This Saturday, June 13, Washington DC’s first Kids’ Restaurant Week kicks off with a day of kids-cooking demos and other fun at historic Eastern Market. Kids’ Restaurant Week, June 13-21, is sponsored by Cookie and Gourmet, my two favorite magazines, and took place last year in New York and Chicago. This year, they bring the fun to the District’s youngest foodies with early 5-7pm seatings and special prix fixe menus for grown-ups and kids at more than a dozen DC restaurants. Grown-ups will pay $29 and kids under 12 pay their age. And these aren’t your usual casual/chain “safety” choices, but truly some of the city’s best, including several who emphasize local, organic and seasonal ingredients such as Art and Soul, Dino, Firefly and Zola. Visit the website for the complete list and to make reservations. A portion of proceeds go to two worthwhile local charities, Miriam’s Kitchen and the Eastern Market renovation fund. I wish we could try every restaurant but I don’t want to push my luck at keeping the boy on his best behavior too many nights in a row!

Several of the restaurants have posted their menus online, so you can take a look before deciding. A few of the highlights: alphabet tomato soup at Belga Cafe; pasta with wild boar sauce (or meatballs) at Dino; a pop tart filled with Pennsylvania mushrooms, brie and asparagus at Juniper; shrimp and mushroom fried rice at Mie N Yu; lamb meatball sliders at Zola; and at Firefly, kids can decorate their own cookie after dinner. Firefly has a creative kids’ menu available anytime, that includes a side of broccoli & dip and other healthy options, if you miss out on the official restaurant week.

The kick-off schedule for Saturday at Eastern Market (225 7th Street, SE):

• 10 a.m. – Kids’ Market Lesson: Bowers Cheese
• 11 a.m. – Chef Demo: Travis Timberlake of Art & Soul
• 11:30 a.m. – Kids’ Market Lesson: Agora Farms
• 12 p.m. – Chef Demo: Greg Lloyd of Zola
• 1 p.m. – Chef Demo: Danny Bortnick of Firefly (joined by his son Jonah)

Over at Metrocurean, you can find more kid-friendly food events and deals in her “Kids Week” series … and be sure to check out today’s post for some foodie parenting advice from yours truly!

I use the term “Chesapeake Bay Foodshed” to describe the region from which we source as much of our fresh food as possible. Foodshed is a play on the term “watershed,” and it’s no secret that the Chesapeake Bay watershed is in trouble.

Aside from a love of fresh oysters, crab and fish, I have strong personal ties to the Bay as well.

My mother’s ancestors were among the early settlers on Maryland’s Eastern Shore centuries ago. My husband and I were married on Kent Island, less than a mile from the creek bearing the family’s name.

On my dad’s side, he grew up in the District and no family gathering is complete without a crab feast. The day after our wedding, my Grandpop sat my poor Jewish husband down and said, “Now that you’re part of this family, you need to learn how to pick crab.” He was a good sport about it but still prefers to let others do the work. As for me, it just isn’t summer without a trip to Quarterdeck in Arlington for a dozen crabs on a humid evening.

If we’re going to continue to enjoy local blue crab, significant actions must be taken to clean up the Bay. The Clean Water Act is 30 years old. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had a 2010 deadline to get the Bay off the “dirty waters” list, and has admitted they might not make it before 2020. If you caught last night’s “Poisoned Waters” documentary, you saw how drastic the decline has been for oysters (2 million bushels to 100,000 bushels a year) and fish (most species are already gone completely). The Bay can’t wait any longer! Please join me and fellow “Blog for the Bay” participants and sign the petition to the EPA Administrator urging them to avoid any further delay.

Blog for the Bay Round-Up: Please visit these other local blogs to hear more stories about what the Chesapeake Bay and its seafood mean to all of us, and chime in with your own stories in the comments or on your own blog. Check back here and at my co-host The Arugula Files for updated links later in the day. And please share on Facebook &/or Twitter (hashtag #blog4thebay), too!

• Arugula Files tells of an unsuccessful crabbing experience, and the iconic Cantler’s Riverside Inn. (And a previous post about the sustainability of Maryland’s blue crabs.)
• Capital Spice tells of a favorite market vendor, Chris’ Marketplace.
• The Green Phone Booth’s JessTrev reminisces about roof deck parties and a soft shell sandwich to mark Bill Clinton’s inauguration.
• Capital Cooking Show’s Lauren was recently introduced to blue crabs after moving here from the Midwest.
• Metrocurean used “pretty please with crabcakes on top” to beg favors from her father, and shares her grandmother’s crabcake recipe.
• Plight of the Pumpernickel gives a tutorial in eating those steamed blue crabs.
• DCist chimes in with a plug for the Maine Avenue Fish Wharf, and link to those terrific “save the crabs .. then eat ‘em” ads of a few years back.
• Endless Simmer sees ulterior motives in our campaign. (Hey, we’re not denying our self-interest. Crabs are yummy!)
• Internet Food Association is stung by Old Bay and scary magic cards.
• Etsy Inspiration gives us a look at arts and crafts inspired by the Bay.

Related: The Chesapeake Bay Daily has a graphic representation of the Bay’s blame game, and our campaign is featured on the CBF blog.

Can you imagine DC cuisine without soft shells, crab cakes and crab pickin’? Neither can we!

Calling all District foodies! FoodieTots and The Arugula Files will be co-hosting “Blog for the Bay” this Wednesday, April 22. Please join local food advocates on Earth Day and help rally District foodies to support clean water in the Chesapeake Bay. To participate, simply post about the Chesapeake Bay (a favorite memory, favorite place to eat crabs, best crab cake recipe, anything!) and include a link to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s petition urging the EPA to quit delaying action to help save our Bay. Please mention “Blog for the Bay” in your post and link to hosts FoodieTots.com and ArugulaFiles.com. Feel free to use the graphic as well (just right click to save to your computer, and upload to your own server).

See the Facebook event page or contact foodietots@gmail.com for more details. Links will also be posted in round-ups on FoodieTots.com and ArugulaFiles.com, and will be updated throughout the day. Please help us spread the word and check back on Wednesday for the “Blog for the Bay” round-up!

I’ve written before about Share Our Strength and their work to fight childhood hunger in cities and neighborhoods across the US. I’m on the volunteer committee for their upcoming Taste of the Nation event here in DC, so you can expect to hear more from me on ways to help support their efforts. The new campaign, below, takes just a few seconds so please check it out and consider making a contribution and telling your friends about it, too!

Share Our Strength has launched a brand new campaign to raise funds to help end childhood hunger.  “Operation No Kid Hungry” responds to President Obama’s call to action to end childhood hunger by 2015.

Share Our Strength has partnered with AT&T to make it easy to support and participate in “Operation No Kid Hungry”:

Donate by text: Text “SHARE” to 20222 on your mobile device to donate $5. AT&T will match all text donations up to $100,000. Help us meet this challenge grant! Click here to find out more.

For more information about “Operation No Kid Hungry” and how you can help end childhood hunger, visit Share Our Strength’s website.

Still on the hunt for a few last-minute gifts? Give the gift that gives back with raffle tickets for the Menu for Hope fundraiser, benefiting the World Food Programme.

You can give a chance to win the Foodie Tot’s favorite marshmallows & autographed copy of Ina Garten’s newest book, or check out other great prizes from foodbloggers around the world. Just don’t go up against me for two tickets to a taping of Iron Chef America. Or my favorite Rogue River Blue Cheeses. But whichever gifts you choose, Ms. Adventures in Italy (great blog!) has prepared gift vouchers you can print or email with your gift. All from the comfort of your computer.

Washington, DC, Foodie Gifts

• If you’re braving the chill in DC to finish your shopping, you can give the gift of good food with a gift certificate to one of DC’s local food supporting restaurants: Equinox, Restaurant Eve, Vidalia, Vermilion, Blue Duck Tavern, Founding Farmers, Corduroy, or kid-friendly Clyde’s.
• Pack up a cheese gift bucket (supporting small farms and artisan cheesemakers) at Cowgirl Creamery or Cheesetique (open 11am-5pm on Christmas Eve).
• And for the little foodie, check out the kid-geared cookie cutters and PVC-free vinyl aprons at Hill’s Kitchen (open 10am-7pm on Christmas Eve). I picked up train cookie cutters for my toddler, and a football cookie cutter and butterfly cookie press for some friends.

Green Wrapping

I’ve been wrapping food gifts in reusable kitchen towels since before Poland Spring was making “eco-friendly” plastic bottles. Spare yourself the picked-over selection of paper gift wrap left in the store and head to the kitchen section for a more sustainable gift wrap. (I like MU’s bamboo dish towels, available at Hill’s Kitchen or online.)

Books for Little Foodies

If you don’t have a kitchen boutique near you, check out Erin Cooks‘ and Serious Eats‘ guides to food-centered children’s books for some great suggestions.

Happy shopping – keep warm out there!

PS Alexandrian’s, stop by and see Tom the Cheese Guy on Saturday, December 27, in the Del Ray market lot. Unless the roads ice over, he’ll be bringing his farm-fresh dairy products down from Pennsylvania all winter long. Smith Meadows has also been there with a small selection of winter produce to supplement their meat and fresh pastas.