like wine.

At Coastal Living, we love to eat. And our favorite meal, of course, is seafood.

If you’ve ever had a weakness for fried shrimp, smoked salmon, lobster, chowder, or anything else that once lived in the water, you have got to check out our new list of the best Seafood Dives.

This epic package names our favorite dives (that’s a good thing!) from all the coastal states. You’ll find dozens and dozens of choices – from Lowell’s in Seattle’s Pike Place Market to, down to the Acme Oyster House in New Orleans, to the famed Thurston’s Lobster Pound on Mount Desert Island, Maine.

You’ll definitely want to consult the list before your next coastal trip. Some folks have even built road trips around our listings.

I was just in Newport, Rhode Island, and followed our guide to the incredible Flo’s Clam Shack in nearby Middletown. How good was it? I went back a second night to taste it all again!

If we somehow missed your favorite, let us know in the comments section. Meanwhile, happy dining.

Coastal Living staffers are called on for all sorts of duties. Today it was bourbon tasting.

Our assignment: Gather by the coffee pot and sample a drink for our "Toast of the Coast" column. Today’s concoction: the Tupelo Tangerine Toddy, provided by Jason Carlen the sommelier (and spirits expert) at the Inn at Palmetto Bluff in South Carolina.

The drink includes bourbon, lemon, tangerine, and honey syrup over ice. One sip and we were zoomed away to the beach, each lost in the flavor of a perfect summer beverage. It was citrusy and sweet but not cloying. We all wanted more. Be warned: This is the type of drink that goes down too smoothly for your own good.

We tried it with two mid-priced bourbons,Maker’s Mark and Knob Creek. Alas, we weren’t very discriminating. Both tasted wonderful, the Knob Creek perhaps a slight bit fruitier.

Food editor Julia Rutland figured that whatever bourbon you like drinking neat, you’d love in this drink.

But our work here is not done. Julia has more bourbon and more drinks for us to try tomorrow and next week. Look for the recipes in Coastal Living later this year.

Senior food editor Julia Rutland received a the Artful Winemaker personal wine making system in the mail recently, and we thought, "why not?" So, we're making our own pinot grigio. For $160, you too can order the kit, which includes all of the ingredients for making 12 bottles of wine in 28 days. We're going to document our progress on Daily Catch. So check back often to see how our wine turns out.

Day 1

Julia and I found an empty office where we could store our materials. We followed the simple instructions cleaning and sterilizing our equipment (Step 1) and mixing the ingredients and starting the fermenting process (Step 2).

Julia pours the wine into our Personal Winemaking System

If you're still looking for an unforgettable Valentine's Day experience, you can still book a private dinner on top a lighthouse this Saturday night.

It will be just the pair of you, a private waiter, and sweeping 360-degree views of the Atlantic, the Merrimack River, and Newburyport,  Massachusetts.

The Lighthouse Preservation Society of Dover, New Hampshire, sponsors this imaginative fund-raiser. The lantern room is available to rent year round.

For $350, the Newburyport Rear Range Lighthouse can be yours. The 53-foot brick tower was built in 1873 to guide the way from the Merrimack River into Newburyport Harbor. For another $100 you can have a meal from one of several area restaurants. It's BYOB, so you have to pack the bubbly. The rental price includes the light for six hours and a waiter to carry your meal up 55 steps and a metal ladder to your table.

Better yet, it's mostly tax deductible.

Thanks: About.com New England Travel

What could be better than a spot of tea on a February afternoon, especially if you're sipping in more-English-than-England Victoria, British Columbia.

The beautiful provincial capital hosts its third annual tea festival next weekend, February 14 and 15, at the Crystal Garden exhibition hall from noon to 5 p.m.

The largest public tea exhibition in North America features tea tastings, tea-food selections, lectures and the chance to shop for hundreds of teas, tea-related products, and tea wares.

A few of the lectures include "Hosting the Perfect Tea Party,"  "Rooibos � Good for You, Good for Africa," "Yerba Mate � Equal Parts Health, Culture & Ecology," and "History of Tea at the Empress."

The latter will bring a smile to anyone who has ever experienced the tradition at Victoria's grand hotel.

If you can't make the gathering, here are some tea-tasting sips from the organizers to try at home:

* Note how the flavors may differ depending upon origin, soil type, style of tea, processing techniques, and preparation time.

* Try focusing first on the basic differences between black, oolong, green, white and herbal teas.

* Try tasting similar teas, from different companies, prepared slightly different or served at different temperatures.

* Inquire about temperature, how the tea is served, storage of the tea, and its health benefits. (I'll have to ask my wife about those ...).

I've been a tea drinker for years About a decade ago, my wife read an article about its curative properties, and declared we were switching morning beverages.

As long as I got caffeine, I really didn't care about the source. But a few months later, I discovered she was sneaking coffee on the side. I stuck with the tea program, however, and have been sipping ever since.

My favorite blend: Lipton Yellow Label Tea. It looks like what you'd find for sale at the local supermarket, but Lipton markets a stronger blend for the non-U.S. market. I get mine at Indian groceries. Cost: about 4 cents a bag.

But if I really wanted to branch out, Victoria would be the place to visit

Crabs and wine provide a perfect excuse to head to northern California this weekend.

Mendocino celebrates the two tastes with an array of events. The Crab and Wine Days festival welcomes winter's Dungeness crab season with cooking classes, crab tours, fishing excursions, crustacean-and-wine dinners.

You're going to have to eat strategically to get in all the fun.

On January 23, choose from a Cioppino dinner, with salad and French bread for $30. Or head over to a crab feed at the Knights of Columbus Hall on January 23 and 24, where for $40, you get your fill of crabs along with salad, bread, and wine.

Also on the 24th, there's a crab cook-off and wine tasting competition. Admission, $65, includes plenty of tastings and wine -- and the chance to cast your vote for the best crab. Compare your vote against the decision of judges, which include a friend, Jeff Book, and other notables such as Google's executive chef Olivia Wu.

After all that eating, you're going to need a break from eating. My suggestion: On Sunday, go the Crabby Film Festival and catch a screening of "Attack of the Crab Monsters," clip below, and other nautically themed horror films at Little River Inn.

Photo via Flickr: Mecredis