Milk

I looked at the floor's hexagonal ceramic tiles as I walked into 815 Cathedral St. and thought, "I know this place very well. " For the first four decades of my life, this was the Medical Arts Pharmacy in Mount Vernon, a place of refuge after a session at the dentist or medical specialist. As of Saturday, its doors will be open again as the Milk and Honey Market, described as a "specialty food market and coffee bar. " On a visit Friday, I saw the boxes of heirloom tomatoes arrive at the landmark former drugstore and soda fountain.

A major new study bolsters the view that food allergies are among the nation's most common medical conditions, and researchers at the Johns Hopkins University and elsewhere believe the problem is growing. The newly released study, perhaps the largest study of food allergies, showed that about 7.5 million people, or almost three in 100 people in the U.S., have a potentially life-threatening allergy to peanuts, dairy, eggs or shellfish. Children, as well as men and African-Americans, have higher rates.

Madeline Leonia "Mae" Pullen, a longtime Harlem Park-Lafayette Square activist who fought for senior housing options and public safety, health and education issues for residents, died Oct. 7 in her sleep at Caton Manor Nursing Home. She was 90. The daughter of a carpenter and a homemaker, Madeline Leonia Brown was born in Sparrows Point and raised on Carey Street. She graduated from Frederick Douglass High School in 1938, and the next year married her high school sweetheart, Francis Pullen Sr., who later became a U.S. Post Office supervisor.

Incidents on Interstate 70 in Howard County and on Interstate 95 in Harford County snarled rush hour traffic Thursday morning. Eastbound I-70 was closed to traffic at Route 29 in Howard County early Thursday morning due to an overturned milk truck, according to Maryland State Police. Troopers diverted drivers onto Route 29 during the investigation and cleanup, which was wrapped up by 8 a.m. police said. The crash was reported at 1 a.m. No one was seriously injured, according to police.

Jeanne Dietz-Band raises goats on a farm that looks like it's posing for a postcard, all rolling hills and weathered barns and happily grazing livestock. She and her husband moved from the Washington suburbs to Washington County 10 years ago to escape the rat race as their three sons approached their teen years. Dietz-Band, who has a doctorate in molecular biology and genetics, chucked her career in biotech and became a stay-at-home goatherd. "We were doing the suburban thing, working long hours," said Dietz-Band, whose husband continues to work as an electrical design engineer for the National Institutes of Standards and Technology.

Spice maker McCormick & Co. is voluntarily recalling fajita seasoning mixes containing wheat and milk ingredients that weren't listed on the packaging. The 1.12-ounce packages were distributed to grocery stores nationally beginning Feb. 15. The packages have the UPC Code 5210002121 and best buy dates of JAN 16 12 CH and JAN 16 12 CH. People with allergies to wheat or milk may have allergic reactions if they consume the seasoning. However, the Sparks-based company said no illnesses have been reported.

Lorraine Engel of Santa Rosa, Calif., was looking for a recipe that was in her family for generations but has been misplaced - one for a hot milk cake. Rosemary Kingsley of Olney sent in her recipe for this simple, old-fashioned classic. She said this is her go-to cake for most family celebrations. It is extremely adaptable, perfectly delicious served plain or dressed up with fresh berries or just about any type of frosting or glaze you can come up with. It can be baked in almost any shape pan: round, rectangular, tube or bundt.

Go see Doug Stanhope at the Ottobar on Friday night, and chances are you'll be angered, outraged, maybe even ticked off beyond all sense of reason. With luck, you'll laugh, too. He is, after all, the comic whose profile in a 2006 issue of British GQ was headlined, "Is This America's Most Depraved Man?" As a comic, he's following in the footsteps of such angry young men as Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, Bill Hicks and Lewis Black, ignoring conventions of good taste, cracking jokes about things both hallowed and profane, never meeting a sacred cow he didn't want to gore.

Buffalo taste, Polly-O budget. I don't know about you, but this recession has done nothing to curb my appetite for fancy cheese, just my ability to buy it. So I set out to make the stuff at home. That explains why I soon found myself pouring curdled milk into an old pillowcase, on purpose. Dialing up the cheese-making equivalent of the Butterball Turkey hot line. And, eventually, eating some very good and not-so-good cheese. "You make a lot of bad cheese before you make good cheese," Kate Dallam, owner of Broom's Bloom Dairy in Bel Air, said when I'd consulted her at the outset.