By Tom Bridge
This is a brilliant speech. And yes, the President did donate the two dressed birds to Martha’s Table on 14th street to help out with those less fortunate, in addition to sending Courage and Carolina to Disneyland (no, really.).
By Tom Bridge
‘I’m no one’s Thanksgiving dinner!’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’
It’s almost here, our four day weekend of Thanks, and I’m sure that by now your office is winding down (or perhaps even closed already), and thoughts of turkeys and stuffing and cranberries and pie are running through your head. We wish you the most wonderful Thanksgiving, and we are thankful for each and every one of you. So, for those still stuck at work, click the break, and put it on your second monitor, for Hulu has saw fit to bestow upon us all, a great American tradition: The WKRP in Cincinnati Christmas Episode. If you haven’t seen it, you should.
By Rebecca
‘Turkey cupcake tutorial’
courtesy of ‘kristdin_a’
The turkey is still brining, the potatoes aren’t even peeled and the pies are still cooling, and I’m already thinking about what to do with the leftovers. Of course, there’s the traditional turkey fixings sandwich, which requires putting every item from the meal between two slices of bread and then prying your mouth open like a boa constrictor and jamming it in there. And however much I love me a leftover sammie, there’s only so much our palates can tolerate, so it’s high time we look into other creative options for the food exploding out of the fridge.
Let’s start with potatoes. These tubers are perhaps the most versatile leftover you have at your disposal. If you’re left with boiled or roasted potatoes, they make the perfect based for Alton Brown’s breakfast hash, or some potatoes au-gratin or the crispy topping of a pot pie. If you have some whole potatoes left over of the yam variety, then I suggest using them in this simple sweet potato casserole. And should you have an ample portion of mashed potatoes, add some bacon, onions, chives, or if you like seafood some cooked white fish, and mold them into 3″ potato cakes. Pan fry the cakes until they have a golden, crispy exterior on both sides, and garnish with sour cream, applesauce or whatever accompaniment your palate desires. Continue reading
‘flea_circus’
courtesy of ‘easement’
It’s a holiday weekend, and you may very well be heading out of town (I’m in Hawaii, myself). But if you’re around, here’s what we’re finding to occupy ourselves over the long weekend while everyone else is away.
Max: I’ll be heading out to West Virginia to practice my banjo and to have Thanksgiving dinner with a small group of friends. I’ll be eager to get back to DC though as it will no doubt be a ghost town like it always is around the holidays. Parking is abundant and tourists are at home instead of clogging up our escalators. My plan is to go to some museums, take in a concert, get caught up on some reading, and see as many movies as possible.
Rebecca: I’ll be up in Charm City (aka Baltimore) for the holiday feast and hope to taste some pulled beers at the Wharf Rat. The weekend will find me back in DC and hoping to take advantage of a less populated Capital for a viewing of the Terra Cota Warriors exhibit and a jaunt around the Mall. Should you be a football fan, like me, there are plenty of quality professional and college games to be had and watching them at the ESPN Zone would be an interesting venue for you and any visiting family. Sunday, I think I’ll recover from the 4 day festivities by drinking a nice glass of Le Beaujolais Noveau that just arrived at Whole Foods. Continue reading
And the second we thought they were gone…
The Real World DC trailer was released. Hoorah! The standard MTV formula of drama, binge drinking, bar fights, and in-house romance are scheduled for this season’s messy rendition of the original reality television show.
8 strangers, 1 house, what a mess. Is it bad that I find immense comfort in the fact that this stuff is hilarious? I think not! It’s been 20 plus years. They would’ve shelved the Real World if it wasn’t good by now — right?
Season 23 premieres Dec. 30 at 10 pm. Get ready, it’s gonna be a wild and trashy joyride you don’t want to miss.
By Donna C.
Soon the holiday shopping season will be in full force — so here’s one way to avoid the crowds at the mall.
Next Thursday, Dec. 3, the Sewall-Belmont House & Museum, headquarters of the historic National Woman’s Party, will hold a holiday bazaar from 4-8 p.m.
You can cruise for gifts from 20 vendors, including female artisans, selling eco-friendly products, jewelry, paper crafts, art, textiles, fine tea and chocolates, plus items from the U.S. Capitol Historical Society. There also will be music, wine, refreshments and free gift wrap.
It’s the perfect excuse to sleep in on Black Friday.
By Ben H. Rome
Connecticut Avenue, courtesy of Daquella manera
It’s the day before Thanksgiving, one of the busiest travel days of the year. Here’s some common sense tips to help make your journey a little less stressful – and a whole lot safer.
Chances are if you’re reading this on the day before Thanksgiving, you’re either not going anywhere for the holiday weekend, you’re stuck at work hoping they’ll cut you loose early, or you procrastinated until the last minute and you need to leave five minutes ago. Still, regardless of your situation, I’m fairly sure these tips will come in handy at some point during the next six weeks as the end of the year comes upon us.
By Don
‘Film! – Canon A-1 – Headlines – 11-5-08’
courtesy of ‘mosley.brian’
I saw it on a twitter mention by ABC’s Rick Klein, but FishbowlDC has the full memo: The Washington Post is closing their domestic bureaus in New York, Chicago, and LA. It’s not a big surprise – newspapers all over are steadily moving towards using more and more wire services for day to day coverage outside their home area.
‘It’s been awhile’
courtesy of ‘afagen’
Washington Wizards owner and former owner of both the Capitals and Mystics Abe Pollin has passed away at age 85.
Pollin owned Washington Sports & Entertainment, the company that owns both the Wizards and the Verizon Center, making him in large part responsible for the revitalization of Chinatown. He was the longest-tenured owner in the NBA, and brought NHL to DC.
He graduated from George Washington University in 1945, started his own construction business in 1957 with his wife Irene. His presence in the DC community will be missed but his contributions to DC sports remain.
By Jenn Larsen
The cast of the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, directed by Maria Aitken. Photo by Scott Suchman.
For the first thirty minutes of Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of “As You Like It,” I was entranced. The characters were on a journey through the history of American cinema, and the first scene’s send-up of a silent film had the audience delighted. Director Maria Aitken’s evocation of that era was perfect, from the stylized acting and Basil Rathbone-ish villians to the exquisite design elements. Then, we jumped ahead in time. She still had me with the move from Puritan England to Valley Forge America, the exiled duke and his men becoming George Washington and his ragtag soldiers.
But when we arrived at Tara and saw Scarlett O’Hara, my eyes began to hurt. By the end of some three hours of constant location and time changes through the Reconstruction, Wild West and up to a Busby Berkeley musical, I had a migraine. There was a faux movie director on stage occasionally calling “cut!” – but what this production really needed was a better editor.
I normally don’t object to Shakespeare productions that take sweeping liberties or use radical conceptualizations. After all, these are plays that have been done repeatedly for centuries, and they need a face-lift sometimes. But I do object when concepts don’t serve the purpose of the story. And this one, as beautiful as it is, does not.
It also must’ve cost a bundle, as one audience member muttered under her breath when a large neon sign shone for just one scene.
I don’t fault Aitken’s ambition, merely the execution. It’s a testament to her skill that the acting is top-notch. Continue reading
By Kirk
Photo by Allen Combs
A reader and WUSA 9 report that a man threw Molotov cocktails into the intersection at 17th and K St.. He was apparently holding a sign that said “Justice” on top of a van with “Not my $200 Million” emblazoned on the side. It is not clear exactly what he was protesting. Police arrived on the scene quickly and took the man into custody. At this point, it appears that no one was hurt, although traffic is stopped at the intersection in question. We’ll get back to you with more details as they become available.
Update 3:05: DC Fire and EMS Twitter reports a suspicious package in the van.
Update 3:08: Live video feed of 17th and K St. intersection.
Update 3:13: One of the entrances to Farragut North is closed due to the incident.
Update 3:20: Officers seem to be moving around the van without much trepidation. The suspicious package appears to have been a false alarm.
Update 3:27: Van driven away by police. It appears as though the incident is wrapping up. Can any readers on the scene confirm the Molotov cocktails?
Update 3:50: Intersection is reported to be clear. Just in time for it to get gridlocked by Maryland drivers during rush hour!
Update 4:00: Several witnesses (thanks Sean!) report that there weren’t actually any Molotov cocktails, after all. WUSA 9 still reports that 3 were thrown.
By Katie
‘Day 214: Red and the Black’
courtesy of ‘InspirationDC’
Had enough Sticky Rice and margs from the Country Club? Ready for something new? Lucky you. H Street is expanding, and introducing a new Asian restaurant and a seafood/pizza place.
The Hamilton Restaurant Group, Inc. applied for a liquor license for their new endeavor, Liberty Tree. They describe Liberty Tree to be “A seafood and brick oven pizza restaurant with recorded music. No entertainment. Occupancy Load is 57 and Summer Garden of 144 seats.” Liberty Tree will be located at 1016 H Street, N.E. The lovely Nicole over at The Hill Is Home had a chance to talk with the owners at the H street festival and she seems stoked about the seafood dishes.
Foodies LLC also applied for a Name TBD “new restaurant featuring Asian cuisine and a summer garden with 25 seats. Request an entertainment endorsement to feature live bands, DJ, and Karaoke with no designated dance floor. Occupancy load of 99.” The TBD place is located at 1110 H Street, NE, a few blocks west of the main drag of clubs and restaurants on H.
Personally? I’m still stoked for the beer garden. I’ve been dry cleaning my dirndl.
By Don
No, not lame-duck congresscritters. Actual zombies. Well, simulated zombies anyway.
This little game demo is making the twitter rounds at the moment. It’s a little sim that runs in your web browser and shows a theoretical zombie outbreak in DC, just south of Ft Totten park. Here’s a google maps overhead of the region, but it’s way more fun in the sim with the shambling and shooting.
At the moment all you can do is alter some settings like number of armed civilians and which direction the zombies come from but presumably this is on its way to an actual game. It will let you set the percentage of armed civilians down to the pre-2008 level 0% when there were, of course, no guns in the district.
By Don
‘cheat’
courtesy of ‘cdrummbks’
The DC Wire blog reports that 12 DCPS schools have been ordered to open investigations into their 2009 test scores. This is some weak sauce, given that this concern is nothing new. Initially Superintendent of Education Kerri Briggs declined to pursue that issue further because the review came back “inconclusive,” but when you have a statistical suspicion of wrong-doing and an inconclusive result… well personally I think that warrants continuing analysis till you get exculpatory or conclusive results, but hey – it’s just our children’s educations and our money, right?
So now the suspect schools are asked to conduct their own analysis, which I’m unclear on the appropriateness of. Does this mean the superintendent thinks that this could have happened without the involvement of the higher-ups at these schools? Or is this a cross-the-t measure to make sure that if they’re cheaters they have to at least learn to be cheaters who can cover their own tracks better?
The superintendent’s office refuses to reveal which 12 schools were asked to conduct investigations.
By shannon
‘Metro_Compared’
courtesy of ‘Don Whiteside’
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Mythbusting! After our last feature busted some misconceptions about the busiest Metro stations and lines, we’ll tackle another Metro myth this week: that the Metro map that you see in stations is proportional. The official Metro map shows right angles and evenly-spaced stations throughout the system, and all lines look to be generally the same length. So the real Metro system looks the same when it’s drawn to scale, right?
By Cathy
‘Chef Albisu’s Wild Mushroom Risotto’
courtesy of ‘CathyLovesDC’
As you read this morning in Katie’s Capital Chef’s Part I, we recently endeavored into the kitchen of Chef Victor Albisu of BLT Steak. He sweetened us up with true Basque-region products and later topped off two steaming bowls of wild mushroom risotto with a quail egg and shaved truffles. We were smitten.
But cooking in the kitchen with Chef Albisu was only half the battle. After jotting down quick notes and approximations of his mastery, I returned to my kitchen to recreate the heavenly, buttery, moist-yet-crunchy wild mushroom risotto. All for you, dear reader.
As it turns out, making the risotto was just as easy as the chef had made it seem. Following a few very important pointers, I’m pretty sure you can get through this with me, and end up all the wiser (or maybe you already knew all of this…) And what’s even better, especially in my opinion, is that I was able to recreate his incredible flavor with a bottle of Trader Joe’s wine, a package of button mushrooms, and some extra garlic. Continue reading
By Rebecca
‘OH GOD TURKEY.’
courtesy of ‘ibroadfo’
I’m sure we all have them, or have at least been a party to them. My story involves our next door neighbors nearly setting our apartment building on fire by leaving their bird in the oven a tad too long. There we were, just sitting down to our meal, when the sirens sounded and the firemen were knocking on our door. Luckily, the building didn’t go up in flames, and I believe our neighbors celebrated by hitting up the Chinese restaurant around the corner.
Have any really good Thanksgiving mishap stories? Share them and we can all hopefully learn from our mistakes.
By Tom Bridge
‘Unidentified woman working with scientific equipment: Miami, Florida’
courtesy of ‘State Library and Archives of Florida’
Via the New York Times comes the news that the Obama White House will be holding Science Fairs to honor those individuals who are capable at producing scientific knowledge and events, and not just those who are good at sports:
“If you win the N.C.A.A. championships, you come to the White House. Well, if you’re a young person and you’ve produced the best experiment or design, the best hardware or software, you ought to be recognized for that achievement, too,” Mr. Obama said. “Scientists and engineers ought to stand side by side with athletes and entertainers as role models, and here at the White House, we’re going to lead by example.”
To this I say: Fuck Yeah, Science.
By Donna C.
‘20091015-IMG_1297’
courtesy of ‘kellyv’
Spiffy uniforms aren’t the only thing green about the Girl Scouts these days. These kids are out to make the planet a better place, and not just by selling those scrumptious Thin Mints.
Scouts in our area are taking on “Forever Green” Community Action Projects to green their schools and communities, and they’re looking for mentors. If you’re willing to give advice on a variety of environmental projects — composting lunch food, creating green spaces, and the like — let them know.
The time commitment is minimal — only two meetings, plus e-mails and phone calls — for projects that wrap up by June. Who knows, maybe they’ll even give you a badge.
By Katie
The first thing that you need to know about him is that Chef Victor Albisu has a calm, dry sarcasm that I find highly entertaining. Cathy and I recently stopped by his Farragut restaurant, BLT Steak, to learn how to cook mushroom risotto.
We walk into his kitchen and Chef Albisu pulls out a pan of mushrooms and a big round of Idiazabal cheese from the Basque Country of Spain. “Spain is my favoritist place in the world,” Chef Albisu deadpans. “I’ve been incorporating elements of Basque cuisine into my cooking recently.” And as he pours oil and rice into a pan, letting Cathy take the spoon, we launch into a conversation about Chef Albisu’s cooking styles and whether garlic is better than truffles. Continue reading
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