“Thank you for doing this,” she says.

On a recent Saturday, the couple was among nearly three dozen people crowded into the hangar at Skydive Iowa.

Some were there for the adrenaline rush or to conquer their fear of heights. Several were there to cross an item off their bucket list. All — like Ziegenhorn, Rensimer and this author — were about to jump out of a plane on a static skydive at Skydive Iowa.

“I’ve always wanted to skydive even though I’m terrified of heights,” Rensimer of Iowa City says. “I’m scared of the high dive at the swimming pool.”

A half-price deal on a solo sky diving experience was too great to pass up, though, so Rensimer bought one each for her and her boyfriend Ziegenhorn.

Tom Cline of Fairfax was one of the few students with experience jumping out of a plane.

“I went on a tandem jump when I first moved to Cedar Rapids and I loved it,” Cline says.

That was four years ago, but Cline has yet to forget the sensation of falling.

“I wanted to rush of doing it myself,” he says.

For Christine Morfit, the jump was something of a celebration.

“It’s my senior year in college, so I definitely wanted to do something crazy,” says the Cornell College senior.

Skydive Iowa Owner Bruce Kennedy has completed nearly 6,000 jumps. The first, he says, was a static jump in the 1970s.

During a jump with static line, the parachute is linked to the airplane. The jumper exits the plane under the supervision of a jump master, free-falling for only a few seconds before the parachute is pulled open by the static line.

“People think you can’t make your first jump solo,” Kennedy tells the students. “You’re going to prove them wrong.”

For nearly six hours, Kennedy prepares the students for their jump. The students practice exiting the plane in the arch position, counting off the seconds before the parachute is fully opened. A video explains what to do if the main parachute fails to open, emphasizing the multiple backups that will activate the secondary parachute if a student panics in the air.

Then there’s the landing. As Kennedy demonstrates landing positions, experienced skydivers land throughout the field — some with more grace than others.

Joe Hartman of Swisher is one of the “weekend jumpers.” He completed his first jump soon after his 16th birthday and continued the sport until he started a family. He started jumping again in 2010.

“When you exit the aircraft, it’s all adrenaline,” Hartman says.

Ziegenhorn and Rensimer agree.

“It was so peaceful — after the first 30 seconds,” Rensimer says with a laugh minutes after landing. “There’s nothing else like it.”

“I love how it’s super loud in the plane and then you get out and it’s super quiet,” Ziegenhorn adds.

Reporter crosses skydiving off bucket list

I have stopped tracking my grocery costs and writing a weekly menu.

I blame the craziness that is the end of the school year. Both kids have had art shows and final concerts, Girl Scout meetings and tests to study for. I see summer on the horizon. I am ready!

With the last day of school just days away, I am attempting to get back on a food schedule. My weekend grocery trip cost me $185, which is a little high, but I co-hosted a baby shower on Saturday, so I had to make food for that. Here’s what my family is eating this week:

• SUNDAY: Southwest beef salad with cornbread croutons (I love this salad!)
• MONDAY: Tomato soup with cheddar cheese biscuits (recipe below)
• TUESDAY: Sauteed chicken with mushrooms, served with pasta
• WEDNESDAY: Going out to dinner with friends (Cheating, yes, but what can you do?)
• THURSDAY: Chicken Francese with steamed asparagus
• FRIDAY: Italian-style meatloaf and garlic bread
• SATURDAY: TBD

Making out the menu is half the battle with the end-of-the-day dinner rush. Well, that and remembering to take the meat out of the freezer to that in the refrigerator.

QUICK CHEESE BISCUITS

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 11/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2/3 cup milk

Serves 8

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Stir in Cheddar.

Cut in butter using a pastry blender or 2 knives until coarse crumbs form.

Using a fork. stir milk into flour mixture until a soft dough forms. Do not overmix or overwork the dough.

Drop dough in heaping teaspoons onto an ungreased baking sheet. Bake until biscuits are firm to the touch, about 15 minutes.

I plan to make up for it tomorrow, though. I have the day off (Yay!) and plan to prep for the baby shower I’m co-hosting with The Gazette’s higher education reporter, Diane Heldt. Between the two of us, we will satisfy sweet cravings for all people in a 30-mile radius. We also plan to make a few savory dishes to offset the sugar.

We felt that is the responsible thing to do.

I can’t go into menu details now since the guest of honor may read this blog, but I promise to have photos and recipes later. For now, though, I’ll enjoy my bowl (actually, my coffee cup) of Quaker Oatmeal. Mmm …

That’s just slightly below the Iowa Association of School Boards’ statewide average of 3.7 percent.

“We have to remember that we’re a district of declining enrollment,” said Susan Clapp, the Cedar Rapids Education Association’s incoming president. “We have no new money coming in. Some of the districts around us have total packages that may look larger, but they have new money coming in.”

The increase will add about $3.5 million to the district’s personnel expenses. The total cost of all salaries and benefits for teachers and nurses in Cedar Rapids schools will be $100.5 million next year.

Teachers from Monroe Early Childhood School and Polk Elementary, which will close at the end of this academic year, have received staff assignments at new buildings throughout the district.

No teachers were laid off this year. Current teachers union President Tammy Wawro said 25 teachers will retire at the end of the school year, and a handful of teachers have resigned, but there were no layoffs.

Teacher contracts will go out before the end of the school year.

For some reason, though, I’m always better on Friday morning.

I tend to stick to simple dinners on Thursday night to accommodate my lack of energy. This week I tried a great minute steak recipe and it was delicious! The perfect cure for the almost-but-not-quite-the-weekend blues.

EASY MINUTE STEAK

• 16 oz. of round steak or cube steak cut into 4 pieces
• 1 package of dry Lipton Onion Soup Mix
• 11/2 cups water
• ¼ cup flour
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix together flour, garlic powder and Italian seasoning.

Dredge steaks in flour mixture and lightly brown in olive oil over stovetop and place in baking dish. Mix onion soup mix and water together. Pour over steaks. Cook for 20 to 30 minutes in the oven.

Note: If you decide to serve mashed potatoes as one of your sides, the liquid leftover after baking the steak is a great base. Pour it in a skillet, heat over medium heat and add a teaspoon or two of flour to thicken.

Second note: I also sautéed sliced mushrooms and onions to serve over the steak.

I loved camp when I was little. Well, I loved the second half of camp. The first few days of any camp session usually found me homesick (my mom still has the “Please come get me” letters to prove it), but after I got over that, camp was the best thing ever!

Growing up, I attended church camp and Girl Scout camp, 4-H camp and horseback riding camp. As I got older, I was a junior counselor, a counselor-in-training and finally, the summer before my junior year in college, a full-fledged camp counselor.

The job is not nearly as glamorous as teen books and movies would have you believe.

Yes, you could call me a camper — if you ignore the fact that I’ve only actually camped out (no schedules or mess halls, counselors or bunk bed) once in my entire life. Twice, if pitching a tent in the front yard for a middle school slumber party counts.

My brother-in-law, who camps by just going to the woods with a backpack and a pocket knife, would tell me it doesn’t. I haven’t asked him, though, because he’ll start planning a summer camping trip for me and my family.

I’m not quite sure I’m ready for that. The idea appeals to me on some level, but then I start wondering about what we’ll eat and if that mountain lion roaming Iowa City last fall is still around.

Still, there are people out there braver than I who don’t freak out when “roughing it” means just that. For them, I will attend a Dutch Oven cooking demonstration Sunday at the Hurstville Interpretive Center in Maquoketa. Doug Gonner will lead the demonstration, focusing on a “Mountain Man” breakfast. I’ll share his expertise in a future Gazette story, but if you don’t want to wait for that, join us in Maquoketa. Those attending the demonstration have the option of bringing their own Dutch Oven and recipe, and Doug will help add the “Wow!” factor to it.

I hope to see you Sunday!

From the press release:

What: Dutch Oven Cooking Demonstration

When: Sunday, May 13, at 1 p.m.

Where: Hurstville Interpretive Center, 18670 63rd St. in Maquoketa

Attention Campers and Outdoor Cooks! Are you tired of the same old campfire meals? Want to impress your friends with a “WOW” factor? Join us for a fun demo by Doug Gonner. He’ll focus on a “Mountain Man” breakfast. Program will be held Sunday May 13 at 1 p.m. at the Hurstville Interpretive Center. Optional: Bring your own Dutch Oven and recipe, and Doug will help you add the “WOW” factor.

Preregistration appreciated in advance to have enough food. Minimal cost for food sampling, bring your own table service. For more information, contact Jackson County Conservation at (563) 652-3783.

This consisted of French bread, cheese and fruit; an incredibly simple meal that pleased everyone — especially Mom. Cooking every night for a family of eight is a thankless job.

I only have four people in my family, but my son is a picky eater, so it feels like more.

My husband and I have tried everything to curb his finicky palate. We even went the “If you don’t like it, you won’t eat” route.

He stopped eating.

We’ve since reached a compromise. He still makes gagging noises when he smells cereal, but our dinners are relatively drama-free because he fixes his own meal if he doesn’t like what I’ve made. He just has to add healthy side dishes like yogurt or carrots to offset dining on peanut butter and crackers. Again.

Despite all he won’t eat, he is participating in my salads-as-meals experiment.

From the following salad, he ate the steak and the lettuce, one of the croutons and tried the red pepper. So he doesn’t eat the entire salad and I can’t put dressing on his serving, but every vegetable that kid digests is another point on my “I’m a good mom” score sheet.

SOUTHWEST BEEF SALAD WITH CORNBREAD CROUTONS

Serves 4

• 10 ounces store-made cornbread, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
• 1 pound flank steak, trimmed
• Salt and pepper
• 7 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro
• 1/4 cup lime juice (two limes)
• 1 jalapeno chili, stemmed, seeded and chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 heads bibb lettuce, leaves torn into bite-sized pieces
• 1 red bell pepper, stemmed and seeded, sliced thin

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Coat rimmed backing sheets with vegetable oil spray and spread cornbread cubes in even layer on the sheet. Coat cubes with oil spray and bake until crispy, about 15 to 18 minutes. Stir halfway through baking.

Pat steak dry and season with salt and pepper. Heat one tablespoon oil in 12-inch skillet and heat over medium-high heat until just smoking. Cook steak until meat registers 125 degrees, 3 to 5 minutes on each side. Transfer to cutting board, tent with foil and let rest for 5 minutes.

Process remaining 6 tablespoons of vegetable oil, cilantro, lime juice, jalapeno, garlic and 1 teaspoon salt in food processor until smooth. Transfer 1/3 cup dressing to large bowl and toss with lettuce and pepper. Salt and pepper to taste.

Slice steak thin against grain. Transfer lettuce mixture to serving plate, top with steak and croutons, and drizzle with remaining dressing.

Source: America’s Test Kitchen Simple Weeknight Favorites (America’s Test Kitchen; 2012)

Today it was muffins for my daughter’s elementary schoolteachers in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week. Whoever came up with Teacher Appreciation Week certainly knew what they were doing, scheduling it for mid-May. Everyone needs a boost with the end of the school year so near and yet so far …

OATMEAL MUFFINS

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare muffin pans.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg.

In a second bowl, combine the butter and sugar. Using an electric mixer, beat until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, until fully combined. Add milk, and beat for 30 seconds more.

Add flour mixture to liquid mixture. Combine with a spoon, not a mixer. Pour muffin mix into muffin pans, filling cups about 2/3 full. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes and then transfer to a plate.

Image courtesy of amazon.com

Continuing my sporadic books-for-foodies book club, I present Erica Bauermeister’s “The School of Essential Ingredients.”

Can food spark a memory? That’s the theme of Bauermeister’s book.

This fun read follows the loves of eight students who meet at Lillian’s Restaurant every Monday for cooking class. The lineup includes Claire, a young mother struggling to reclaim her identity outside of motherhood; long-time couple Carl and Helen, whose perfect marriage isn’t always truthful; and Tom, who is still mourning the loss of his wife.

Each character has a chapter in the book, which reads like a stand-alone story, but is still part of the bigger tale. As classes progress, the students learn more about who they were and what they can be. As their skills in the kitchen increases, so does their willingness to open themselves to life.

Uncle Mike and the kids at Wilson's Orchard last fall.

We invited Mike and my sister, Alex, over for dinner this past weekend. We dined on spaghetti Carbonara, bruschetta and apple pie.

OK, the pie didn’t go with the Italian theme, but what else do you make a new teacher for dessert?

DEEP-DISH APPLE PIE

• 2 ready-made pie pastry sheets (or you can make your own)
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 6 cups peeled, sliced apples
• 2/3 cup, plus 1 tsp sugar
• 1/8 tsp salt
• ¼ tsp ground allspice
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ¼ ground cloves
• 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp butter, cut into pieces

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Fit one sheet of pie pastry into a deep-dish pie plate.

Combine lemon juice and apples in a large bowl. Add 2/3 cup sugar, salt, allspice, cinnamon, cloves and flour; toss well.

Spread apple mixture over piecrust in dish. Dot with butter. Arrange second pastry sheet over apples. Press lightly to seal edges. Trim overhanging crust.

Make 4 slits in top crust; sprinkle with remaining sugar. Bake for 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees. Bake until filling bubbles, about 30 minutes longer. Let pie cool completely before slicing.

Recipe courtesy Easy Everyday Cooking

For me, it’s apples, eggs, milk (although we never seem to have enough), bread and boneless chicken breasts.

According to a report from the NPD Group, eggs, cheddar cheese, yogurt and soy sauce top the list of items commonly found in Americans’ kitchens.

(I assume they mean actual bottles of soy sauce and not the little plastics you get whenever you order Chinese takeout.)

The NPD Group is an organization which collects and distributes data on consumer and retail trends. Every three years, the group releases a “Kitchen Audit.”

While most of this information is used to help food and kitchen appliance makers with their marketing, this year’s report includes the results of a survey to find what foods families keep “on hand.”

Close to 3,000 households nationwide participated in the survey.

Another food item making the popular list was canned pumpkin. That sounds random, but I get it. I associate pumpkin with fall baking, especially pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread, but canned pumpkin is one of those things I tend to buy in bulk when it’s on sale and then forget I have. If I were at home right now, I could probably locate a can or two in the Lazy Susan.

Items the survey participants said they “never” keep on hand include mincemeat, artichokes, turnips, and almonds.

(Do people really keep mincemeat on hand? Who are they? I want to meet them and ask why.)

I am happy to report I always keep a bag of slivered almonds in my freezer (the freezer is the best place to store nuts their natural oils which can cause them to spoil if left in a cupboard). You never know when you decide you want to add some crunch to a salad or stir fry.

According to the report, the number of people who live in a household has a lot to do with the items in the pantry. Homes with five or more people are more likely stocked with marshmallows and frosting, and baking mixes for cake and muffins or breads than single-person residences.

That totally explains the four boxes of white cake mix in my pantry.

It could be the texture. I’m not a fan of mushy things, like bananas.

I hate bananas. But I love banana cake. Go figure.

Scott loves lasagna. Love it. A few months before our 13th wedding anniversary, I finally made it for him for dinner.

I am a good wife.

Turns out, I like lasagna rolls, so now we have them every month or so. Emma likes then, too, but Braedyn continues to make his “There-is-no-way-I’m-eating-that” face and makes himself a hot dog instead. Hey, it took me 30+ years to finally find a lasagna recipe I like. Maybe he’ll be like me.

CLASSIC LASAGNA ROLLS

• 12 lasagna noodles
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 26-ounce jar pasta sauce
• 1 15-ounce container ricotta cheese
• 11/4 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 13×9 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.

Cook the noodles according to package directions. Drain. Lay the noodles flat on waxed paper.

Cook the ground beef, onion and garlic in a medium skillet over medium-high heat, until meat is brown and crumbly. Drain. Add pasta sauce, bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Spread two cups sauce mixture in the prepared baking dish.

Mix the ricotta and 1 cup mozzarella in a large bowl. Spread about 3 tablespoons cheese mixture evenly over each lasagna noodle.

Roll up the noodles tightly. Place seam sides down, over the sauce in the baking dish. Spoon the remaining sauce over the rolls. Sprinkle with the Parmesan. Bake until the rolls are heated through and bubbly, about 30 minutes. Sprinkle with the remaining mozzarella. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Note: I half this recipe to serve three and we usually have a roll or two leftover for lunch the next day. They reheat very well.

I’m sure his list was similar to most of the kids in his class — popcorn, peanut butter sandwiches and pizza. The assignment was to help students think about where their food comes from, but it made me realize how few vegetables my son eats.

He’s not alone.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends we eat three to five servings of vegetables and two to four servings of fruit a day.

Confession: I’ve never met that daily goal. I’m lucky to get half of the daily requirements.

Second confession: I made my son eat a carrot and a cup of baby spinach so he could add both to his food list.

I heard someone say that if everyone in America actually ate the recommended servings of fruit and vegetables, our country would run out of both in less than a week. They were joking, but there’s nothing wrong with trying to eat more greens.

The first day of the month is a great time to start adding more vegetables to our diets. The easiest way I can think of to do that is by serving more salads as meals. The fact that May is National Salad Month is just a happy coincidence.

Spinach Salad with Roast Chicken and Peaches

For the salad

2 whole chicken breasts, skin on and bone in

Salt and pepper, to taste

1 pound spinach, stemmed, washed and dried

2 peaches, pitted and cut into 8 slices each

1 red bell pepper, cut into strips

For the dressing

1/4 cup pitted Kalamata olives

3 cloves garlic, peeled

1 teaspoon grainy mustard

1 tablespoon honey

3/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In blender or food processor, combine the olives, garlic, mustard and honey and puree. With the motor still running, add the olive oil in a steady stream. Turn off the motor and add the vinegar and parsley, pulse to blend, and season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Rub the chicken with salt and pepper and roast for 35 minutes, or until done. Remove from oven and allow to slightly cool. When cool enough to handle, remove chicken from the bones. Slice meat into 1/2-inch thick pieces.

In a large bowl, combine the spinach, peaches and red pepper. Stir the dressing well and add just enough to moisten the ingredients (you will have dressing leftover) and toss to coat. Place the dressed mixture on individual plates, portion out the chicken pieces on top of each serving, and serve. Makes 4 servings.

Source: “Lettuce in Your Kitchen” by Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby (William Morrow and Company, Inc.; 1996)

That was the question Emma asked me Thursday evening. She had asked a few days before, too, but I always managed to successfully change the subject.

Emma is 11 and completely capable of making cookies by herself. I was baking cookies and cakes and brownies at her age — I was probably even younger. I didn’t have any safety concerns, but cleanliness concerns.

I am neat. Very neat. My kitchen is spotless and the best way for me to keep it that way is to keep my family out of it. They can make their breakfasts and lunches just fine, but anything involving multiple bowls and measuring cups makes me tense. I imagine clouds of flour and smoking hand mixers.

The smoking hand mixer thing actually happened. Ask Scott. (In his defense, it was probably time for a new one, but this explains why he’s scared to even look at the Kitchen Aid Mixer.)

That being said, I know I need to let go and let my kids use the kitchen. How else will they survive college? Especially when one of my kids refuses to eat cereal?

Emma poured over several cookie cookbooks Friday morning, finally choosing Midnight Cookies as her inaugural cookie recipe. Aside from a mix-up with the butter, which led to us doubling the recipe to save it (“I have to use math making cookies?!?” she cried), I think the cookies turned out pretty well. We all ate more than we should, which is always a good sign. Even better, the kitchen was messy, but not horribly so. Emma cleaned what she could and Scott, bless him, washed the bowls and cookie sheets while I was at the grocery store.

He’s still making up for that mixer incident.

MIDNIGHT COOKIES

• 9  tbsp butter, softened
• 1  cup superfine sugar
• 1  egg, lightly beaten
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1/2 tsp baking soda

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl, and beat together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until smooth. Stir in the flour, cocoa and baking soda, and beat until well mixed.

With dampened hands, roll walnut-size pieces of the dough into smooth balls. Place of baking sheets, spaced well apart.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until set. Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool.

Classic chicken piccata with a spinach salad topped with bruschetta and white rice flavored with lemon and cilantro.

I do a great job planning meals for the week, but actually making them tends to get lost in the flurry of work, the kids’ activities, homework, laundry, etc. We don’t grab food on the run as much as we used to, but I admit to having a bowl of granola more often than not and calling it supper.

I think that’s why I was so proud serving classic chicken piccata to everyone the other night. It was a good meal, with great sides, and for 30 minutes, we were a family.

CLASSIC CHICKEN PICCATA

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1/4 cup lemon juice (1 large lemon)
• 1/2 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 11/2 tbsp capers (optional)
• 1 tbsp butter or margarine
• 1/2 tsp freshly chopped Italian parsley

Wrap the chicken breasts in plastic and place on a cutting board. Gently pound each breast with a mallet to 1/8-to-1/4-inch thickness. Dredge the chicken with the flour.

Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet  over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook 2 to 3 minutes on each side, until well browned and barely cooked through. Transfer to a plate and cover.

Pour the white wine, lemon juice and chicken broth into the skillet, whisking the browned bit from the bottom of the skillet. Add the capers, if using. Whisk the sauce until slightly thickened.

Add the chicken back to the pan and cook for an additional 2 to 3 minutes, or until cooked through. Remove the chicken and place on plates or a serving dish.

Swirl the butter into the remaining sauce. Pour the sauce over the chicken and top with the parsley.

Recipe courtesy of the Eat What You Love cookbook.

A meat mixture is placed on rounds of dough as women prepare fatayer at the Islamic Center of Cedar Rapids on April 14, 2012. Women at the center made close to 1800 meat-filled pies and close to 200 spinach-filled ones to suit vegetarian tastes for the annual Middle Eastern Dinner on Sunday. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette-KCRG)

CEDAR RAPIDS — Tima Smejkal remembers shadowing the women of the Islamic Center of Cedar Rapids, pen and paper in hand as she tried to write a recipe for fatayer. 

“I’d ask them how much flour to use, how they knew the dough was ready,” Smejkal says.

Her questions were answered — sort of.

“They’d tell me ‘Oh, about a handful’ or ‘You just know,’” Smejkal recalls.

The women weren’t trying to be evasive; this was simply how they made the traditional meat pastry pie. It’s how their grandmothers and mothers made it, how they learned to make it, and how they’re teaching their own daughters and granddaughters.

It isn’t a recipe. It’s a tradition.

“The older generation, who was here before us, they taught all of us,” says Betty Igram, Smejkal’s mother. “Every time a group comes in, they pick up what we teach them. We hope it goes on for generations.”

Preparations for the Islamic Center of Cedar Rapids’ annual Middle Eastern Dinner begin nearly two weeks before the event, with the making of fatayer. The pies will be frozen and reheated the day of the event, but everything else on the menu — from the green bean stew to the rice — is made the day of the dinner.

The women may bake and freeze the pies early to make the dinner itself run smoothly, but it’s still a long day. A small group meets in the center’s kitchen at the crack of dawn to make the pastry dough. Eight hours later, all of the meat pies are finished and work on the spinach pies begins.

By the end of the day, the group of about 20 women will have made roughly 2,000 pies. They work in makeshift assembly lines, floured fingers pinching the dough closed. The clang of metal trays can be heard in the kitchen as dishwashers prepare for the next round of baking. There’s laughter and conversation. More often than not, a woman gives a one-armed hug to a friend as they pass by each other.

The day is 50 percent baking, 50 percent reunion, 100 percent family.

“As soon as you can reach the table, you’re there helping,” says Shadia Igram. “There’s something in us. I don’t know if it’s the culture or the religion. But we thrive off feeding others. It’s almost selfish, we enjoy it so much.”

In fact, Igram traveled to Cedar Rapids from Washington, D.C., to help with the preparations. A family wedding on her husband’s side will keep her from attending the dinner, but she plans to Skype with everyone on the day of the event.

Reema Ajram also grew up watching her mother prepare for the dinner, waiting for her turn to lend a hand.

“It’s been a tradition forever,” says Ajram, 21, a University of Iowa junior. “It gets busy, but it’s so much fun.”

The first dinner was held in 1978. Smejkal says the event stopped for some time, but was brought back by popular demand about 10 years ago.

“It’s a lot of work, but we enjoy it,” says Boushra Igram. “A lot of the ladies, we don’t see each other that often, so we’re able to see each other now and catch up.”

For Noor Azmeh, 10, that means listening to a lot of women comment on how much she’s grown in the past year.

“Five people just came up to me a said that,” the Pierce Elementary School fifth-grader says with a laugh.

Fatayer (Meat Pie)

Dough

3 cups flour

1 package yeast

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1 cup warm water

Filling

3 pounds of 85 percent ground beef

1 large onion, grated

1/2 cup lemon juice

2 tablespoons salt

1 tablespoon pepper

1 1/2 cups crushed tomatoes

Dissolve yeast in warm water, add salt and sugar. Mix flour with liquid mixture, knead until smooth. Cover the dough with plastic or dish towel, let rise until dough doubles in size.

Cut the dough into pieces the size of an apricot; set on floured board or work area. Cover and let rise again.

While the dough is rising, preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Mix together the ground beef, onion, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and crushed tomatoes in a bowl.

Pat dough ball into circle shape. Spread meat mixture evenly onto dough. Be careful not to overfill.

Bring each side to center of dough, pinch closed. Bring up bottom of dough to center, forming a triangle shape.

Bake meat pies until brown.

Note: For a vegetarian option, fatayer can be filled with spinach or cream cheese.

IF YOU GO

• What: Middle Eastern Dinner
• When: 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 4 to 7 p.m. Sunday
• Where: Islamic Center of Cedar Rapids, 2999 First Ave. SW
• On the menu: Lebanese bread, hummus, salad, green bean stew, rice, fatayer, cabbage rolls, baklava and a beverage. Carryout is available.
• Cost: $12 for adults and $6 for kids ages 10 and under at the Islamic Center of Cedar Rapids or Cedar Graphics, Inc., 311 Parsons Dr., in Hiawatha, before the event. Tickets also will be sold at the door the day of the dinner.

Wheat pasta hangs from a broom in my kitchen. Mmmm.

I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time relaxing on Sundays.

I wake up, make my coffee and, as I sit on the couch reading a book or flipping through channels on the TV, I begin to have that anxios feeling of “Tomorrow is Monday! I must be productive! NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

The thing is, it doesn’t even matter if everything off my weekend to-do list is finished. I could even be ahead of the game, but still feel there’s something I must do before 10 p.m. rolls around and another weekend has passed.

I think this is why I tend to make more involved dinners on Sunday night. Being in the kitchen soothes me (I always bake when I’m stressed), plus I know I’m making something great for my dinner that our schedules won’t allow us to have during the week (meetings, story deadlines, art lessons, track practice, Girl Scouts, etc.). If I’m smart, I make extra so one or two of us can enjoy a great lunch on Monday.

Last night I made homemade pasta and red sauce with Italian sausage. It sounds difficult, but all you need is time and a great playlist (I love to listen to music when I cook).

BASIC PASTA

• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 cups wheat flour
• 4 tbsp water

In a medium-sized bowl, combine flour and salt. Make a well in the flour, the slightly beaten eggs, and mix. Mixture should form a stiff dough. If needed, stir in water, one tablespoon at a time.

On a lightly floured surface, knead dough for about 3 to four minutes. Let dough rest under mixing bowl for 30 minutes. Using a pasta machine or by hand, roll out dough to desired thinness. Use machine or knife to cut into strips of desired width.

Boil water and salt. Cook pasta in bathes to prevent sticking. Past will rise to the top of the water when cooked.

BASIC TOMATO SAUCE

• 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 Spanish onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 tsp dried thyme leaves
• 1/4 medium carrot, finely shredded
• 2 cups peeled whole tomatoes, crushed my hand and juices reserved
• salt

In a 3-quart saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic, and cook until soft and light golden brown, about 8 to 10 minutes. Add the thyme and carrot, and cook 5 minutes more, until the carrot is quite soft. Add the tomatoes and juice and bring to a boil, stirring often. Lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes until as hot as thick cereal. Season with salt and serve.

NOTE: I add cooked Italian sausage to my sauce and eliminate the salt.

The Cedar Rapids school district's new Educational Leadership and Support Center. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

The Cedar Rapids school district will review board members’ director districts at Monday’s board meeting.

School boards divided into director districts must review the district boundaries after each federal decennial census to determine whether current boundaries comply with existing laws. According to Iowa Code, school boards should review the law to determine whether changes to district boundaries are necessary.

Board members also will view the Iowa Future video “Iowa, Did You Know?,” which highlights the changes occurring in Iowa and the world. The video, which premiered last summer at the School Administrators of Iowa Conference, shows how schools are working to keep up in today’s global environment.

The school board will recognize District employees who are retiring in 2012 via video presentation and honor the district’s outstanding building volunteers at a reception following the board meeting.

Monday’s meeting begins at 5 p.m. and will be held in the board room of the Educational Learning and Leadership Center at 2500 Edgewood Rd NW. The reception for volunteers begins at 6:30 p.m. and will be held in the building’s main foyer.

Grinnell is offering one enterprising person the chance to win nearly everything they need to open a restaurant with “Iowa’s Best Bite Restaurant Challenge,” a nationwide contest searching for the ideal restaurant concept and restaurateur for a 5,200 square foot Main Street location.

Contestants visit the contest’s website and submit their idea for Grinnell’s ideal restaurant, a sample menu and their resume. A panel will narrow down the submissions into a small group of finalists with the best ideas – and the finalists will be brought to the city for in-person interviews and a cooking challenge.

A group of judges will vote, and the winner gets a restaurant startup package that includes:

• $10,000 in startup cash

• Up to $15,000 in beginning inventory

• Up to $10,000 in smallwares

• A $5,000 branding package by area marketing firm Art A La Carte

• Use of the building’s professional kitchen equipment and three months of free rent, with reduced rent after the three months

• Free signage and awning on the building

• Mentoring by Orchestrate Management, operators of some of Iowa’s hottest restaurants including Django, Centro and Zombie Burger

Contest organizers are hoping the unique nature of the contest will attract the attention of the national media and are pitching the contest as a show idea to national television networks. In addition, contest will feature a web-based video series, as well as online voting of contestant-submitted videos, with the Viewer’s Choice winner automatically making the finals.

To learn more or to enter, visit www.iowasbestbite.com

Participants gobble cupcakes in the Second Annual World Cupcake Eating Championship April 14 at the Isle Casino Hotel Waterloo. (photo submitted)

Combined, this group ate nearly 700 cupcakes.

The winner was Pat “Deepdish” Bertoletti from Chicago. He ate 72 cupcakes in under six minutes, setting a world record.

Wow.

I like cupcakes as well as the next guy, but I don’t know if I could eat that many that quickly. Could you?

The result of the Second Annual World Cupcake Eating Championship Saturday at the Isle Casino Hotel Waterloo:

• 1st place, $1,500 – Pat “Deepdish, 72 cupcakes
• 2nd place, $1,000 – Aaron “A-train” Osthoff, Dubuque, IA, 66 cupcakes
• 2nd place, $1,000 – Tim “Eater X” Janus, New York, NY, 66 cupcakes
• 2nd place, $1,000 – Badlands Booker, New York, NY, 60 cupcakes
• 2nd place, $1,000 – Bob ”Notorious B.O.B.” Shoudt, Royersford, PA, 54 cupcakes

According to the press release, this is the second competitive eating championship the Isle Casino Hotel Waterloo has hosted.

In 2010, Isle of Capri Casinos, Inc. (IOC) established a partnership with Major League Eating to host competitive eating events at several IOC properties. The circuit was a success and the partnership continued into 2011 with nine contests currently scheduled for the year.

In January, Pat “Deepdish” Bertoletti kicked off MLE’s 2011 contests, winning the World Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich Eating Championship at Isle Casino in Biloxi, Miss.; and in March, Bertoletti set a new world record, eating 7.5 pounds of fried catfish at the Rhythm City casino World Catfish Eating Championship in Davenport.

(That pun was totally intended.)

I’m guilty of that. I make my weekly menu before I go to the grocery store, but what we need and then realize, after I’ve purchased everything, that I don’t have any side dishes for the steak fajitas or chicken picatta. I usually have enough produce on hand for a quick side salad, but it would be nice if the accompanying dish got some of the limelight.

With that in mind, I found this great recipe for Spanish rise. It’s quick, easy and good for you — a win-win-win!

SPANISH RICE

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 medium white onion, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 cup long-grain white rice
• 1 (15-ounce) can tomatoes
• 11/2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• Salt and pepper to taste

In a medium saucepan, heat oil over medium-high heat. Saute the onion for 3 minutes. Add the garlic and continue cooking until the onion is translucent and tender. Add the rice and saute for 3 to 4 minutes to coat with the oil and slightly brown.

Pour in the tomatoes, chicken broth and seasonings. Stir.

Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes, or until the rice is tender. Fluff with a fork before serving. (I added some fresh cilantro to mine — that’s the green stuff you see in the picture.)

Recipe courtesy of Eat What You Love

Angela Harger of Cedar Rapids changes her 2 year-old son Miles' cloth diaper on Friday, April 13, 2012, at Birth, Baby and Beyond in Cedar Rapids. Birth, Baby and Beyond is a host site for The Great Cloth Diaper Challenge; Moms (and Dads) will be changing their baby's cloth diapers at 12:30 p.m. on April 21 as part of an international effort to break the current world record. There are 300 sites in 15 countries participating. (Liz Martin/The Gazette-KCRG)

CEDAR RAPIDS — During her fourth pregnancy Angela Harger nested by sewing cloth diapers.

Son Miles was born two years ago, but Harger hasn’t stopped sewing. Instead, she launched her own cloth diaper business — Eggheads Baby — in November 2010.

“It’s a hobby that pays,” Harger laughs.

Even better, it supports something she believes in.

“I love to promote anything having to do with cloth diapers,” the Cedar Rapids mother says. “They’re so great and so much fun.”

Harger will be among the dozens of parents at Birth, Baby & Beyond Saturday to participate in the Great Cloth Diaper Change. The global event — more 300 host sites in 16 countries have registered to date — will feature thousands of parents simultaneously changing their child’s cloth diapers in hopes of breaking the current Guinness World Record.

The event begins at 11:30 a.m. in Cedar Rapids.

Because of the global time differences, “some people will be changing at 2 in the morning, but they’re doing it,” says Heather McNamara, executive director of the Real Diaper Association.

The goal is to top the current world record of 5,026 diapers. This record was set by the same event a year ago. Then the area’s closest host site was in Davenport. Chelsea Wagner of North Liberty made the trip with her son, Cooper.

“It was great to be among people who have the same mindset as you,” Wagner says. “We got a certificate from it and we saved the newspaper clipping so Cooper can see he was a part of it.”

Wagner started cloth diapering Cooper, who will turn 2 in July, when he was 6 months old. She had tried to do the same for her daughter, Addison, years earlier, but said the lack of cloth diapering options and information made it difficult for her to continue. She was encouraged to try again with her son and said she’ll continue to do so when she and husband, Dave, have a third child someday.

“Mostly, for us, it’s the money factor,” Wagner says. “I’m a stay-at-home-mom with an in-home day care, so we’re always looking for ways to save money.”

Tammy Bayer, owner of Birth, Baby & Beyond, says finances are among the top three reasons parents choose cloth diapers.

“It absolutely saves you money,” Bayer says. “You can do a bare-bones cloth diapering system for $100 — that’s birth to potty training.”

Health is another reason. Some babies have an allergic reaction to the chemicals in disposable diapers. Environmental reasons are another.

“Scientists estimate it take 500 years for disposable diapers to break down,” Bayer says. “I hear that quote all the time, but we haven’t even had disposable diapers for 500 years. We don’t really know how long it will take.”

As a host site for the Great Cloth Diaper Change, Bayer hopes to bring more awareness to cloth diapering, particularly how it has evolved.

“We get grandparents all the time who ask ‘Why would anyone cloth diaper?’ but that’s because they did it old school,” Bayer says. “There are so many options to cloth diapering.”

For Wagner, the choice just means an extra load of laundry.

“That’s all,” she says. “It’s just really not a big deal for us.”

To qualify for the Guinness World Record, each host site must have at least 25 participants.

Birth, Baby & Beyond can host between 30 to 35 parents and their cloth-diapered children. To register, call (319) 364-1144 before Saturday.

“We’ll take registrations until we’re full,” Bayer says.

Birth, Baby & Beyond also will host a cloth diaper resale from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday at the store, 4330 Czech Lane NE.

“It’s a nice way to check out a wide variety,” Bayer says. “Newbies can buy several types of cloth diapers cheap and see what works for them.”

[View with PicLens]

This was not a scientific poll at all. I made a chart and told everyone to make a tallymark by their favorite casserole.

Each casserole got a vote, so it seems everyone found something they liked about these recipes. It was tempting for us to make little changes — the addition of a spice or changing a vegetable — but as we were judges the recipes, we felt we had to stay true to them. Just this once.

Thank you to everyone who submitted a recipe. This was a great way to see what recipes Eastern Iowans love to make. We’ll do it again soon!

The winning casserole, chicken pot pie, was published in today’s newspaper, but here it is again:

CHICKEN POT PIE

• 2 cans cream of chicken soup (or cream of mushroom)
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 4 cups cooked cut up vegetables (to your liking or use cooked frozen)
• 2 cups cut up cooked chicken or turkey
• 1 can (10 oz) refrigerated flaky biscuits

In a 3-quart baking dish, combine soup, milk and pepper.  Stir in vegetables and chicken.  Bake at 350 for approx. 30 to 35 minutes or until mixture starts to bubble.  Meanwhile, cut each biscuit into quarters.

Remove dish from oven and stir.  Arrange biscuit pieces over mixture.  Bake an additional 15 to 20 minutes or until biscuits are golden brown.

Recipe submitted by Sheilah Igou of Swisher

EASY CHICKEN AND POTATO CASSEROLE 

• 1 box Betty Crocker (or Hy-Vee brand) hash brown potatoes
• 1-1/2 tsp. salt
• 4 cups very hot water
• 2 cups cooked, cut-up chicken
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar Cheese (4 ozs)
• 1 cup dairy sour cream
• 1 can (10 ozs) condensed cream of chicken soup (cream of celery works also)
• 1 package (10 ozs) frozen broccoli, thawed and drained (this is optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Pour dried potatoes in a bowl and cover with the hot water and salt. Let stand uncovered for 15 minutes; then drain thoroughly.

Mix potatoes with the remaining ingredients; spread in a greased 9- x 13-inch pan.

Bake uncovered until hot and bubbly, 35-40 minutes.

Sprinkle with a little extra shredded Cheddar Cheese the last 5 minutes, if so desired.

Recipe submitted by R’becca Groff of Cedar Rapids

HAM & NOODLE CASSEROLE

• 12 oz. wide egg noodles (cooked to al dente)
• 4 cups smoked ham – - cubed or diced
• 4 cups packaged shredded Swiss cheese (substitute slices if you can’t find shredded)
• 2 cups sour cream
• 2 cans cream of celery soup
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 medium green pepper, finely diced
• 2 cups milk

Cook noodles according to package directions and drain.  Combine soup, sour cream, onion, green pepper and milk.  Layer in a large pan (longer than 9×13 if available): ½ of each:  noodles – ham – cheese – soup mixture. Repeat layers one more time.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 60 minutes.

Recipe submitted by Judy Trimpe of Cedar Rapids

CHICKEN SPAGHETTI

Saute 1/3 cup chopped onion &=and 1 small can of mushrooms (drained) in 1/4 cup butter.

In medium saucepan combine saute mixture with:

• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 can Swanson’s Chicken ala King
• 3/4 cup cut up, cooked chicken
• 3 tbsp pimento
• 1/2 soup can milk

Stir and heat thoroughly.

Grate 3/4 lb. sharp cheddar cheese and set aside.

In large pot, cook 1/2 pound of spaghetti. Drain.

Place spaghetti in 13 x 9 casserole dish. Layer 1/2 of the cheese, then the chicken mixture and then the remaining cheese. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

Sprinkle 1 cup French’s Fried Onions on top. Return to oven for 5 to 7 minutes to crisp up the onions.

Remove and serve.

Recipe submitted by Debbie Brooks of Cedar Rapids

Cindy Hadish samples one of the casseroles made from a reader submitted recipes in the combined KCRG and Gazette newsroom on April 11. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette-KCRG)

College Community Elementary student team members Eian Gatewood, 10 and Caden Boyd, 9 carefully balance their cans on top of thier creation Saturday morning at the Coral Ridge Mall. Architects, engineers, local students, and youth groups built structures Saturday morning out of cans to be donated to the HACP Food Reservoir and be distributed to Linn and Johnson County food pantries and crisis centers. The teams had from 8 until 11 AM to assemble their constructions at the Coral Ridge Mall and were judged on their creations. (Justin Torner/Freelance)

CORALVILLE — For a few hours Saturday morning, it was not only OK to play with your food, it was expected.

The 7th Annual Corridor Canstruction event at Coral Ridge Mall allowed area students, community groups, engineers and architects to turn cases of canned goods, boxes of cereals and bottles of water into whimsical sculptures, all of which will be donated to local food pantries, crisis centers and shelters.

“It’s definitely an outlet for creativity,” said Sally Obernolte, a member of Neumann Monson Architects’ team.

Three months of planning went into the team’s “Birds of a Feather Fight Hunger Together” Angry Birds design, along with 560 pounds of food.

The team spent $2,000 on their sculpture. Obernolte said most of that total was for the canned chicken used to construct the red bird.

“The cans are best for the round shape we need, plus it was a great food choice to donate to the food shelters,” she said. “We’re hoping our design will be recognizable. It seems to be a huge pop culture hit right now.”

Lydia Fine, a member of the Corridor Canstruction committee, said pop culture trends are a common theme for the sculptures.

Which explains The Hunger Games’ “CAN-ucopia” and the Nyan Cat sculpture, but history also had its piece in this year’s competition. OPN Architects created a Titanic-themed sculpture, which sank 100 years ago.

The team chose their cans of beans, corn and tuna to match the ship’s original colors, but also had fun with the design, placing two bear-shaped honey bottles at the helm of the ship, to resemble Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in James Cameron’s movie.

Bags of white rice and bottles of water depicted the iceberg.

OPN Architects received the “Juror’s Favorite” and the “People’s Choice Award” in the professional awards, while College Community school district’s elementary talented-and-gifted elementary students won “Best in Show” and “People’s Choice Award” in the community/school category for their “Hunger Is No Walk In The Park” sculpture.

The students used 1,317 pounds of food items to create a swing, slides and teeter-totter. Students also asked mall patrons to deposit wishes in their sculpture’s wishing well.

“My life is all about crafts, so this was a lot of fun,” said Grace Estenson, a Prairie View Elementary fourth-grader.

This year’s Canstruction event set a record with 15 teams participating. Combined, they used 25,685 food items, collecting 21,355 pounds of food for area food pantries, crisis centers and shelters. The grand total for the food was $21,519. An additional $1,054.63 was raised by the public through the People’s Choice Awards voting.

The sculptures will remain on display at the mall through April 22.

2012 Corridor Canstruction Awards

Professional Teams
—- Juror’s Favorite and People’s Choice Award: OPN Architects
—- Structural Ingenuity: Carlson Design Team
—- Best Use of Labels: Heery International and Tallgrass
—- Best Meal: Shive-Hattery Architecture-Engineering
—- Honorable Mention: Rohrbach Associates PC and Neumann Monson Architects

Community/School Teams
—- Best in Show and People’s Choice Award: College Community school district’s elementary TAG students
—- Best Meal: Taylor Elementary School
—- Structural Ingenuity: Christ Episcopal Church
—- Best Use of Labels: South East Junior High School
—- Most Creative: Prairie Creek TAG students
—- Most Unique: North Central Junior High
—- Most Whimsical: Center Point Urbana Middle School (black team)
—- Most Lifelike: Center Point Urbana Middle School (gold team)
—- Best theme: Cedar Rapids school district’s PACT

A large diagram of the first level of cans is placed on the stage floor. The students open the cases of canned goods and begin building.

“Everyone, make sure the cans face out!” one student shouts over the activity.

As more cans are added to the sculpture, Mike Wazowski’s image becomes clearer. As far as practice sessions go, Monday’s is considered a success.

Today, South East students will be constructing Mike Wazowski again. This time as one of nine student/community teams participating in the Seventh Annual Corridor Canstruction at Coral Ridge Mall in Coralville. Six professional teams also will be competing.

“It’s always exciting to see everything come together,” says Lydia Fine, a Corridor Canstruction committee member.

For South East students, today caps off three months of preparation, beginning with school fundraisers to collect the money to pay for the food used in their sculpture.

The students brainstormed sculpture ideas and bought the 2,364 cans of food from a local Hy-Vee. Then there’s the build itself.

“Last year’s build was like a cylinder, so it was pretty easy,” says Devon Morrison, 14.

The eighth grade student was part of the team that took “Best in Show” in the student/community group in 2011 for their R2-D2 sculpture. The students are determined to keep their title, plus take home the coveted “People’s Choice” award.

The public determines the People’s Choice winner by dropping quarters in the voting box near the can sculpture of their choice. This money also benefits local food shelters.

There is a “People Choice” winner for both the professional and student/community groups.

“I don’t think people realize that this isn’t just for fun,” Devon says. “It’s to help people who don’t have enough to eat. Some may think ‘Hey, that looks cool’ and that’s great, but what we’re really doing is helping feed people.”

Last year’s Canstruction event collected 18,589 pounds of food for local food pantries, crisis centers and shelters.

This is the fourth year South East has had a team compete. The 2010 team received “Most Whimsical” for their Oscar the Grouch sculpture and “Honorable Mention” in 2009.

“It’s a service project for the whole school,” says Rachael Arnone, South East’s art teacher.

About 30 kids from Art Club will work in shifts of five people each to complete the sculpture, but Arnone said the entire project involves relies on support from the school community to raise the money to fund it.

This year’s design will be more than 7-feet-tall when it is finished and will weigh 2,216.25 pounds.

Seventh-grader Mackie Welter plans to be at the build all day today, hanging out with the Rohrbach Associates PC team when she isn’t working on South East’s design. Mackie’s father used to work at Rohrbach, so she has experience helping a professional team, but is ready to be a member of the student team.

“I just love being around the cans and fitting them together to make a design work,” Mackie, 12, says. “It takes a while, but it is so cool when it’s finished.”

The dolls, not the dessert — although I loved that, too.

I was channel surfing the other day and discovered that Strawberry Shortcake is back with a new cartoon (and I assume new dolls). Awesome, right? Nope. This Strawberry Shortcake does not look like the Strawberry Shortcake I remember from the 80s. Where is the curly red hair, poofy hat, and green-and-white-striped tights? Now she wears jeans. Jeans! Is nothing sacred?

This was what I muttered to myself as I made a batch of strawberry muffins this past weekend. My daughter thinks I’m crazy. She liked the muffins, though.

STRAWBERRY MUFFINS

4 medium eggs, beaten.

3 cups of all-purpose flour.

2 ½ cups of fresh strawberries, rinsed, hulled and sliced.

2 cups of sugar.

1 ½ cups of chopped walnuts.

1 cup of vegetable oil.

1 tablespoon of cinnamon.

1 teaspoon of baking soda.

1 teaspoon of salt.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly coat full-size muffin tins with non-stick cooking spray.

In a suitably sized bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.

In a another bowl, combine the eggs, strawberries and the vegetable oil.

Mix the contents of the two bowls together. Gently fold in the chopped walnuts.

Fill the muffin tins about two-thirds full and bake for 15 minutes. Allow to cool.

I’m not in publishing, so I don’t know if this is true, but it seems like there are a lot of books out there that center around food. I’m not talking about cookbooks, but works of fiction and biographies. I admit, I’ll read any book that features a kitchen as the main setting, so maybe it’s just that I’m finding more of these because I’m looking, or perhaps we have become a nation of foodies.

Either way, I’m happy.

If you love to read and are looking for something new, I recommend Melissa Senate’s “The Love Goddess’ Cooking School.” The story is about Holly Maguire, a 30-something woman with a broken heart trying to take over her grandmother’s cooking legacy. Holly doesn’t have her grandmother’s natural talent in the kitchen, or her gift for predicting future events, but she is determined to honor her legacy.

I must warn you, though. You will want to eat Italian food while reading this book. Here’s a quick recipe to help those cravings:

GARDEN-FRESH BRUSCHETTA

• 1 clove garlic, peeled and halved
• 14 slices French bread, about 3/4-inch thick
• 4 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
• 1/4 cup chopped red onion
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp fresh basil, minced
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• 1 tbsp parmesan cheese, grated

Rub cut side of garlic over one side of each slice of bread. Place bread garlic side down on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 5 minutes on each side or until lightly browned.

In a bowl, combine the tomatoes, onion, oil, minced basil, salt and pepper; spoon about 2 tablespoons onto each piece of toast.

Top: Harrison Elementary and Polk Elementary. Bottom: Madison Elementary and Monroe Early Childhood Center. (Gazette and AP photos)

CEDAR RAPIDS — The deadline for families affected by school closures and boundary changes in the Cedar Rapids school district to pick a new school has been extended to April 18.

Parents of students at Polk Elementary School, which will close at the end of the school year, told the school board last night that their opportunities to tour school buildings was limited because of the district’s spring break schedule.

Polk and Taylor Elementary students had their spring break/intersession from March 19 through March 30, and all other Cedar Rapids schools had spring break the week of March 26.

The original deadline to submit their school choice was April 4.

Mary Ellen Maske, the district’s prekindergarten through either-grade executive administrator, told the school board last night the deadline was changed to address those concerns.

The extension applies to all families affected by the boundary changes and school closures.

Maske also told the board those families received a letter from the district explaining the school board’s vote last month to close Polk and Monroe Early Childhood Center and identifying the school the student will attend in 2012-13.

Families opting to stay in the current school next year, if applicable, were informed of the steps to take to make that happen.

Maske said the letters sent to Polk families were different, as those students will be permitted to attend any elementary east of Interstate 380 and the Cedar River, — which includes Arthur, Erskine, Garfield, Grant Wood, Johnson, Kenwood, Nixon, and Wright — or to attend Taylor Elementary in the city’s southwest quadrant.

Several Polk parents told the school board the letters were not received in a timely manner.

Superintendent Dave Benson told board members that more than 1,000 letters were mailed to families affected by the boundary changes and school closures. Benson said a “very small percentage” were returned as undeliverable, but that those families were contacted through other channels.

Maske said school staff will contact the all elementary school families this week to touch base with them on where they are in the decision process.

As of Monday, 91 of Polk’s 181 students have made their elementary school choice for the 2012-13 school year.

District personnel affected by the boundary changes and school closures have met with their principals about the impact of the changes. However, the district has not been able to determine 2012-13 building assignments for these staff members. Maske said this will be decided after families have submitted their school choice letters to the district.

“Once we know where those numbers are going, we will do out staffing,” she said.

The projected transition timeline calls for student assignments to be completed in mid- to late April.

Budget approved

Board members approved the fiscal year 2013 budget Monday night. It includes total budgeted revenues of $242.8 million and total budgeted expenses of $252.2 million, but these numbers will change when the district’s detailed line item budget is completed in May and June.

The approved tax levy rate of $15.16 per $1,000 of assessed valuation is unchanged from the current levy rate.

We didn’t eat until 7:15 p.m.

Granted, I had to buy a few of the ingredients at the store, so that added to my prep time. I also had to make the rice when I got home from the store, but it really was the baking time that delayed out dinner by 30 minutes.

Was the wait worth it? I’m not sure. My husband and daughter both liked it, but I thought it was a little bland. I’ve read the reviews on this recipe and many people said they added spices and vegetables to get a better flavor, so I think I’ll add garlic and onions the next time around.

CHICKEN ALFREDO AND RICE CASSEROLE

• 1 10-ounce container refrigerated light Alfredo pasta sauce
• ½ cup milk
• 2 ½ cups cooked white rice or wild rice
• 2 cups cubed cooked chicken
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1/3 cup chopped bottled roasted red sweet peppers
• ¼ cup slivered almonds, toasted (optional)
• 1 tablespoon snipped fresh basil or 1/2 teaspoon dried basil, crushed
• 1 cup soft bread crumbs
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In large bowl combine pasta sauce and milk. Stir in rice, chicken, peas, sweet peppers, nuts, and basil. Transfer to 1-1/2-quart baking dish.

Bake, covered, for 30 minutes. Uncover and stir. Combine bread crumbs and melted butter; sprinkle atop. Bake, uncovered, 20 to 25 minutes more or until heated through and crumbs are golden brown. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Serves 4.

Recipe courtesy of www.bhg.com

Speaking of casseroles, you have until April 10 to submit your favorite recipe for possible publication in the April 17 Everybody Eats column. We plan to make all the submissions we receive and let the newsroom vote, so e-mail your recipe today to meredith.hines-dochterman@sourcemedia.net

The proposed fiscal year 2013 budget includes total budgeted revenues of $242.8 million and total budgeted expenses of $252.2 million, but these numbers are preliminary. School administrators stress that the numbers will change when the district’s detailed line item budget is completed in May and June.

The proposed tax levy rate of $15.16037 per $1,000 of assessed valuation is virtually unchanged from the current levy rate of $15.16034.

Iowa school districts are required to have next school year’s budgets certified by April 15.

Board members will certify the budget at Monday’s school board meeting. They also will vote to amend the 2011-12 school year budget to permit the spending of miscellaneous income received throughout the year.

If such income does not materialize this year, the district’s legal spending will automatically reduce.

There will be a public hearing regarding the budget amendment. No additional taxes will be levied as a result of this amendment.

Also on the agenda is an overview of the transition activities and support for students, families, and staff affected by the boundary adjustments and school closures for the 2012-2013 school year.

Board members voted last month to close Monroe Early Childhood Center and Polk Elementary School at the end of the current school year, and approved several boundary adjustments.

Monday’s public hearings and school board meeting will be held in the board room at the Educational Learning and Leadership Center, 2500 Edgewood Road NW, beginning at 5 p.m.

Interesting note. When I went to the grocery store to buy poppy seeds for the bread, I had to go to the cigarette counter and ask for them. Yep, apparently people were buying tons for non baking purposes. I asked for a small container so I would not seem like a shady customer.

LEMON POPPY SEED BREAD

• 1 box white cake mix
• 1 box instant lemon pudding mix
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup warm water
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 4 tsp poppy seeds

In a mixing bowl, combine the mixes, eggs, water and oil; beat until well mixed. Fold in poppy seeds.

Pour into two greased 9 inch by 5 inch loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes or until bread tests done.

Cool  in pans for 1o minutes before moving to a wire racks.

Me: I’m making chicken spaghetti for dinner tonight.

My husband smiles at me, but I know he’s thinking “What is chicken spaghetti? What do I say if I don’t like it? She got really mad that one time I didn’t compliment the pumpkin pie she made.”

(In my husband’s defense, I had forgotten to include sugar, so it was horrible. Of course, I didn’t know this until I had a piece a couple of hours later, so he had to cope with deadly stares until I admitted he was right.)

I can understand his apprehension. Chicken spaghetti is a casserole. I don’t make casseroles. I can’t remember the last time I even ate a casserole.

I’m not anti-casserole. I have plenty of cookbooks with casserole recipes, but I tend to use the stove for dinner and the oven for baking. Still, I daydream about being one of those women who spends a few hours on Sunday preparing meals to feed the family for the rest of the week.

Making chicken spaghetti one time does not qualify me as a casserole expert, but I’m willing to learn if you’ll help me. Email me your favorite casserole recipe and The Gazette will choose one to publish for the April 17 Everybody Eats column. All recipes must be received by April 10.

This recipe was a hit at my house. It almost made up for the pumpkin pie incident.

Chicken Spaghetti

2 cups cooked chicken

3 cups dry spaghetti, broken into two-inch pieces

2 cans cream of mushroom soup

2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese

1/4 cup finely diced green pepper

1/4 cup finely diced onion

1 jar (4 ounces) diced pimentos, drained

2 cups chicken broth

1 teaspoon Lawry’s Seasoned Salt

1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Salt and pepper, to taste

1 cup additional grated sharp cheddar cheese

Cook spaghetti in chicken broth until al dente. Do not overcook. Once spaghetti is cooked, combine with remaining ingredients except additional one cup sharp cheddar.

Place mixture in casserole pan and top with remaining sharp cheddar. Cover and freeze up to six months, cover and refrigerate up to two days or bake immediately at 350 degrees for 45 minutes until bubbly. If the cheese on top starts to get too cooked, cover with foil.

Source: “The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl” (William Morrow Cookbooks; Oct. 27, 2009)

Luckily, I love breakfast food. Cereal. Eggs. Waffles. Bagels. Sadly, though, my morning are too rushed most days for me to actually eat breakfast at my kitchen table, so I tend to grab something at my desk around 9:30 a.m.

I try to keep it healthy — a bowl of microwave oatmeal or a yogurt with granola – but every now and then I need those carbs to carry me through to lunch.

This is when I need a muffin.

I know there are some people who see muffins as cupcakes without the frosting, but sometimes you need a treat to celebrate another morning rush victory.

I made these cinnamon muffins as a thank you for my daughter’s teachers and a “Yay! It’s Friday!” for me. If you like cinnamon toast, you’ll love these.

CINNAMON MUFFINS

• 2 medium eggs
• 3 cups of flour
• 1 cup of milk
• 1 cup of sugar
• 5 tablespoons of butter
• 5 tablespoons of shortening
• 3 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg

• Topping: 1 cup of melted butter and 1 cup of sugar blended with 1 tablespoon of cinnamon

Place muffin cups in muffin tin. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream together the butter, the shortening and the sugar. Beat in the eggs, salt, nutmeg and baking powder. Stir in the flour and milk alternately until mixture is just combined.

Fill muffin cups to the top. Bake for about twenty minutes.

Remove muffins from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Then, dip each muffin into the melted butter and roll each muffin in the cinnamon-sugar blend.

I’m sure I’m not the only person to ever feel that way about their kitchen, just like I’m sure I’m not the only person to regularly visit realtor.com just to look at photos of kitchens in Seattle, Brooklyn and Denver.

OK, maybe I am.

Anyway, a bigger kitchen. I don’t see this happening in my future anytime soon, so it’s all about maximizing the space I have, while making what I need accessible.

Hence my cookie cutters.

I saw a photograph on twitter about a year ago where a woman had framed her silver cookie cutter collection. My creation is not nearly as beautiful as hers, but this project allowed me to get my massive cookie cutter collection out of boxes in my pantry, freeing up space there and making it easier for me to see what I have on hand the next time I make sugar cookies. All it took was a bulletin board, some hemming pins and a rainy afternoon.

If you decide to frame your cookie cutters, e-mail me a photo! Also, it’s helpful to have a photo on hand to remember where each cutter belongs. It’s not a big deal to remove one, but when you take down several, it isn’t always easy to locate the space it belongs after they’ve been used.

Happy baking!

Vicki Thompson of Marion is the winner of the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library's annual lamb cake contest.

I spent an hour in Czech Village this morning as a judge for the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library’s 2nd Annual Lamb Cake contest.

For those who don’t know this, the lamb cake is a Czech and Slovak Easter tradition. It began when many people couldn’t afford to serve lamb for Easter dinner, so they made a cake in the shape of a lamb instead.

The lamb often symbolizes Christ’s sacrifice, which is why families want to include it in some way with their Easter meal.

Seven cakes were entered in this year’s competition with three judges determining the winner based on appearance.

It was interesting to see the different takes on the cakes. All were shaped as a lamb, of course, in varying sizes, but it was the decorations that really drew the eye. Some embraced the spring theme, others Easter and one took a hilarious presentation, presenting the cake in a roasting pan, surrounded by a jar of mint jelly, potatoes and plastic carrots. The coconut decorating the cake was toasted in some places to give the illusion of cooked lamb.

This cake took second in the competition. The winning cake was baked and decorated by Vicki Thompson of Marion.

This was Thompson’s first year entering the contest.

“It’s part of my heritage,” she says.

Thompson spent a few days on her cake, which is a pound cake with buttercream frosting. Choosing the decorations and finding a way to tie them together was the toughest part of the project.

“Having grandkids, I wanted to include the Easter baskets and candy because that’s what they look for when they visit,” she laughs.

Thompson won a $50 gift certificate to the  National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library’s gift shop.

That being said, I want this cutting board. I need this cutting board!

Easy. Fall, spring, summer, winter. I am not a fan of the extreme — extreme heat or extreme cold.

There are certain foods I equate with the seasons. Fall is all about pumpkin. When I have my first pumpkin of the season, I know raking leaves and Halloween isn’t far behind. Winter is peppermint and summer is lemonade.

I wasn’t sure if spring had a flavor, so I asked Adam Kopfman of Tip Top Cakes in Coralville.

“Citrus,” he said. “Lemon, orange. Bright colors and fresh flavors.”

That conversation came back to me as I made this recipe. It is spring, even if the temperatures outside are more like summer.

KEYS-STYLE CITRUS CHICKEN

• 1 tbsp canola oil
• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 3 cloves garlicm peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 tsp finely shredded lime peel
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 2 tsp snipped fresh cilantro
• 1/8 tsp crushed red pepper
• 1 medium orange

In a large skillet heat oil over medium heat. Add chicken and garlic; cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink in the middle, turning chicken once and stirring garlic occasionally.

Meanwhile, combine lime peel, lime juice and crushed red pepper in a medium bowl and set aside. Peel and coarsely chop orange. Add lime juice mixture to skillet. Place chopped orange on chicken. Cover and cook for 1 to 2 minutes more until heated through.

Serve any pan juice with chicken and chopped orange. Serves 4.

Recipe courtesy of Better Homes and Gardens’ Eat Well, Lose Weight

Staff will move into the Cedar Rapids school district's new Educational Leadership and Support Center over the next six weeks. The center replaces several buildings damaged in the Floods of 2008. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

The Cedar Rapids school district has been under heavy assault from district patrons angry over school closings.

The school board’s decision to close Monroe and Polk elementary schools barely precedes district support and administrative staff moving to the new Educational Leadership and Support Center.

“Where was the foresight in the developing of this new education service center when there should have been concerns for the closing of these schools?” Gail Nau asked at the March 12 school board meeting.

“I would have thought that would have been a primary concern.” Nau said. “Maybe we wouldn’t be where we are today if we had thought about that. I realize there was a need for a new building, but did you need something this grand?”

Grand is one word critics have used to describe the new facility. Taj Mahal is another.

The recent criticism is a contrast to the silence that followed school board members’ unanimous vote to build the new facility on district-owned property at 2418 Edgewood Road NW.

No one from the public spoke for or against the project at the November 2009 meeting. There were few public complaints about the facility until the idea of closing schools moved from possible to probable.

Superintendent Dave Benson calls the tying of two issues “an unfortunate circumstance of timing.”

“These are two separate issues that are running concurrently,” Benson said.

The new education center is the culmination of the district’s flood recovery projects. The flood that ravaged Cedar Rapids in June 2008 put five of the district’s administrative and support service buildings out of commission. The Educational Service Center, the ESC Annex, the carpenter/paint shop, the main warehouse and the food service warehouse all sustained damage.

For nearly four years, the district’s administrative and support services have operated out of temporary facilities at Kingston Stadium and rented facilities throughout the city.

In the summer of 2009, the school board presented five flood recovery options to the public: return to the flooded sites and facilities with no renovations; return to the flooded sites and facilities with some renovations; construct new facilities on the same site; renovate facilities at a new site; or construct new facilities at a new site.

The district held three public forums to gather feedback on these options and asked for input on the district website. Attendance at the forums was small. The feedback wasn’t much greater. The majority of the responses, though, pointed in favor of a new facility over the old.

Construction on a 170,000-square-foot facility began in the summer of 2010. The project has a $44.5 million price tag, with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and state funds to cover $12.6 million — if the project is completed by May 17.

The remaining amount will be paid for with the district’s 1 percent school infrastructure local-option sales tax money. This is money that, by law, can only be used on school infrastructure projects. .

“That’s what’s different between city and county budgets,” John Laverty, school board president, said. “The law only allows us to spend those funds within parameters.”

Linn County voters approved a 10-year school infrastructure local-option tax on Feb. 13, 2007, but legislation approved in May 2008 replaced the original term by providing SILO funding to all Iowa public schools through December, 2029. The extension will result in an additional estimated $204 million SILO dollars for the Cedar Rapids district, funding the new administrative and support center, and other school improvement projects, including those promised to voters in the original campaign.

“SILO dollars are not property tax dollars,” Benson said. “The SILO was already in place and already appropriately purposed to handle this project.”

When finished, the new facility will house all district support and administrative staff. An estimated 200 employees, not including bus drivers, will work at the Educational Leadership and Support Center. All district offices will be in one place, cutting travel time for staff and giving district patrons a one-stop shop for all district business.

“Time is money, no doubt, and we can certainly say we’re saving money by having everyone under one building, but I have no idea how we could quantify that,” said Steve Graham, the district’s executive director of business services.

Waterfront Hy-Vee dietitian, Kym Wroble, RD, LD, is hosting a pasta recipe contest! Customers have until April 4 to submit their best family-friendly, “healthy” recipe for a pasta salad, a baked pasta or a quick pasta entrée to be considered as a finalist in the contest.

Contestants must use Ultragrain™ Pasta, which is a new, 51 percent whole grain pasta available in the Waterfront Hy-Vee bulk food bins. This pasta doesn’t look or taste any different than “regular” pasta, which is why it is a perfect option for sneaking in a little nutrition at any family meal.

The Waterfront Hy-Vee dietitian wants to get the word out regarding the benefits and importance of family meals, which is why she is hosting this recipe contest.

Family meals are associated with higher nutrient and lower fat and sugar intakes in children. Overall, kids that have regular family meals reap unsuspected benefits such as higher self-confidence, better body image, better grades and a reduced likelihood of being involved in drugs or alcohol.

Finalists will cook their dish for a panel of judges on April 12 at 6 p.m. at the Waterfront Hy-Vee Club Room.  As part of the contest, contestants must also submit a brief written response to the following question, “What does the phrase ‘family meals’ mean to you?”

Customers are invited to attend the final cook-off on April 12 and will be invited to sample each contestant’s dish, if a customer donates three Hy-Vee brand canned goods, which Hy-Vee will donate to a local charity.

All interested individuals should pick up a registration packet at Waterfront Hy-Vee Customer Service Counter.  Questions can be directed to kwroble@hy-vee.com

Here’s the press release:

“The Top Ten nominations are scattered throughout the state,” says Elaine Utesch, a Correctionville farmer who is chairman of the Iowa Beef Industry Council. “The nominations covered restaurants over 130 Iowa communities. That response shows that Iowans and Iowa restaurants know that burgers will always be a popular item. Restaurants love to make burgers and their customers love to eat them.”

“Although we won’t announce Iowa’s Best Burger until the first week of May, we encourage everyone to stop at one of the Top Ten restaurants for a burger,” Utesch says. “Iowans have a very special place in their heart for burgers. The burger is the all–American classic served in almost every restaurant from the local café to the finest white tablecloth establishment.”

Nominations for the contest were made from Feb. 13 through March 16, 2012. The Top Ten restaurants were the top vote-getters when all on-line, paper and faxed ballots were counted.

The top ten restaurants will be visited by a secret panel of judges who will evaluate the nominee’s hamburgers by proper temperature for serving a ground beef patty, appearance and taste. The winner will be named the first week of May as a kick-off to May Beef Month, and will receive a plaque and a media prize package that will include an on-site live radio announcement. All Top Ten restaurants will receive a certificate.

To continue to learn more about the contest, you can visit www.iabeef.org or “friend” the Iowa Beef Council Facebook© page. You’ll also find a map showing the locations of the Top Ten restaurants.

Last year, 3,500 nominations for the Best Burger title were received. The winner was the Rusty Duck in Dexter, while Sac County Cattle Company of Sac City won the inaugural event in 2010.