Doods and doodetts (alternative spelling), Amurrica's (sorry, apparently a lolcat has just fully taken over now) birthday is upon us. Which means, yes, it's time to ready your vocal chords by shot-gunning a million beers drinking a moderate amount of beers responsibly and chanting the letters U, S and A until your voice sounds like an anti-smoking ad. And, of course, there's one more thing you can do to show how much you love your country and that is to do this all with your mouth chock full of good 'ol American cuisine. Sure, you can grill yourself, but if you're at the point where you're thinking lighting a firework while it's still in your hand is a good idea, it's better to leave the cooking to the experts. Here are three delicious take-out options:

Buttermilk Fried Chicken from PS7 {777 I (Eye) St., NW; (202) 742-8550}
Go gourmet and let Chef Peter Smith let you treat yourself right. Order a Fried Chicken Picnic to-go ($21 per person for lunch, including two sides; $27 per person for dinner, including 3 sides) and get that finger-lickin' good buttermilk fried chicken, cornbread or biscuit and a cookie or brownie. Side choices include potato salad, pasta salad, coleslaw, market veggies and deviled eggs. The picnics are available during open business hours, but make sure to call ahead, especially for larger orders of four or more, which need at least 30 minutes notice.

Specialty Picnic Sandwich Basket from Cork Market + Tasting Room {1805 14th St., NW, (202) 265-2674}
If you're sick of beer and brats, call Cork to get a basket full of delicious sandwiches accompanied by a bottle of your favorite red or white. Choose from some or their best between-bread concoctions like the Sopressata with roasted pepers and tapenade on house-made focaccia or Grilled veggie with goat cheese and pesto or Smoked ham with Nancy's Camembert and pickled onions. In addition, each basket ($25 w/o wine, $35 w/wine) comes with Dirty Brand Potato Chips, Honey-Mint Fruit Salad and Dark Chocolate Chip or Lemon Ricotta Cookies. Call ahead to reserve a basket.

BBQ from Hill Country {410 7th St., NW, (202) 556-2050}
While you can order take-out of all your BBQ favorites from this Chinatown spot, the more patriotic thing to do is get it delivered to you on the Mall. (That is, if you're brave enough to bear both the heat and the tourists.) Yes, HC will deliver you all the ribs you can eat, plus brisket, chicken and everything else they sell to a fixed point you discuss with them while you're on the Mall. Let us know how this one goes.