Now comes the news that the U.S. Senate has voted to double penalties for mixing controlled substances with sweets. It's still not a law yet.

Short Order believes this is a pot o' shit. Not only is a food-inspired high cleaner and clearer, it lasts longer. According to The Marijuana Food Handbook "smoking is often self-directed anger, while eating is self-nurturing." And who doesn't want to nurture oneself? No more sore throat and metallic tongue at the end of the evening...

Some people make brownies. But an oven's heat only converts only about 40% of the THC to an active form.

RecipeBloom

​So we suggest the following: make your pot into cannabutter,

Grasscity.com

​and slap it on some waffles for a morning high that will last all day....

marijuanaeffect.com

​But this could get you busted if the Senate bill becomes law, so try these less than sweet treats.
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There is no doubt that Miami has a coffee culture. Whether you enjoy a cortadito, double espresso, or "tall" drip, there are choices on every corner. Does this mean death to the home coffee machine? Not yet. But a few contenders are definitely trying to stay ahead of the curve with their multitasking machines.

Quosmo Portable Coffeemaker
​This compact and "portable" coffeemaker by Diverge Design out of Italy is made for the "urban coffee drinker on the go." Weighing less than eight pounds, it's great for when you are asked to bring coffee to a meeting or just want to stop and talk to a street vendor.
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​For years, almost every restaurant has offered "still" or "sparkling" water. Today, more and more eateries are producing the sparkling in-house with their own soda systems. This trend has grown at homes too, and because I am a lover of all things cold and sparkling, I decided it was time to join the bubble bandwagon. So I bought a Sodastream. This system lets you make soda at home just as you want it: plain or flavored, extra-bubbly or slightly sparkling, room temperature, or cold. For indecisive people (that would be me), you can keep testing until you get it just right.
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TheKohser

A Thanksgiving turkey that had been soaked for 10 hours in a brine of water, salt, brown sugar, cut and squeezed lemons and oranges, and chopped onion. Roasted in the oven in a roasting pan, for nearly 4 hours.

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Turkey image via http://www.flickr.com/photos/teddyllovet/ / CC BY 2.0

Represent

​Chicago's got the smokehouse turkey stuffed with hot dogs.

Los Angeles turkeys get botox in their gobblers, and surgical breast enhancement.

Arizona turkeys get left to cook by solar power on the sidewalk.

So what is the signature Miami turkey? Here's how to make one yourself.

Find a Dade County farmer with pigs and turkeys, buy one huge turkey, one small turkey, and one pig.

Stuff the small turkey with black beans and rice, and plantains, then wrap it in bacon, put it in the oven and start cooking it.

Meanwhile, deep-fry the big turkey until it's half way cooked, pull it out, stuff it with the small turkey that's filled with rice and beans and wrapped in bacon, and then fill the excess space with marinated pork.

Throw it in the oven and turn up the heat. When it's done it'll be hot and wet and ready to eat. Happy Thanksgiving.

image via yanealhoo's flickr

So you say you've gone green, but how committed are you to the cause? You wear organic flip-flops with your organic socks, don't use air conditioning, sleep in a tent in your neighbor's backyard, surf the web on a solar-powered computer and only bathe in organic water. Good start, but what about cooking, you traitor, we saw you zapping that burrito in a kwik-e-mart microwave.

Assuming you find the raw food lifestyle far too radical, you can take the slow food movement to a whole new plane with solar cooking.

Sure it rains almost everyday in Miami in the summer. Don't let that stop you. Summer hasn't even started yet. Thinking memorial day BBQ? Fuhgeddaboutit. Nothin'll make you appreciate a hot dog more than waiting a half hour for it to cook in an oven you made yourself out of a used pizza box and tin foil.

So grab your scissors, holler at a roll of Reynolds Wrap and get started. The sun shines brighter in Miami, but our population is wasting it on frivolities like sports, the beach, and shooting Burn Notice. A majority of "solar cooking miami" search term combinations on google return entries about Miami Country Day School, which start their students experimenting with solar cuisine at age 4. Don't be out solared by a 4 year old. Click here for solar oven plans.

image via paulandyoungron.com

funny in the morning

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image via suavehouse113's flickr

A candy bar gives the impression of existing solely in its fully formed product state, hitting air for the first time when you unwrap it from its plastic home, but it's easy to forget that all food is either grown or fed right from this here Earth, not manufactured.

You can even grow things to eat yourself and use the waste from what you consume to do so more efficiently.

This month the Biscayne Times, owned and operated by former New Times editor Jim Mullin, features an article by Jeff Shimonski, a certified arborist and director of horticulture at Jungle Island, on home composting techniques.

Shimonski uses vermiculture, compost via earthworm, at his own home's vegetable garden. Shimonski writes "I purchased a small vermicomposter and a couple of pounds of earthworms online and got started." Sounds easy right? Vermiculture produces high quality compost from organic materials, even paper and cardboard, though it is unsafe to give your worms "meat and milk products, because of bacterial issues."

The food you throw can help you with the food you grow and those credit card bills can help you make something instead of lose it.

Read Shimonski's article at the Biscayne Times website or visit his website at TropicalDesigns.com

Fighting the good fight, one mug at a time

Run clean out of political causes to get fired up about, since the election of Barack Obama? Here's a burning issue that ought to scare the bejeesus out of us all: The plight of struggling US independent beer brewers. Tickets are on sale now for the one-night-only engagement of Beer Wars Live, Anat Baron's foam-spewing documentary, which follows the stories of small brewers, like the makers of Dogfish Head and New Century Brewing, as they take on the corporate giants ruling the beer industry. The screening on April 16th, at AMC and Cobb Theaters, will be followed by live video conferencing hosted by Ben Stein and a special panel discussion featuring Sam Calaglione of Dogfish Head, Rhonda Kallman of New Century, Greg Koch of Stone Brewery, beer historian Maureen Ogle, and beer activist Todd Alstrom (now doesn't that sound like your dream job?)

Go here to find your closest theater and buy advance tickets.

It was an afternoon filled with beer, beer, and more beer as Lake Worth's BX Beer Depot hosted its first Homebrew Fest, an intimate gathering where members of BX's Lagerhead Brewers Club shared their handcrafted creations with the public. There were nearly a dozen homebrew beers on tap at the tiled-topped bar behind the Depot -- from Belgian Wit to Imperial IPA to Hard Cider -- plus a booth where you could sign up for BX's homebrew classes, email lists, and club dates. And there was good company -- folks who care deeply about what goes into your pint glass and are willing to talk about all facets of the frothy stuff for hours on end. Basically, it was Beer Valhalla.

So how were the beers? Find out, plus get info on upcoming BX events, after the jump.
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