Snowpocalypse: Dupont Circle Snowball Fight Videos & Quotes

In case you haven’t heard, it’s SNOWPOCALYPSE 2010!  While I know there will be a lot of negative consequences to this storm, it’s been really fun to waddle around in the snow.  I just got back from the Dupont Circle snowball fight, which was SO much fun.  It was supposed to be a North Dupont vs. South Dupont kind of snowball fight, but it really turned into a giant outer ring of people versus a scrappy crew in the middle, defending the Dupont fountain. (Update: NBC news just said there were 5000 people there!!)  Check it out:

Memorable quotes from the snowball fight:

“Umbrellas are cheating!!”

“Who brings a @#&$%! shovel to a snowball fight?!!”

“USA! USA! USA!” (after someone brought out an American flag)

“We need snow!  We’re out of snow!”

More pics and videos below:

Dupont Circle snowball fight gets patriotic. USA! USA! USA!

Lots of trees and limbs down.

Snow on my Street

Speaking of Seeds: Rooting DC Returns February 20

I had such a fun time at last year’s Rooting DC, a day-long free event for DC’s gardening community.  There were panels on all sorts of topics, from ornamental herb gardens to vegetable companion planting.  Plus there was a big free-for-all of donated seed packets (yes, they were leftovers from the previous year, but lots of seeds have long shelf lives).  The radishes I grew last spring, for instance, were from seeds I got at the Rooting DC forum.

This year’s Rooting DC has just been announced (see the press release reproduced below).  If you’re planning on attending, let me know.  It would be great to make it a meetup of sorts for DC’s garden bloggers.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 3, 2010

Press contact: Katie Rehwaldt
202 638 1649
Katie@america-the-beautiful.org

Rooting DC Cultivates Urban Agriculture in the District

Washington, DC – The third annual Rooting DC urban gardening conference will take place on Saturday, February 20. This event, which is free to the public, will bring together an anticipated audience of three hundred over the issues of food production and food access in the District of Columbia.

Keynote speakers include Joe Nasr (an international urban agriculture advocate and academic) Robert Egger (founder of DC Central Kitchen), Dr. James Allen and Yao Afantchao (ethnic crops researchers at UDC), and Tony Cohen (a local agricultural historian). The day long program will also include interactive workshops, cooking and preserving demonstrations, an informational fair, a film about DC community gardens, and panel discussions featuring leaders of the local food justice and urban agriculture movement.

“Concerns about access to healthy food, limiting our environmental impact, and supporting local economies are coming together to create a powerful new interest in growing your own food here in the District,” says event co-coordinator, Bea Trickett of the Neighborhood Farm Initiative.

The aim of Rooting DC is to respond to this enthusiasm by educating the public, especially those in food insecure communities, on the production, distribution, preparation, and preservation of fresh produce that is grown locally and sustainably.

This event, which will run from 9:30am until 4pm at the Historical Society of Washington (801 K Street NW), is sponsored by DC’s Field to Fork Network, a collaboration of dozens of local non-profits and agencies organized by America the Beautiful Fund.

Participants can find more information at www.rootingdc.org.  English speakers who wish to attend the forum should call (202) 638-1649 to register; Spanish speakers should call (301) 891-7244 to register.

Seeds and Plants: Ordered!

The new year of gardening is officially underway.  Or, at least, I’m starting to set things in motion.  I made my seed orders today, doing most of my buying from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.  Even though a lot of SESE’s varieties are not region-specific, I just sort of prefer to shop locally when I can (SESE is located about two hours from DC).  My SESE list is:

Cylindra Red Beets	$2.35
Scarlet Nantes Carrots	$2.25
Arugula	$1.95
Lacinato Kale	$2.35
Sweet Genovese Basil	$2.10
Corno di Toro Pepper	$2.25
Russian Banana Fingerlings	$13.50
Cherokee Purple Tomato	$2.50
Wild Garden Lettuce Mix	$2.75

I also bought a few things from Territorial Seeds that were harder to find close to home (like onion transplants and bare-root Tri-Star strawberry plants).  And I still have some seed packets from last year, including some of my favorite oddballs (such as pepquiños, Señorita jalapeño peppers, and Dr. Carolyn Yellow Cherry tomatoes).

One note to my fellow gardeners: the folks at Hometown Seeds are giving garden blog readers a 10% discount if you enter the code ‘thanks’ at checkout before February 28th.  I’ve never ordered from them since they’re a bit farther afield, but I certainly encourage people to check out their selection.  Not everyone has to be a local seed snob like me.  Tee hee.

February Food Blogger Happy Hour: Feb 3 @ Againn

I can’t  believe January is almost over already.  My, how time flies.  After this month’s fabulous DC Food Blogger Potluck, we’re returning to the happy hour format at the cool new gastropub Againn.  This is exciting for many reasons, not least of which is the fact that I’ve been salivating over Againn’s sticky toffee pudding ever since ModernDomestic posted a pic a couple weeks back.  The party starts at 6pm on Wednesday, February 3.  RSVP in the comments on Thrifty DC Cook’s post.

Your hosts: Arugula Files, Beer Spotter, Biscuits and Such, Capital Cooking, Capital Spice, Common Man Eats, Dining in DC, Gradually Greener, Modern Domestic, We Love DC, and Thrifty DC Cook.

Mixt: Tasty, Green, and Opening Today!

DC’s got it’s share of salad and sandwich joints, but I was very excited to learn about Mixt.  It’s a San Francisco outfit that is opening four locations in DC over the next few months, starting today with their spot at 19th & M.  I dig that they place emphasis on sustainability and seasonality (though clearly winter salads are going to be a more difficult prospect out here than in California).  The shop is sleek and modern, yet most of the materials were recycled.  The tabletops, for instance, are made from crushed and reconstituted detergent bottles.  Very cool.  Even cooler, at least to this gardener: they have salad and herbs growing in a “living wall” of planters on the back wall:

Mixt’s menu is more sophisticated and whimsical than the usual downtown lunch options, though slightly pricier as well.  But not many other salad places are going to keep golden beets, Thai lemongrass vinaigrette, Morrocan spiced grilled tuna, and white-truffle potatoes on hand.   At yesterday’s preview I got the Maui salad, which features cashews, mango, avocado, cherry tomatoes, and absolutely luscious slices of coriander-crusted ahi tuna*.  (As a side note, I appreciated that the salad chef asked how much salad dressing I wanted).

I’m looking forward to trying out more stuff at Mixt, because honestly at this point I can’t bring myself to get salads at Cosi anymore, and SweetGreen is too far from my office.  I do hope that they can make good on their goal of forming connections with local farms, especially as we come out of winter.  There are plenty of fancy restaurants that specialize in local ingredients, but it would be great to see Mid-Atlantic ingredients highlighted in a workday lunch as well.

The gleaming array of toppings is veritable food porn.

* Full disclosure, my preview day salad was comped.

Trying a Gluten-Free Diet (Cupcakes Included)

Last week I went entirely gluten-free.  I’m not celiac, but my mother seems to be at least somewhat gluten-intolerant, and like most people I occasionally have gastrointestinal issues.  It seemed prudent to test whether gluten might be the cause.  So two Saturdays ago I got up, had a bowl of corn flakes, and didn’t eat any gluten for an entire week.  It was actually fairly easy, except for the day when Curbside Cupcakes (DC’s latest, awesomest mobile food innovation) made a stop half a block from my office and all my coworkers went and got yummy cupcakes.  Sigh.

But physically, I felt really good last week.  On Saturday, when my week-long experiment was officially over, I found myself at a popular bagel shop with a beau and couldn’t resist a big ol’ gluten bomb.  I had an absolutely delicious bagel with cream cheese, plus a delectable chocolate chip cookie.  Later that day I had some fab Vace pasta.  And I must admit, I felt much more unsettled that evening than I had during my wheat-free week.

I don’t think I can give up gluten entirely.  There are just too many good things that involve it, and I’m clearly not outright allergic.  But I might try limiting my intake.  It was easy to make dinners that were starch free, or relied on things like rice, potatoes, or quinoa.  And there are plenty of takeout lunch options that don’t involve bread.

Especially promising was today’s development at the Curbside Cupcakes truck, which once again stopped right by my office.  They are testing gluten-free cupcake recipes, so I got to try one - a chocolate cupcake with vanilla frosting (cream cheese-based rather than buttercream, I think).  It was quite good!  Dense, but not in a bad way.  Nice and fudgy, with little chocolate chunks throughout the cake.  Although it’s not the same as a light, airy, chiffon-style regular cupcake, I didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything.  Keep up the good work, cupcake man!