Up until the flood, I had prepped and waited tables down at Zin’s, just doing whatever I could to get on the cooks’ line. The flood changed all of that. It wasn’t until the Cedar Rapids Downtown Farmer’s Market started back up did you see that the lifeline of downtown hadn’t died — it was just covered with a bit of debris.

I had always loved looking for that wonderful produce for the perfect dish. At school, we heard they were doing something special near the end of the season: Iron Chef! I had competed for Kirkwood and had won money for the college, so I kind of had my foot in the door.

The day arrived.We had all agreed to use Lamb center cut chops. I took charge of my team and discussed going with an Indian theme: Grilled lamb with ginger and Garum masala, caramelized cauliflower and leeks, grilled turmeric potato coins with an Indian cream sauce.

The competition started at 8:30 a.m. The 60 minutes that followed both crawled and flew by. All of the sudden, TIME!

We didn’t spend as much time making intricate presentation, instead focusing on correctly matching flavors in the dish. The judges tasted the food and took their time, then declared us the winner. It seemed the focus on balancing flavors better brought us victory.

It always makes me hope that someday that the Cedar Rapids Downtown Farmer’s Market will hold more Iron Chef Competitions that I could compete in as a Hy-Vee Executive Chef.

Chef Luke’s Grilled Indian Lamb Chops

• 4 lamb chops
• 4 ounces ginger
• 1 teaspoon dried sage
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon coriander
• 1 ½ tablespoons Frontier Garum Masala
• ½ tablespoons kosher salt

Mix together the last five ingredients making a dry rub.

Take your ginger and grate with a microplane or a fine grater to be spread on your chops.

Evenly coat all the chops with your dry rub. With the grill at about 500 degrees, grill the chops on one side for 2 minutes, then turn 90 degrees and grill for 2 minutes. Turn the chops over and cook for 2 minutes, then turn 90 degrees and grill for 1 minute. Remove the chops from the grill and rest for 3 minutes. The chops should be a perfect medium rare.

Luke Peters is the executive chef at the Edgewood Road Hy-Vee in Cedar Rapids.

Grilled Pork Over Greens. (Kate Shatzkin (c) 2009, The Baltimore Sun)

The summer grilling season just got easier — at least that’s what the National Pork Board and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association hope.

The two organizations recently announced new names for more than 350 cuts of pork and beef. The change comes on the heels of nearly two years of consumer research in which consumers called beef and pork labels confusing. This marks the first time Uniform Retail Meat Identification Standards (URMIS) standards have been changed since first introduced in 1973.

URMIS was created to establish uniformity for consumers, guaranteeing that they can identify and purchase the same cut of beef, veal, lamb and pork under the same name no matter where they shop in the United States. However, there are more cuts of meat now then there was in the 1970s.

“You don’t order a side of beef anymore,” says Michelle Baumhover, director of consumer marketing for the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association. “You order a single cut that you can prepare at home.”

But the old labeling system — which listed the species of the animal first, followed by the wholesale or primal name and the specific retail name — didn’t favor the new cuts. Labels got longer and more confusing.

“When you have to explain why it’s named the way it’s named the way it is without enjoying the great cut of meat, it’s obvious something isn’t right,” says Patrick Fleming, director of retail marketing for the National Pork Board.

The new labeling system hopes to clear up this confusion by listing the common name shoppers will understand first.

“Consumer research revealed that top line is what people look at when they approach self-serve meat cases,” Baumhover says. “They are looking at that top line, searching for a name they can identify with.”

The second line will list the cut characteristics. A third line will provide the best preparation method or other helpful information.

“That makes sense; I like that,” says Mark Martin, owner of Nelson’s Meat Market at 1140 Old Marion Rd. NE, Cedar Rapids.

While the changes are geared more toward self-service meat counters, Martin says he supports anything that will help consumers discover new cuts.

“This just opens up a new opportunity to sell more product,” he says.

While both beef and pork products will have new labels, beef names aren’t necessarily changing.

“They’re simplifying to reflect consumers’ wants,” Baumhover says.

Pork names, though, will soon be more beefy. For example, a pork loin chop will now be labeled as Pork Porterhouse Chop and pork rib chop center will become Pork Rib-eye Chop.

“They’re capitalizing on accepted terminology from beef,” Martin says. “I think it gives pork a better identity, one the public can get a grasp of when they realize ‘Oh, it’s like a steak.’”

That’s the marketing approach the National Pork Board will take this summer: Grill it like a steak.

“For us, the biggest obstacle for us was ‘A pork chop is a pork chop,’ and no, it’s not,” Fleming says. “Different cuts mean a different eating experience.”

Baumhover stresses that the system is voluntary.

“Consumers can expect to see the new labels as grocery stores choose to opt into the program,” she says.

Isaac Ipsan is the 2013 Outstanding Youth Volunteer for his work with Young Parents Network.(Courtesy photo)

The organization received a total of 42 nominations for its volunteer of the year awards. These nominations were narrowed to three in each award category. In the end, more than 9,500 votes were cast.

“It jumped from 2,000 votes the year before,” says Christoph Trappe, vice president of communications and innovation at United Way of East Central Iowa.

Awards were given to individuals, groups and businesses in five categories: Outstanding Youth Volunteer; Outstanding Business Volunteer; Outstanding Senior Volunteer; Outstanding Group Volunteer Award for 2013; and Outstanding Adult Volunteer.

Isaac Ipsan is the 2013 Outstanding Youth Volunteer for his work with Young Parents Network. For more than five years, Isaac has volunteered in YPN’s Broadway Maybies, as well as holiday dinners/parties, the We Care shopping night and summer picnics.

ImOn Communications received the 2013 Outstanding Business Volunteer award. The business provides 20 volunteers for Meals on Wheels each month, providing meals for about 100 senior citizens. ImOn Communications has volunteered with Meals on Wheels for more than a year.

Mike Boyle was named 2013’s Outstanding Senior Volunteer. An active Cedar County volunteer, Boyle has spent hundreds of volunteer hours to the Tipton/Hardacre Community Garden, St. Andrews Society Potato Drop project, Feds Feed Family and other community programs.

The Outstanding Group Volunteer Award for 2013 was awarded to “The Black Sandpaper” Crew. This crew, comprised of Tom Olmstead, Ron Olson, Bill McFadden and Tom Bergstrom, volunteers with Cedar Valley Habitat for Humanity.

The Outstanding Adult Volunteer of 2013 is Leanne Loehr. Loehr made a difference in the lives of foster care children by creating Families Helping Families, a non-profit that addresses the unique challenges facing foster children.

This is the third year United Way of East Central Iowa has recognized the area’s volunteers. While many of the nominees volunteer with United Way of East Central Iowa, this program is not specific to United Way.

“Organizations in the community could not do what they do without volunteers,” Trappe says.

Each volunteer received an award $500 to be given to a charity of their choice.

Comments: (319) 398-8434 and Meredith.Hines-Dochterman@sourcemedia.net

Gavin Brown, 8, (center) and Abbie Callahan, 11, (right) high-five Regina High School senior Kayla Wolfe (left) as they compete in the three-legged race during a track and field day of the Weber Dolphins Sports Club on Wednesday, May 15, 2013, in Iowa City, Iowa. Regis High School senior Nolan Burns formed the sports program in honor of his brother, Peyton, who has autism spectrum disorder. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

IOWA CITY — Gavin Brown faces Lauren Clapp, a Velcro paddle in his right hand.

“Do it the highest as you can!” he shouts.

Lauren, a sophomore at Regina High School, tosses a ball high in the air. Gavin holds the paddle out, laughing when the ball sticks to it.

“My turn,” the 8-year-old cries.

Swinging his arm, Gavin lets go. The ball flies backward instead of forward. Both Gavin and Lauren laugh.

It’s a Wednesday afternoon at Weber Elementary School, which means one thing for 16 Weber students and several high school and college-aged volunteers: Weber Dolphins Sports Camp.

The after-school activity is a hands-on program dedicated to teaching students the basics of four common sports: baseball, basketball, track and field, and soccer. The group meets for an hour every Wednesday, rotating through several stations designed to teach the basic skills of each sport. What sets this program apart from other sports camps, however, are the kids.

All participants are Weber students, but four, including Gavin, have an autism spectrum disorder. The sports camp is their opportunity to participate in a physical activity at their level, without pressure.

The program was created by Nolan Burns, 18. The idea came after playing catch with his 10-year-old brother, Peyton, who has ASD.

“He told me he wanted to play sports but couldn’t because of his autism spectrum disorder,” Nolan, a senior at Regina, said.

Overcoming challenges

Regular physical exercise helps promote physical and mental health, but for those with ASD, team sports come with more challenges than benefits. Youth coaches aren’t always trained to work with children on the spectrum. Likewise, teammates don’t always know how to react to a child who may exhibit stereotypical behaviors of a child with autism, such as flapping his arms when excited or frustrated.

Nolan read an article about unified sports — the combination of an equal number of individuals with and without intellectual disabilities on the same sports team for training and competition — and decided to start a similar program for Peyton and his friends at Weber.

Working with Weber’s principal, Chris Gibson, and the director of the school’s after-school program, Tosh Troutman, as well as Ann Griffin at Grant Wood AEA and Elizabeth Delsandro, a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders at the University of Iowa, Nolan was able to launch a pilot program at Weber this spring — and with great success, according to participants and helpers.

“The students have made a lot of positive social relationships,” said Sarah Herring, a teacher in Weber’s modified classroom.

“For some of the kids, this is their first time participating in a group sport of any kind, and we can see a difference in how they’re interacting with others because of it,” said Sarah McCurdy, also a teacher in Weber’s modified classroom.

Students with ADS have shown a sense of accomplishment and a feeling of belonging. Herring said many are using their newfound athletic knowledge to interact with general education students during recess. Likewise, general education students are seeing their classmates in a new way.

Learning differently

“They may look like they need a lot of help, but they don’t,” said fourth-grader Rylee Goodfellow, 10. “They’re just like us. They just learn a different way.”

Because those with ASD tend to learn better visually, each camp begins with an instructional video demonstrating the station the students will visit that afternoon. This also reduces anxiety among the four students, as they know exactly what to expect once they enter the gym or go outside.

The large group is then divided into four small group containing three general education students and one ASD student, plus several older volunteers. The group spends only a few minutes at each station, giving students enough time to learn and practice new sports skills while keeping things entertaining.

“We’re not competitive at all,” Nolan said. “We really focus on the social aspect of sports.”

Having fun is also part of each session, along with learning sports skills and emphasizing the importance of physical exercise.

It seems to be working, as it is difficult to tell the general education students from the modified education students once camp begins.

“There are four kids on the autism spectrum here. and just to see their level of engagement is fantastic,” Delsandro said at a recent sports camp session. “They have more confidence, they’re engaging with their peers and they’re improving their motor skills. It’s a great program.”

“This has really been a community effort,” said Lisa Burns, Nolan and Peyton’s mother. “Nolan had the idea, and I’m so grateful to everyone who stepped in and stepped up to make it happen.”

The program will wrap up its first season at the end of the month, but Herring and McCurdy have already agreed to keep it going next year.

“It’s fabulous, because so many of our kids (with) the autism spectrum disorder don’t have the opportunity to participate in sports,” said Marie Giel, whose 9-year-old son, Tommy, has ASD. “This gives them the opportunity to socialize and learn those skills. (Tommy) gets really excited about sports camp.”

Penna Rosa with Shrimp

A couple of weeks later, Chef Luke sent out a reminder e-mail and mentioned that the contest is a seafood recipe contest.

Uh-oh.

I do not consider myself a seafood fan. I’m not adamant in my dislike for fish, lobster, etc., but I rarely order it in restaurants and never cook it. My husband and kids are Catholic, so we do a lot of breakfast-for-dinner on Friday nights during Lent. I didn’t back out on judging, though. I made a commitment and I was going to stick to it. Plus, I didn’t want to admit I didn’t like seafood.

It turns out my aversion is exactly why Chef Luke wanted to have this contest. He loves seafood and has found others in the Midwest tend to shy away from it because it isn’t something we’re regularly exposed to. I nodded sagely as he told me this while three home cooks were making their recipes, scared to tell him I’m one of those people.

I confessed by the end of the evening, though. Every dish I tried that night was amazing! (Check out the photos on recipes on the Everybody Eats Facebook page.) Within bites, I went from not liking seafood to looking up scallop recipes online. My family even bought me an electric fryer for Mother’s Day so I can make battered shrimp.

I found this recipe on Pinterest and made it for supper last week. It not only tastes great and it healthy, it can be made in less than 30 minutes. It’s the trifecta of winning.

PENNE ROSA WITH SHRIMP

• 12 ounces whole wheat penne
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes
• 8 ounces button mushrooms, sliced
• 2 medium tomatoes (about 1/2 lb.) chopped
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 4 cups fresh spinach
• 10 ounces medium raw shrimp, peeled and deveined (I bought frozen heat-and-serve shrimp. It’s smaller, but I didn’t want to mess up my first shrimp-cooking experience.)
• 1/2 cup marinara sauce
• 1/3 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

Cook penne according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain and set aside.

In a large skillet with a lid, heat olive oil over medium-low heat. Add in garlic and red pepper flakes, cook for 2 minutes or until garlic begins to soften.

Add in mushrooms, tomatoes, salt and pepper. Cook for 5 minutes, or until mushrooms begin to release their water.

Turn heat up to medium-high and add in shrimp. Cook for 1-2 minutes, or until shrimp are pink and opaque. Remove from heat, add in spinach and cover skillet. Let spinach wilt for 2 minutes.

Remove lid and place skillet back over low heat. Add the penne, Greek yogurt and pasta sauce. Stir until sauce is mixed well and all pasta and veggies are coated. Heat until just warmed through. Divide into pasta bowls and serve topped with parmesan cheese.

Source: http://backtoherroots.com

Cassandra Elton, the director of the library, poses in front of the Antelope Lending Library in the Ped Mall in Iowa City on May 11, 2013. (Kaitlyn Bernauer/The Gazette-KCRG9)

IOWA CITY — The blue and white bus sat in the middle of the Ped Mall last Saturday, its new logo — Antelope Lending Library Bookmobile — encouraging people to stop and ask questions.

“What it this?”

“Will it work like a regular library with cards and everything?”

“Do you need more books?”

Antelope Lending Library Director Cassandra Elton stood by the bus and answered questions, eager to share the city’s newest mobile library with the public.

“I work at Grant Wood Elementary School’s after-school program and I asked the kids what they like to do when they go downtown,” says Elton, a graduate student at the University of Iowa where she’s studying library science and book arts.

She found out many southeast students rarely visit the city’s center, meaning they rarely visit the Iowa City Public Library.

“There is a high number of single parents and working families in that community, and going downtown isn’t a priority,” Elton says. “These kids don’t have access to great books and a great program.”

Her solution? Bring the books to them — literally.

Partnering with The James Gang and the Iowa Youth Writing Project, Elton set out to create a permanent library space in southeast Iowa City. Elton and supporters launched an online campaign through indiegogo.com, but fell short of their $20,000 goal.

The campaign netted just more than $13,000.

The lack of funding didn’t deter Elton from her plan, but she hadn’t considered a mobile library until she received a phone call from Greg Delzer.

Delzer, owner of Iowa City’s Defunct Books, also owned a school bus that had been converted to have bookshelves and magazine racks attached to the walls — enough space to hold roughly 4,000 titles.

“He had planned to use it before moving out to Sycamore Mall,” Elton says. “When we didn’t meet our goal, he asked if we wanted to buy it.”

About two months have passed since then and library volunteers have been busy promoting Antelope Lending Library, collecting books for its shelves, designing the library’s catalog, developing a database and planning programs.

The library is named after the unofficial mascot of Elton’s library science cohort at the UI — an antelope.

The goal is to launch the library this summer. Antelope Lending Library will be part of Grant Wood Elementary School’s summer program in the morning. Elton is talking with the Iowa City Parks and Recreation Department about afternoon programs, as well as working with the coordinator of Mercer Park Farmers Market.

“We want to have a presence, to be accessible to everyone,” she says.

Children and their parents will be able to check out books, but plans also call for book clubs, story times and writing activities.

“The first thing that comes to mind when I look at the library is awesomeness,” says Catherine Blauvelt, a coordinator with the Iowa Youth Writing Project that will work with the lending library by providing writing and creative learning opportunities to children and teens. Classes will be offered at little to no cost.

“I think it’s really fabulous that we can bring these resources to the community that might not otherwise have access to them,” Blauvelt says.

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Antelope Lending Library

Anyone interested in helping Antelope Lending Library be a success can get involved in several ways. Library Director Cassandra Elton says the library needs more books, funding and volunteers. If you are able to help with any of those items, contact Elton at cassandra@antelopelendinglibrary.org or through the library’s website (antelopelendinglibrary.org).

You can also like Antelope Lending Library on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/#!/AntelopeLendingLibrary) and follow them on twitter (@AntelopeLibrary) for up-to-date information.

Library Director Cassandra Elton (right) stands in the Antelope Lending Library in the Ped Mall in Iowa City on May 11, 2013 as people browse the books. The Antelope Lending Library is a small, mobile, community library that aims to make books more accessible to those outside of the downtown area.(Kaitlyn Bernauer/The Gazette-KCRG9)

I was in elementary school when that anti-drug public service announcement first aired on television, but that iconic line still strikes a chord, albeit a humorous one. I’ve seen that scene parodied on TV shows and in greeting cards, and have even shouted it a few times with my own siblings as we tease our parents about something.

The joke turned, though, as I watched my daughter recently devour a salad filled with fresh peas.

I’m not a fan of peas. My dad used to make chicken and snow peas stir fry when I was little, and I’d often leave the table with a pile of peas on my plate. I include peas in my homemade chicken pot pie, but mostly for color.

When I was a camp counselor in Minnesota, I taught my campers how to hide their peas in their napkin. Kids who ate all of their vegetables got to have ice cream on Sunday nights. At the time, I thought I was doing them a favor.

I passed my anti-pea stance on to my son, hence the “I learned if from watching you!” remark, but not my daughter – and I’m grateful for that. I often call my kids picky eaters, but there are certain foods I avoid. Unfortunately, by default, my kids tend to avoid those foods, too. How can I expect my kids to be adventurous eaters if I’m not willing to try new things?

I recently judged a seafood recipe contest at the Edgewood Road Hy-Vee. I have never considered myself a seafood fan – Executive Chef Luke Peters said he chose seafood because people in the Midwest tend to shy away from it – but I changed my mind after sampling the delicious dishes prepared by three home cooks. I called my husband with the great news – “I love seafood now!” – and immediately started rethinking all other foods I’ve avoided in my lifetime.

If one bite of pan-seared scallops makes them my new favorite food, what else am I missing?

We once had a bib that said “Give peas a chance.” With spring peas in season, I think the time has come to do just that.

SPRING PANZANELLA

• 1 pound loaf of hearty, day-old, whole wheat bread into 1-inch cubes
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme
• A couple pinches of salt
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 bunch asparagus, cut into segments
• 2 cups peas, fresh or frozen
• 4 handfuls spinach
• 1/4 cup small basil leaves

In a large bowl toss the bread with the garlic, shallot, thyme, salt and olive oil. Turn the bread out onto a baking sheet and toast in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes, or until they are nice and golden and crunchy.

In a cold skillet pour in a splash of olive oil, a splash of water, and a couple pinches of salt. Dial up the heat and when the water starts to bubble stir in the asparagus. Cover, wait about twenty seconds, now add the peas. Cover, wait a few seconds, now add the spinach. Cover and cook just a few more seconds until the spinach starts to collapse just a bit.

Put the bread crumbs in a large bowl. Now pour the asparagus and peas and all the pan juices over the top of the bread.

Give it a good toss, add the basil leaves and toss again. Serve the salad family-style on a big platter.

Makes about 6 to 8 servings.

Source: www.101cookbooks.com

Not too shabby for a woman who once had very little canning experience.

“My mother and my grandmother both canned, but I actually never canned myself until I started working on my ‘Blue Ribbon Country Cookbook’,” Roupe says in a recent phone interview from her West Des Moines home.

Roupe’s classic cookbook, which was first published in 1998, plays homage to Midwestern foods, from soups to desserts. Roupe moved back to Iowa from New York City in the late 1980s to write the cookbook, spending the next decade creating and testing recipes – including those for the canning chapter.

“I learned how to can just for that original book and fell in love with it,” Roupe says.

Her research led to a successful track record competing in the Iowa State Fair, of which she now serves as a primary judge.

The chapter of canning recipes is not included in the latest edition of Roupe’s “Blue Ribbon Country Cookbook,” but her new cookbook – “Blue Ribbon Country Canning: Traditional and New Favorites” — is dedicated to the classic kitchen practice.

“Canning has really come back, although for some, it never went away,” she says.

Drawing on her experience as a food judge, where there sharing of information is just as important as highlighting great food, Roupe set out to write a canning cookbook that covered all aspects of the practice, from jar preparation to storage. All information is in compliance with the U.S. Department of Agriculture canning regulations.

“The recipes are very detailed,” Roupe says. “They tell you exactly how to do everything in clear, plain English,” Roupe says.

She stresses that recipe length doesn’t play a factor in her book. Information – the right information – has top billing.

“If it takes a whole page to have a proper recipe, then it takes a whole page,” she says. “If it takes one paragraph, fine, and if it takes two pages, fine. I want people to have the information they need to do this right.”

She writes for both experienced canners and beginners, although she emphasizes that those new to the practice need to be properly informed and properly prepared before they begin.

“It’s not something you can decide to do on a whim,” she says. “It’s fun to do, but it takes come concerted effort to do it right. Once you do, you’ll get caught up and you’ll love it.”

Roupe will be in Eastern Iowa this weekend to sign copies of “Blue Ribbon Country Canning: Traditional and New Favorites.” She’s scheduled for appearances at the Barnes & Noble stores in Coralville and Cedar Rapids.

Roupe was the first author signing at the Coral Ridge Mall Barnes & Noble where she has a tradition of bringing fudge to every author event.

“I was actually planning on doing something with canning, but I was asked specifically if I’d bring fudge,” Roupe says with a laugh. “Word gets around.”

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Author Appearances:

— Saturday, May 18: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Barnes & Noble in the Coral Ridge Mall, 1451 Coral Ridge Ave. Suite 1108 in Coralville

— Sunday, May 19: 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at Barnes & Noble in Northland Square, 333 Collins Road NE in Cedar Rapids

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Cherry Jam

Cherry Jam

This recipe was awarded first place overall among all canned jams (20 classes) at the 1992 Iowa State Fair.

• 6 cups pitted, tart red cherries (4 cups chopped cherries; see recipe procedures, below)
• 5 cups sugar
• 1 1¾-ounce package powdered fruit pectin

Place unpitted cherries in the sink filled with cold water. Sort and stem the cherries, discarding any cherries that float. Drain the cherries in a colander. Pit the cherries (see Note 1).

Measure 6 cups pitted cherries, including the juice. In a food processor, chop ¼ of the pitted cherries at a time, using 3 quick on/off turns (see Note 2). Place the chopped cherries, with the juice, in a mixing bowl.

Measure 4 cups chopped cherries, including the accumulated juice, and place in an 8-quart, heavy-bottomed, stainless steel kettle; set aside. Place the sugar in a large mixing bowl; set aside.

Add the petin to the chopped cherries in the kettle; stir well to combine. Over high heat, bring the cherry mixture to a rolling boil, stirring constantly. Immediately add the sugar and return the cherry mixture to a rolling boil over high heat, stirring continuously. Boil the mixture exactly 2 minutes (use a timer), stirring constantly. Immediately remove from heat and skim the foam off the jam, using tableware tablespoons and teaspoons. Stir and skim the jam 10 additional minutes, or until the mixture thickens sufficiently that the cherry pieces will distribute evenly in the jam and not float to the top of the jars (see Note 3); let stand.

Drain hot, sterilized half-pint jars, upside down, on a clean tea towel.

Using a 1-cup measuring cup with a pouring spout, pour the hot jam into the drained jars, leaving ¼-inche headspace. Wipe the jar rims and threads. Place hot, metal lids on the jars and screw the bands firmly.

Process in a boiling-water canner for the time shown in the processing times. 0 to 1,000 feet: 5 minutes for half-pint jars; 1,001 to 6,000 feet: 10 minutes for half-pint jars; above 6,000 feet: 15 minutes for half-pint jars.

Remove the jars from the canner and place them on a dry, wooden board that has been covered with a tea towel. Let the jars stand, undisturbed, 12 hours to cool completely.

Note 1: The Westmark brand Kirschomat cherry pitter is an efficient tool for this task.

Note 2: If a food processor is not available, cut the pitted cherries into eighths.

Note 3: Experience in jam making is the nest teacher here, but the author finds that 10 minutes in, on average, about the correct amount of time for additional stirring and skimming of Cherry Jam after initially skimming the foam off the jam. (Many but not all fruit jams made with powdered fruit pectin are ready for pouring into the jars immediately after skimming.)

Yields about 6 half-pints

Source: Blue Ribbon Country Canning: Traditional and New Favorites by Diane Roupe (Egg & Dart; May 7, 2013)

Work has begun on a yet to be named park at 1565 St. Andrews Drive Wednesday, May 8, 2013 in North Liberty. The name of the park will be selected from entrants in a "Name That Park" contest that the city is holding. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

It is the park that shall not be named – only because it doesn’t have one.

The City of North Liberty recently broke ground on a new 40-acres community park on the west side of town, near North Bend Elementary School.

The park has an address – 1565 St. Andrews Drive. Now it needs a name.

The city launched its Name That Park contest to find a name for its newest outdoor recreation area.

“It’s going to be our biggest park so far,” says Nick Bergus, the city’s communications director. “We want the community to have some ownership.”

The public can submit names online at http://northlibertyiowa.org/community/green-spaces/name-that-park/.

Name suggestions will only be accepted online. Those without access to the Internet at home are encouraged to make use of the public computers at the North Liberty Community Library.

Suggestions will be accepted until June 15.

City staff members will review all submissions, forwarding five to 10 names for the Parks and Recreation Board during its July meeting. Board members will select three finalists to send to city council members who will vote on the park’s official name.

In the past, North Liberty’s parks have been named in a variety of ways. Beaver Kreek Park’s name was created by using the developers’ initials, George Buechler and Ralston Kornegor. Penn Meadows Park was named in a previous Name That Park contest, while Fox Run Neighborhood Park is named after its development.

The new park’s name will be chosen based on four criteria:

• Community: The park will be the largest park in North Liberty and, as such, the name needs to express that this is a park for the entire community, not a single neighborhood.
• Timeless: As North Liberty continues to grow on the west side of Highway 965, the park’s name needs to continue to feel current.
• Native: Whatever name chosen should feel native to the area as a whole and the site in particular.
• Unique: The name should be unique to this park and avoid getting lost in a sea of names on a map.

“We want a name that feels like it’s part of that area,” Bergus says. “We want it to feel natural, not like it’s been shoe-horned in the neighborhood.”

It will be several years before the park is fully functional, but city leaders have already announced that it will be the home of the North Liberty Blues & BBQ celebration in 2014.

Other concepts discussed include a splash pad, and outdoor stage and several shelters that can be rented for private events.

My job was to write feature stories about interesting people and places in Eastern Iowa. It was a broad job description, but one I enjoyed because I was forced to leave the comfort of the newsroom behind and into small towns for stories.

The monthly Coffee Town feature was my favorite part of the job – and the most nerve-racking. Long before I was hired, the paper’s editors had identified 12 communities to feature in 2008. Each Coffee Town section was combined of an overall feature, a personality profile and a third, often quirky, story.

It was my job to find them.

That’s how I ended up hanging out with a group of retired farmers in a grain elevator in Fairfax, watching a family prepare Thanksgiving turkeys in Amana and being questioned by a police officer in Quasqueton. (I tended to just walk around towns if the weather was nice, looking for people to interview. I guess that did look pretty suspicious.)

Sometimes I arrived at a town with an idea of the stories I wanted to pursue. Other times I winged it and hoped for the best. My visit to Marengo nearly five years ago came with this suggestion: Visit Hillcrest Market.

That tip was shared by at least six people. Buy some asparagus was the other suggestion.

I did meet Karen Olson during my time in Marengo and I ended up purchasing a copy of “Iowa’s Garden Market Cookbook: Recipes and Ideas from Hillcrest Market.” This cookbook has become my go-to guide when I visit farmers markets and come home with a lot of produce I did not plan to purchase.

Karen’s recipe for Asparagus and Lemon Butter is one of my favorite recipes. This is a side dish that goes well with chicken, beef or a sandwich on those nights it’s too hot to use the oven.

ASPARAGUS and LEMON BUTTER

• 1 pound fresh asparagus spears (cleaned)
• 3 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• ½ teaspoon grated lemon peel
• 4 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced
• 2 teaspoons sesame seeds

Cook asparagus covered in a small amount of boiling salted water for 8 to 10 minutes or until tender. While asparagus is cooking, prepare sauce.

In a small saucepan, melt butter. Blend in lemon juice, peel and mushrooms. Cook stirring frequently until mushrooms are heated through.

Drain asparagus. Arrange on a serving platter. Pour sauce over asparagus. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Makes 6 servings

Source: Iowa’s Garden Market Cookbook: Recipes and Ideas from Hillcrest Market by Dick and Karen Olson (Brennan Printing; 1^st printing May 2000; 2^nd printing March 2006)

Shot glasses are used to measure asparagus for a salad. Photographed Wednesday, May 1, 2013, in southeast Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette-KCRG)

Yara Shoemaker worried her husband the first time she experimented with shot glass salads.

“My husband came home and he saw all those shot glasses on the counter,” Shoemaker says with a laugh during a recent phone interview. “He said, ‘Are you OK?’”

A former model, aesthetician and boutique owner, Shoemaker grew up in Syria eating fresh foods. Her earliest memories are of her mother cooking meals from scratch daily. She didn’t think much about her diet until she came to the United States seven years ago.

“I was amazed by the mega stores,” she says. “I was excited to try everything, but after a few times, I was kind of disappointed in the flavors.”

The new labels — low fat, organic, non-fat — also proved confusing to a woman used to visiting outdoor markets with her mother.

“I wanted to learn more,” Shoemaker says. “I wanted to make my kitchen as healthy and chemical-free as possible.”

She shares her knowledge on her website, Yara’s Way!, and her new book: “Health on Your Plate: Shop and Cook with Yara” by Yara Shoemaker (Yara’s Way LLC; March 15, 2013).

Shot glasses are used to measure carrots for a salad. Photographed Wednesday, May 1, 2013, in southeast Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette-KCRG)

Part cookbook, part shopping guide and part natural beauty manual, Shoemaker’s book is a compilation of her research and experimentation over several years.

“I did not set out to write another cookbook,” she says. “My intention is to reveal the truth about our food, to look beyond packaging and marketing. We need to be responsible for our food, to have knowledge of what we eat.”

So where do shot glasses fit in all of this?

Shoemaker says she likes to experiment in the kitchen. She often doesn’t know what she’ll make for dinner until after visiting farmers markets near her Florida home to purchase fresh ingredients. Others, she says, have difficulty cooking without a recipe.

“We all love salads and we’re always trying to find new salad recipes,” Shoemaker says. “I’ll give recipes to friends and when I ask them what they thought, they’ll say ‘Oh, we didn’t have any pine nuts so we didn’t make it.’”

Shot glasses are used to measure corn for a salad. Photographed Wednesday, May 1, 2013, in southeast Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette-KCRG)

Wanting to change that mentality, to encourage inspiration in the kitchen, Shoemaker turned to the shot glasses gathering dust in her liquor cabinet.

“I decided to use them in a positive way,” she says.

The new measurement system begs for variety. A salad begins with a bed of greens, such as spinach, romaine lettuce, kale or arugula, with the shot glasses measuring each addition, from nuts and cheese to vegetables and dressing. A shot glass is an easy, consistent measurement that takes the guesswork away from people who rely on detailed instructions when cooking, while promoting creativity for those who want to try something new.

“It’s your kitchen, it’s your food. Do it the way you want,” Shoemaker says.

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QUINOA SALAD WITH A KICK!

• 1/4 cup uncooked quinoa
• 2 cups watercress
• 1 shot glass edamame
• 1 shot glass avocado
• 1 shot glass cucumber
• 1 shot glass chopped sun-dried tomatoes
• 1 shot glass grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 shot glass toasted pine nuts
• Yara’s Simple Vinaigrette (recipe follows)
• Chives for garnish

Cook, salt, drain, and cool the quinoa. Then add watercress, edamame, avocado, cucumber, sun-dried tomatoes, cheese, and pine nuts. Toss. Drizzle with the vinaigrette and sprinkle chives on top.

Yara’s Simple Vinaigrette

• Juice of half a lemon
• ½ shot glass olive oil
• Celtic sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

To make the dressing, squeeze the lemon juice into a small bowl and add salt and pepper. Slowly drizzle the olive oil into the bowl while whisking to emulsify the dressing. Adjust seasoning to taste before pouring as much vinaigrette as desired over the salad.

Source: Yara’s Way! (www.yarasway.com)

Walnuts pour out from a shot glass. Shot glasses are used to measure ingredients of a salad for a food page. Photographed Wednesday, May 1, 2013, in southeast Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette-KCRG)

I said that to my husband as we were loading the dishwasher on a recent Sunday evening, enjoying the final few hours of the weekend before the busy week ahead.

He noted it on the family calendar hanging in our kitchen, and then added it to his online calendar on his phone.

I have a Smartphone. I love it, but I rarely use the calendar feature, preferring to add information in colored ink rather than a keystroke. Anyone who has seen my desk calendar at work or my planner at a meeting would notice the use of different colors in a system that makes sense to me.

Deadlines are highlighted in pink. Story publication dates are noted in red ink. I use a black pen for assignments and interviews, and a blue pen for personal appointments, including my kids’ activities.

If I still had the four-color pen that was so popular when I was in fourth grade, I’d find use the green ink to note upcoming farmers markets.

My May calendar is a little more crowded than usual, thanks to the 2013 schedule. This may just be my favorite time of year.

The earliest memory I have of browsing stalls of fruits, vegetables and baked goods is from my junior year at the University of Iowa. My roommates and I would attend the Downtown Iowa City Farmers Market every Wednesday, buying items to make our weekly roommate dinner. I was not an adventurous eater back then, so my friends Kate and Val would use the experience to introduce me to new vegetables.

Val remains amazed that I include peppers and mushrooms on my list of favorite foods.

Our wet spring will likely delay the arrival of some of our favorite produce this season, but eventually the asparagus, basil, peppers, tomatoes and potatoes we crave will be ready for consumption.

Speaking of basil, you don’t need to limit yourself to this fragrant herb to make pesto. The following recipe is great to use when you have fresh greens in your refrigerator that won’t be fresh much longer.

ANY-GREEN PESTO

• 2 large cloves garlic, smashed
• 2 cups packed fresh leafy herbs: basil, cilantro, parsley, arugula or a mixture
• ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil, more as needed
• ¼ cup pine nuts, walnuts, almonds or pistachios, toasted if you like (optional)
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice, more as needed
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• ½ cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (or other salty grating cheese)

Put the garlic in the bowl of a blender or food processor and pulse a few times to chop. Add the herbs, olive oil, nuts, lemon juice, ¾ teaspoon salt and a few grinds of pepper. Pulse and blend until smooth. Add the cheese and blend just until incorporated. Taste and add more lemon juice or salt as needed; you can also thin the pesto by adding more olive oil.

Tip: Keep the pulses on the food processor to a minimum; overprocessing the pesto will heat up the mixture, leading to discoloration and muted flavors.

Source: Bi-Rite Market’s Eat Good Food: A Grocer’s Guide to Shopping, Cooking & Creating Community Through Food by Sam Mogannam and Dabney Gough (Ten Speed Press; Oct. 18, 2011)

Raspberries and blackberries for sale at the Riverside Round-house Farmers Market in southwest Cedar Rapids.

Sweet corn is for sale at the Greene Square Park farmers market

Fresh produce, baked goods and live entertainment are on the agenda for Eastern Iowa’s farmers markets.

Iowa City marketgoers have a new destination this year. A Mercer Park Farmers Market replaces the Sycamore Mall Farmers Market. Market attendees can expect to see some of their favorite vendors from the Sycamore Mall market, as well as the Downtown Iowa City Farmers Market. Mercer Park’s market also will feature some first-time vendors.

Market Coordinator Emily Ambrosy says Iowa City had expressed interest in an east side farmers market for years. The new market will open Tuesday from 3 to 6 p.m. in the park’s Bradford Drive parking lot. It will continue through Oct. 29.

The season kicked off in Cedar Rapids yesterday with a market at Noelridge Park and the Downtown Iowa City Farmers Market. If you didn’t make it to either market, don’t worry – there are plenty more celebrating the start of the season this weekend.

Check out our map to find the closest one near you.

Free range eggs

Take the Farmers Market Challenge

The Gazette’s Max Freund launched the “Farmers Market Challenge” last summer as a way to highlight the versatility of local markets.

Area chefs were given $20 and one task – to purchase every major ingredient needed for a three-course meal.

Each challenge was filmed and posted on our Hoopla website.

“The result was delicious, creative and distinctly styled food to each chef’s unique tastes,” Freund wrote.

We plan to revisit the challenge this summer in a different format. Be sure to stay on the lookout for these videos!

Click here for for a recap and to watch the videos of last year’s challenge.

Bundles of asparagus are

What’s in season?

Here’s a summary of the fruits and vegetables to look for at your local farmers market. Keep in mind that exact crop availability and harvest times vary year-to-year.

May: Asparagus, lettuce, mustard greens, scallions, radishes, rhubarb, spinach, zucchini.

June: Asparagus, beans, blueberries, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, cherries, collard greens, leeks, lettuce, mustard greens, scallions, peas, radishes, rhubarb, spinach, strawberries, Swiss chard, zucchini.

July: Apricots, asparagus, beans, blueberries, beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, cherries, collard greens, cucumbers, currants, gooseberries, kale, leeks, lettuce, scallions, peas, peppers, potatoes, radishes, raspberries, rhubarb, spinach, squash, strawberries, sweet corn, Swiss chard, tomatoes, zucchini.

A selection of peppers and a variety of eggplants

August: Apples, apricots, beans, blueberries, beets, broccoli, cabbage, cantaloupe, carrots, cauliflower, collard greens, cucumbers, eggplant, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, okra, scallions, dry onions, peaches, pears, peas, peppers, plums, potatoes, radishes, raspberries, rutabaga, spinach, squash, sweet corn, sweet potatoes, Swiss chard, tomatoes, turnips, watermelon, zucchini.

September: Apples, beans, beets, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cantaloupe, carrots, cauliflower, collard greens, cucumbers, eggplant, grapes, kale, kohlrabi, okra, scallions, dry onions, pears, peppers, plums, potatoes, pumpkins, radishes, raspberries, rutabaga, spinach, squash, sweet corn, sweet potato, Swiss chard, tomatoes, turnips, turnip greens, watermelon.

October: Apples, beets, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cantaloupe, carrots, cauliflower, collard greens, eggplant, grapes, kohlrabi, scallions, dry onions, parsnips, peppers, potatoes, pumpkins, radishes, raspberries, spinach, squash, sweet corn, sweet potato, Swiss chard, tomatoes, turnips, turnip greens, watermelon.

Source: The University of Northern Iowa Food & Farm Partnership

Flowers for sale at the Downtown Farmers Market in Cedar Rapids on Saturday morning, June 2, 2012. There were 244 vendors who participated in the first market of the year. (Stephen Mally/Freelance)

The museum is a recipient of this year’s National Medal for Museum and Library Service, the highest honor given to museums and libraries.

“It’s almost something we still have to absorb,” said Gail Naughton, the museum’s president and CEO. “It speaks to the work of the staff, of the board, during a stressful period of our community’s history.”

In June 2008, the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library was poised to unveil expansion plans when floodwaters ravaged the facility. All exhibits were destroyed. Library collections soaked and 15 years of records were lost. Nearly four years would pass before the museum would reopen its doors, but staff members managed to maintain a presence in the community during that time.

“Museums and libraries serve as centers for lifelong learning and as cornerstones for our communities. The National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library played an essential role in rebuilding a Cedar Rapids neighborhood following the horrific 2008 flood, and we are very proud to name this museum one of this year’s National Medal for Museum and Library Service winners,” said Susan Hildreth, director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. “This year’s National Medal recipients demonstrate the many ways museums and libraries alike build strong communities. These institutions are educating, inspiring, and leading lifelong learning while serving as community anchors.”

Naughton calls the museum’s role during the 2008 flood “a unique situation.”

“Not only were we working to recover what it lost at the museum, but we were also helping a community recover,” she said. “Museums are the anchor of a community. We had to be one of the strong voices during the recovery, rebuilding and revitalization efforts.”

And that’s why Naughton said the honor is a community award.

“It’s a salute to the city and all the recovery, and to the individuals, as well,” she said. “It recognizes all of us for what we’ve had to overcome and the work we continue to do.”

Since 1994, the National Medal for Museum and Library Service has honored institutions that have made significant and exceptional contri­butions to their communities. Selected institu­tions demonstrate extraordinary and innovative approaches to public service, exceeding the expected levels of community outreach.

The National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library is one of 10 institutes to receive the National Medal for Museum and Library Service National Medal this year. Also honored this year is the Marshalltown Public Library, which is home to one of America’s earliest Children’s Rooms.

This is the first year any Iowa museum or library has received the national honor.

The award will be presented at a celebration in Washington, D.C. May 8.

Gazette reporter Meredith Hines-Dochterman give copies of Still Alice, by Lisa Genova, to Robyn Woeste of Atkins (left) and Kristin Lapan of Marion for World Book Night during the lunch hour at Armstrong Centre Food Court in downtown Cedar Rapids on Tuesday, April 23, 2013. Hines-Dochterman was a World Book Night volunteer, and gave away 20 copies of the book to strangers. (Liz Martin/The Gazette-KCRG)

‘Excuse me. Are you a big reader?”

I asked that question several times Tuesday. The responses ranged from “Not really,” to “I used to be.” I had fewer odd looks than I expected. Most people were curious to know why I asked.

Twenty paperback copies of Lisa Genova’s “Still Alice” were my answer. I was a book giver for World Book Night 2013.

World Book Night is an annual celebration dedicated to spreading the love of reading. Each year on April 23, thousands of volunteer book givers take to the streets to give books to light and non-readers.

“What’s the catch?” one man asked after I handed him a book.

No catch. Celebrated internationally, there were a reported 25,000 book givers passing out 500,000 copies of books during World Book Night U.S. on April 23. Worldwide, more than two million books were given away.

“How does it work?” a woman asked.

Books selected for World Book Night U.S. are chosen by an independent panel of librarians and booksellers. The titles had to be an accessible book of quality and available in paperback. All genres are included, with the final mix being a combination of recently-published books and established classics.

Gazette reporter Meredith Hines-Dochterman gives a copy of Still Alice, by Lisa Genova, to Rusty Wright of Shellsburg for World Book Night during the lunch hour at Armstrong Centre Food Court in downtown Cedar Rapids on Tuesday, April 23, 2013. (Liz Martin/The Gazette-KCRG)

People who want to give books in their community fill out an application on the World Book Night U.S. website, sharing how they’d distribute their books and identifying their top three title choices. Those whose applications are selected are contacted by World Book Night U.S. prior to the event.

Each giver receives 20 copies of their title. The books, which are a special publication for the event, are delivered to various pickup sites across the country, including book sites and libraries. Book givers pick them up the week before the event, but aren’t allowed to give any until April 23.

In my application, I said I would distribute my books during the lunch hour in downtown Cedar Rapids. My plan was to give a book to anyone who was looking at their phone instead of reading a book, although I ended up giving a few away outside my original plan.

I handed out the first book at my daughter’s elementary school in North Liberty. I took the second and third books to my gym, giving one to a woman working on the Elliptical machine and leaving the other in the magazine rack. Books four and five were passed on to work colleagues; one who wants to read more this year and the other, a mother of twins, who hopes to read something beyond “Green Eggs and Ham.”

A man and woman walking on Second Ave. SE with their takeout bags received books number six and seven. They weren’t quite sure what to think, which is why each book I gave included a letter explaining World Book Night U.S. tucked inside. I also made bookmarks for each book, some of which included quotes about reading, book recommendations or a “Happy reading!” note.

The majority of my books were passed out at the Armstrong Centre Food Court. I gave several copies to people who were exploring the Internet on their phone instead of reading, but also handed out a few to people who looked like they’d appreciate a free book. I handed one out to a woman getting out of her car on my way to Prairie Soup Company. There, I gave books to the two people standing on front of me in line.

My last two books were shared with Prairie Soup employees. Unfortunately, I had already given away the book that had the “Condense soup, not books” quote bookmark in it.

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A stack of copies of Still Alice, by Lisa Genova, that will be given away by Gazette reporter Meredith Hines-Dochterman for World Book Night on Tuesday, April 23, 2013. (Liz Martin/The Gazette-KCRG)

World Book Night 2013

The celebration may be over, but you can still read the books selected for this year’s event:

• The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
• City of Thieves by David Benioff
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
• My Antonia by Willa Cather
• Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
• The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
• La Casa en Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros — translated by Elena Poniatowska
• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
• El Alquimista by Paulo Coelho
• The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
• The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan
• Bossypants by Tina Fey
• Still Alice by Lisa Genova
• Looking for Alaska by John Green
• Playing for Pizza by John Grisham
• Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
• The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster; illustrated by Jules Feiffer
• Moneyball by Michael Lewis
• The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer
• Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley
• Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life by James Patterson
• Population 485 by Michael Perry
• Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
• The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
• Montana Sky by Nora Roberts
• Look Again by Lisa Scottoline
• Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
• The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
• Glaciers by Alexis M. Smith
• A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain
• Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
• Favorite American Poems in Large Print edited by Paul Negri

To learn more about World Book Night U.S., visit us.worldbooknight.org.

A quote from Voltaire is tucked into a copy of Still Alice, by Lisa Genova, that will be given away by Gazette reporter Meredith Hines-Dochterman for World Book Night on Tuesday, April 23, 2013. (Liz Martin/The Gazette-KCRG)

Scoutmaster Lloyd Plume tries to help (from left) Dallas Dircks, 11, Elliott Hodgson, 17 and Kenny Plume, 12, use their maps in order to find the flight simulator at the Boy Scout Camporee in 2010. Local scouts will take on teams of community members in two upcoming “Are You Tougher than a Boy Scout?” Challenges in Coralville and Cedar Rapids. (Becky Malewitz/ SourceMedia Group News)

‘Be prepared” will soon have new meaning for members of the Cedar Rapids and Coralville police departments, former University of Iowa athletes and local celebrities.

These groups will form teams of three and take on area Boy Scouts in the Hawkeye Area Council’s “Are You Tougher than a Boy Scout?” competition.

Based on the National Geographic Channel television series of the same name, this competition pits community members against Boy Scouts in a series of events that challenge body, mind and spirit. The challenges are based on the Boy Scouts’ 100-year-old handbook.

“We want to make scouting a real presence in Eastern Iowa and teach people that the skills Boy Scouts learn are more than camping and archery,” said John Myers, district executive for the Hawkeye Area Council. “They are learning life skills.”

The competition will include canoeing, tug of war, fire starting, an obstacle course and sling shots in the Coralville event.

Cedar Rapids participants will face a climbing wall, obstacle course and mental challenges. Myers is reluctant to expand on the mental challenge aspect of the competition, but shares one clue.

“Let’s just say knowledge of U.S. geography might be a plus,” he said.

But if you expect it to be as simple as knowing the names of each state, guess again.

“We had an internal competition in the office,” Myers said. “It was pretty challenging.”

The Coralville “Are You Tougher than a Boy Scout?” event will be from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday at S.T. Morrison Park, 1513 Seventh St. in Coralville. Former UI athletes Brent Metcalf, Mike Humpal, Matt Kroul and Nate Kaeding will make up one celebrity teams.

Cedar Rapids’ event will be May 4 at Mount Mercy University, 1330 Elmhurst Dr. NE. The Gazette will be represented with a trio from Team Hoopla.

Participating Boy Scouts range in age from 15 to 18.

The public is invited to watch the events. Myers hopes the competitions will become yearly events.

“We would love to make this an annual competition, just to get the community involved,” he said. “It’s a great way to show the fun and excitement of scouting.”

The teachers pulled a 12-hour+ day on Monday, so parents volunteered to bring in food so they could have dinner. I always sign up to ring dessert because it travels easily and, let’s face it, dessert is fun. I have nothing against side dishes, but a three-bean salad isn’t on the same scale as cupcakes.

I am a huge fan of fruit pizza, so when I saw a recipe for miniature fruit pizzas, I had to make them. Of course, my inability to make sugar cookies meant I skipped the first half of this recipe, choosing to purchase the pre-made sugar cookie dough instead. Feel free to follow my example!

MINIATURE FRUIT PIZZAS

Sugar Cookie Crust

• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup butter or margarine
• 4 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 2 eggs

Soften margarine slightly, then add sugar, eggs and vanilla. Stir well, then mix in flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and milk. Chill dough for about an hour and it will be easier to roll out.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface until it’s a little more than 1/4″ thick. You can either transfer it to an ungreased pizza pan to make a big pizza or use circle cookie cutters to make mini pizzas. (If you make the large pizza size, you will only use about 3/4 of the dough, so you can make mini ones with the leftovers!) Bake at 350 degrees for 13 minutes. Let the sugar cookie crust cool completely before adding the cream cheese layer.

Cream Cheese Layer

• 8 ounces cream cheese (softened)
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 8 ounces Cool Whip

Mix together cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla. Beat until smooth, then fold in the Cool Whip and stir well. Spread cream cheese layer over cooled sugar cookie. Then you can start adding the fruit. Options include: Strawberries; kiwi; bananas; grapes; blueberries; mandarin oranges; raspberries; pineapple; or whatever sounds good to you!

Source: Six Sisters’ Stuff: Family Recipes, Fun Crafts, and So Much More by Six Sisters Stuff (Shadow Mountain; March 4, 2013)

CEDAR RAPIDS –— The African American Museum of Iowa will celebrate its 20th anniversary next week, but Executive Director Tom Moore remembers when it was a simply an idea.

“We started out very small at Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church,” Moore says. “It was an idea to educate our children about African American history at the church.”

The concept stemmed from concerns that the city’s youth felt disconnected from their community and the state as a whole.

“Many of the children felt that had to go to Atlanta or somewhere to find their history,” Moore says. “Iowa belongs to them, too. They have a history here and we wanted to help give them a sense of pride.”

That desire led to the formation of The African American Heritage Foundation of Iowa, a grassroots organization of concerned community members. The next two decades were a learning curve of fundraising, organization, lectures, programs and planning as the foundation struggled to find their place in Cedar Rapids.

“We moved out of the church because it was starting to be seen as a Mt. Zion thing and we wanted it to be bigger than that,” Moore says. “We didn’t know then that it would be statewide, but we wanted to involve the community.”

The organization had several temporary sites over the next few years, but wasn’t until the move to Westdale Mall in 2000 that the foundation was able to create its first museum exhibit. This led to hiring a curator and gift shop manager, in addition to Joseph McGill, who was hired as the first executive director in 1998. Fundraising for their own museum building began in earnest, as did creating public programs that would speak to all members of the community.

Early on, supporters pictured the future museum as a statewide attraction — not just a Cedar Rapids’ facility — and worked to promote it as such, garnering support from communities as far away as Council Bluffs and Sioux City.

“We’ve always been in this unique position where there aren’t any other statewide museums doing what we do,” says Grant Stevens, the museum’s development director.

Construction for the African American Museum of Iowa started in April 2002, with the museum opening in September the following year. Nearly 10 years have passed since the museum first opened its doors, but the museum’s mission extends beyond brick and mortar.

“Over half of what we do happens outside of the museum,” Moore says. “You can’t wait for people to come to you; you have to go out to them. We started out that way and we’ve never stopped.”

Michelle Poe, the museum’s director of education, travels the state regularly, leading presentations in schools, community centers and libraries in Davenport, Des Moines, Fort Dodge and Muscatine. The information she shares is tailored to each community, each group. The presentations, she says, reinforce the belief that the museum may be located in Cedar Rapids, but it belongs to everyone in the state.

“People respond to it,” she says. “I’ll be leading a presentation and I’ll hear, ‘Oh, this is from our museum.’”

She recently gave a talk in Burlington. A woman at the end of her program asked Poe to show the first slide again.

“She looked at it and said, ‘That’s me,’” Poe says. “I wouldn’t know that, wouldn’t be able to identify her or learn more about the picture if we didn’t operate this way.”

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The African American Museum of Iowa has several events planned for its 20^th anniversary.

Thursday, May 2: A celebration/fundraiser will be held from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the Cedar Rapids Marriott, 1200 Collins Rd. NE. A look back on the museum’s past and its future will be shared through storytelling and performances. A formal dinner will be served. Tickets are $60 per person, $100 per could and $540 for a table of 10. Tickets can be purchased through the museum Website at www.blackiowa.org or by contacting Katherine Smith at kgfsmith@blackiowa.org or (319) 862-2101, ext. 216.

Friday, May 3: A grown-ups only celebration will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. with free museum tours and refreshments. A celebration mixer with live music, snacks and drinks will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Both events will take place at the museum, 55 12^th Ave. SE.

Saturday, May 4: A community-wide birthday party will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., beginning with a play performed by the Eulenspiegel Puppets at 10 a.m. Twenty activities will be available for families, including cake at noon and African drumming at dancing at 1:30 p.m.

For more information about the museum and its 20^th anniversary, visit www.blackiowa.org.

stromboli

Of course, none of us like the same toppings. B likes cheese only while E is OK with plain cheese or pepperoni. I prefer vegetarian or taco, while Scott likes meat combinations.

I make homemade pizza pretty regularly, but decided to try something new the other day: Stromboli. I knew Scott would like it, but I wasn’t sure about the kids. They like chicken. They like spinach. They like pizza. It seemed safe …

The verdict? Two yums up from Em and Scott. B ate his piece, but it wasn’t his favorite.

“Sorry, Mom,” he said.

Personally, I love this recipe. I will make it again because, as the main cook at my house, I choose the menu. Sometimes that power results in making something at least I know I’ll like. (Maniacal laugh.)

SPINACH-CHICKEN STROMBOLI

• 1 tube of refrigerated pizza crust
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1½ teaspoons Italian seasoning
• 3½ tablespoons canned Parmesan cheese, divided
• 1½ cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 2 cups loosely packed spinach leaves
• 8 ounces shredded, cooked chicken breast (about 2 cups)
• 2 Roma tomatoes, diced
• Alfredo or marinara sauce to dip in

Preheat your oven to the temperature to the temperature indicated on the dough package.

Working on a floured surface, roll the dough into a 12×15 inch rectangle on a floured surface. Spread 1 1/2 teaspoon of the oil over the entire surface of the crust. Evenly sprinkle with the Italian Seasoning and two tablespoons of the Parmesan on top.

Keeping the remaining toppings one inch away from all edges, evenly spread the spinach leaves, shredded chicken and tomatoes over the dough.

Working from the long end of the rectangle, roll up from one end to the other, like a cinnamon roll. Pinch seam shut and then pinch each end shut and tuck under toward seam.

Place the seam side down on your baking sheet sprayed lightly with nonstick spray. Brush the Stromboli with the remaining oil and sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan cheese. Gently cut 3 slits along the top with a sharp knife to let the steam escape.

Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the top is golden brown. Allow to cool for 10-15 minutes before slicing into 1 inch thick slices. Serve with your favorite Alfredo or marinara sauce for dipping.

Source: Our Best Bites: Mormon Moms in the Kitchen by Sara Wells & Kate Jones (Shadow Mountain; Feb. 23, 2011)

brownies

I didn’t think that sounded like a huge number. The looks I’ve gotten from friends and colleagues suggest that they don’t agree. Apparently, in an informal poll of eight people, 10 is an acceptable number of cookbooks.

Acceptable is boring.

The following recipe comes from one of my newer cookbook purchases: Six Sisters’ Stuff: Family Recipes, Fun Crafts, and So Much More. The KCRG and Gazette reporters are moved into the new newsroom, so there had to be snacks to celebrate.

Just don’t spill a crumb on the new carpet.

Mom’s Famous Chocolate Marshmallow Brownies

• 1 cup margarine (2 sticks)
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/3 cup cocoa
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 (10-ounce) package of miniature marshmallows

Soften margarine and blend in sugar and cocoa. Beat together and add 4 eggs, one at a time, mixing after each one. Add flour, salt and vanilla and mix well.

Spread on large (10x15x1 inch) greased cookie sheet. Bake 22-25 minutes at 350. Remove from oven and cover entire top with 1 package of miniature marshmallows. Return to oven for 3 minutes, until marshmallows are soft and puffy. Cool and frost with chocolate frosting.

Mom’s Chocolate Frosting

• 1 stick margarine (1/2 cup), softened
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 to 2 teaspoons vanilla (depending on your taste)
• 3 tablespoons of cocoa
• 2 to 3 cups of powdered sugar

Mix all ingredients with a hand mixer until smooth. Add more powdered sugar or milk until you reach desired consistency and spread on top of bars.

Source: Six Sisters’ Stuff: Family Recipes, Fun Crafts, and So Much More by Six Sisters Stuff (Shadow Mountain; March 4, 2013)

Peper moved to Eastern Iowa from South Carolina in September. A member of an active curling club on the East Coast, Peper searched for a similar group here. All he could find was a student club at Drake University in Des Moines.

Further research revealed that previous attempts to create curling clubs in Iowa hadn’t met with success. But Peper and his fellow curling enthusiasts plan to change that.

The Cedar Rapids Curling Club launched last winter with a meet-and-greet at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena. More than 30 people — many of whom had never tried the sport before and one former Canadian provincial champion — attended.

“There’s a definite interest,” Peper says.

“We have 225 players in our adult hockey league,” says Kevin Brooks, the arena’s hockey director. “They love to be around the rink. We’ll see a lot of them get involved.”

Mark Olson sees the club as an opportunity to reconnect with a sport he enjoyed as a child.

“I started with the Grand Forks Curling Club (in North Dakota) when I was in late grade school,” Olson says.

He played throughout junior and high school, eventually playing in an adult league. When he learned about Peper’s attempts to start a club in Cedar Rapids, he offered his support.

“It’s going to be interesting to see how I do after so many years not playing,” Olson says with a laugh. “I don’t have the physique of a teenager anymore, but the desire is still there.”

The club will hold an open house Tuesday at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena. Participants will have a brief introduction to the sport before taking the ice to learn the basics of the game.

What you need to know:

• What: Cedar Rapids Curling Club open house
• When: 7:30 to 10 p.m. April 23
• Where: Cedar Rapids Ice Arena, 1100 Rockford Rd. SW.
• Details: Preregister by email at crcurlingclub@gmail.com.
• More information: cedarrapidscurling.wordpress.com
• Donate: Gogetfunding.com/project/cedar-rapids-curling-club-stone-equipment-fund-raiser.

“Everybody is getting out on the ice and trying it,” says Kari Kozak of Iowa City. She was introduced to curling at Iowa State University, where curling is an intramural sport, and later joined curling clubs in North Carolina and Texas.

Kozak and Peper are currently members of the Waltham Curling Club in Triumph, Ill.

The Cedar Rapids Curling Club will be Iowa’s first open-to-the-public curling club. Peper says the club likely will operate for a couple of hours on Friday nights at the ice arena. But, first, it needs to raise enough money to purchase equipment.

The plan is to have a developmental league this summer and launch regular league play in the fall. The club will be open to participants ages 12 and up. Eventually, the club hopes to have enough interest and funding to begin a youth league.

.......

Here’s a picture of my stove.

The tea kettle and the Dutch oven are always on it because I use the kettle every morning the Dutch oven nearly every night. There’s no use putting them away.

I decided to boil water for tea, so I moved the kettle to the front left-side burner, turned it on and walked away. Just as I’m wondering why it isn’t whistling yet, I smell something burning.

Yes, I had turned on the back left-hand burner instead, scorching the bottom of the Dutch oven, which had been burning, empty, for 10 minutes.

There was a moment of panic. I turned the stove off, grabbed two potholders and tried to lift the Dutch oven off the burner, but it wouldn’t budge. I then filled a large bowl with cold water, dumped it in and watched as it immediately sizzled and evaporated away. I did that two more times before dumping all the ice from the freezer into the Dutch oven. I was then able to life it to a cool burner.

I wish I could say this was the first time I’ve done this, but sadly it’s happened before. The Dutch oven was still usable afterwards, but I’m not sure of it is durable enough to withstand two kitchen calamities. I know what I’ll be asking Scott and the kids to get me for Mother’s Day this year!

Bodkin sparkling Sauvignon Blanc. Shot on Friday, April 12, 2013 at Noelridge Greenhouse in Cedar Rapids. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette-KCRG TV9)

Chris Christensen wanted to delay getting “a real job” with a suit and a cubicle. At least that’s the joke version of why the Cedar Rapids native became a winemaker in California.

In truth, it’s the combination of craftsmanship and science — two things Christensen loves — that piqued his interest.

“I’ve built furniture all my life and was interested in chemistry in school,” Christensen says during a recent phone interview. “Unfortunately, I’m not good enough at either one to make a career of it.”

So when he was offered an internship at Gallo of Sonoma after graduating from Stanford University with a degree in communication, Christensen took it.

That six-month internship led to another, then another and another. In eight years, he worked at nine different wineries; eight in Sonoma County, Calif., and one at BK Wines in rural South Australia.

It was around the 2009 harvest that Christensen first considered applying everything he’d learned to his own label. He spent the next couple of years planning, working and honing his skills.

“For me, winemaking is not an art form, it’s a craft, a trade,” he says. The years of practice paid off. Christensen released his first wine — a Sauvignon Blanc — under his Bodkin Wines label in 2011.

“It was humbling,” Christensen recalls. “This was the product I’d been working for. I’d been working to this moment for eight years.”

It was daunting, too.

“I remember thinking, ‘Wow, I have 77 cases of wine I need to sell,’” he says with a laugh.

Contrary to popular belief, a winemaker doesn’t spend his days walking around a vineyard and his evening sampling wines. Christensen calls Bodkin Wines a one man, one dog and a lot of friends operation. He’s his accountant, buyer, web designer and public relations director.

And he loves it.

“I want to make wine that can be enjoyed in the here and now,” he says. “I want to make wine for the connoisseurs and the novices. I want my wine to be enjoyed at family events, picnics, barbecues — not hoarded in someone’s basement.”

Christensen released three wines in 2012: another Sauvignon Blanc, a Muscat Canelli and a Sparkling Sauvignon Blanc.

The Sparkling Sauvignon Blanc was inspired by a trip Christensen took to New Zealand in 2011.

It is the first of its kind in California and, possibly, the entire United States.

“No one has challenged my claim yet,” Christensen says.

The Bodkin label is on the wine list at Bata’s, 1006 Third St. SE. And Christensen’s Sparkling Sauvignon Blanc is available at the Hy-Vee Drug Store at 2001 Blairs Ferry Rd. NE. It is the only local store to carry Bodkin Wine.

Bryan Roney, the Hy-Vee store’s wine and spirits manager who also worked with Christensen at Hy-Vee in high school, says he’s had several tastings with his customers, all with great response.

Chris Christensen

“I’d say nine out of 10 people who sampled it bought a bottle,” Roney says.

And that’s before they learn it’s made by a Cedar Rapids native, he adds.

“Local wine isn’t as unique as it once was. Iowa has over 100 wineries and 300 vineyards,” Roney says. “Having an Iowa native making the first-ever Sparkling Sauvignon Blanc in the U. S.? That’s unique.”

“I want to help people know what wine is,” Christensen says. “It isn’t serious. It isn’t something that needs to be studied. It’s fun. It is meant to be a complement to life’s flavors. Who knows? I may inspire someone to take on the business like I did.”

It’s a practice 5K to prepare her for the real thing on May 5.

My daughter is enrolled in Girls on the Run of Eastern Iowa. This 10-week program for third- through sixth-grade students aims to give girls the tools they need to live happy, healthy lives. Lessons on self-esteem, goals and peer pressure are partnered with a running program that concludes with a 5K.

I signed up to be my daughter’s running buddy for her first season, thinking it would be a fun mother-daughter activity. To be honest, I didn’t think she’d participate in the program more than once as all other attempts at athletics – soccer, tennis, softball and gymnastics – weren’t successful.

I was wrong. She’ll complete her fifth season – and her 11^th 5K – next month.

I’m not a lifelong runner. I started running in the summer of 2010, thanks to former Gazette Food Editor Cecelia Hanley. She found out about the Couch to 5K running plan and, because we lived three blocks away from each other, we got up at 6 a.m. every morning to run. She moved away after we completed the program and my running regime slacked off without someone to answer to.

Being my daughter’s running buddy has forced me to run sporadically, but it wasn’t until my best friend and I signed up for the Chicago Women’s Half-Marathon in June that I started training in earnest.

I confess, I’ve had an easier time increasing my mileage than cutting foods from my diet that won’t help my performance. With less than three months until race time, though, it’s time to get serious.

I’ve been pouring through my collection of healthy recipe cookies, searching for snack recipes that will satisfy my evening munchies without derailing a day’s worth of eating well. This recipe for “pickle chips” has a great combination of crunch and flavor. It’s not going to fool you into thinking you’re eating a potato chip, but at least you can have more than one without feeling guilty.

QUICK “PICKLE” CHIPS

• ¾ cup apple cider vinegar
• 6 tablespoons Splenda granulated sweetener
• 1 teaspoon dried dill
• ½ teaspoon mustard powder
• Pinch of black pepper
• 1 large cucumber or English cucumber, washed and cut into ¼-inch thick slices

In a medium bowl, whisk together the vinegar, sweetener, dill, mustard, salt and pepper. Add the cucumber slices and toss together.

Cover and place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before serving.

Source: Eat What You Love: More than 300 Incredible Recipes Low in Sugar, Fat, and Calories by Marlene Koch (Running Press; April 2010)

One of the Healthy Choice Top Chef Cafe Steamers Barbecue Seasoned Steak with Red Potatoes frozen dinners. New frozen dinners aren't the old TV dinners from your past. Photo illustration photographed Tuesday, March 26, 2013, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette-KCRG)

CEDAR RAPIDS – Has this happened to you?

It’s late and you’re hungry, but the thought of making dinner isn’t appealing, so you grab a frozen meal from the freezer. A few minutes later, dinner is served – maybe not the dinner you imagined, but at least it isn’t fast food.

You can stop feeling guilty.

“Frozen entrees are not what they used to be,” says Christy Frese, a registered dietician at the Edgewood Road Hy-Vee.

Frozen dinners have been part of our culinary history more than 70 years. C.A. Swanson & Sons introduced the TV Brand Frozen Dinner in 1953, but frozen meals had been served on airplanes for nearly 10 years prior. Other prepackaged meals were also available prior to Swanson’s, including oven-ready aluminum trays introduced by Quaker States Foods under the One-Eye Eskimo label.

It was Swanson, however, who made the aluminum trays of Salisbury steak, corn and mashed potatoes synonymous with TV viewing, thanks to a clever marketing campaign that tapped into the public’s fascination with television.

Swanson stopped using the name “TV Dinner” in 1962, but the term remains part of vocabulary when discussing frozen dinners. Perhaps that’s why we still think of frozen dinners as unhealthy.

“Frozen dinners have been transformed from the foil packets we remember,” Frese says.

At a recent Hy-Vee class – From Frozen to Fast and Fabulous – Frese says increased health concerns, aging Baby Boomers and an increased number of single-serve diners prompted the frozen food market to rethink convenience.

“Today, the freezer aisle is filled with meals created by chefs in state-of-the-art kitchens,” she says. “It’s interesting to see the unique flavors they’re playing with.”

Black Bean Mango, Beef Merlot and Pumpkin Squash Ravioli are just a few of the meals Frese shared with her class.

“There are combinations of flavors we wouldn’t see 10, or even five, years ago,” Frese says.

You can thank the Millennials for that. This generation is more health-conscious than those that came before them, Frese says. At the same time, they grew up watching cooking shows on television, leading to a more sophisticated palate, but because they can’t afford to eat dinner in a restaurant every night, companies have created new dinners that appeal to their tastes.

But everyone benefits, Frese says.

“Today’s frozen meals are looking more and more like what My Plate suggests – half fruits and vegetables, a quarter whole grains and a quarter lean protein,” she says. “It definitely helps with portion control.”

Serve the meal on a regular plate instead of the plastic serving tray, add a salad or a piece of fruit, and you have a balanced meal without a lot of fuss.

“It’s not something you want to do every day, but it’s good to keep a few meals in the freezer for busy days or days you just don’t want to cook,” Frese says. “It’s healthier to drive through the frozen food aisle instead of a fast food restaurant.”

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Incorporating frozen meals in your diet can help you consume fewer calories, control portion sizes and improve your waistline – if you know what to buy. Christy Frese, a registered dietician at the Edgewood Road Hy-Vee, suggests the following guidelines when purchasing frozen meals:

• Calories: 450 or less
• Sodium: 600 milligrams or less
• Saturated fat: Not more than 10 percent of total calories
• Total fat: Not more than 30 percent of total calories
• Fiber: Include a variety of whole grains, vegetables and fruits to increase the fiber content of the meal

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Frozen foods aren’t limited to entrees. Frozen fruits, vegetables and meats can be used prepare healthy dishes with minimal prep time. Here are a few recipes to get you started:

Pesto Meatballs and Orzo

• 1 (16-ounce) package frozen precooked meatballs, thawed
• 1 (16-ounce) package orzo pasta
• 1-1/2 cups baby frozen peas
• 1 (16-ounce) jar Alfredo sauce
• 1 (6 to 7-ounce) container basil pesto
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 2-1/2 quart casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add orzo and cook until almost al dente, about 1 minute less cooking time than the package suggests. Place peas in colander and drain pasta over peas; return all to pot. Add meatballs, Alfredo sauce, sour cream, milk, and pesto and mix gently. Pour milk into Alfredo sauce jar, close lid, and shake; add that to the pasta mixture and stir. (By doing this you can get more of the Alfredo sauce out of the jar.)

Pour into 2-1/2 quart casserole dish and top with Parmesan cheese. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes until casserole is bubbly and top begins to brown.

Source: busycooks.about.com

Garden Stuffed Baked Potatoes

• 4 large potatoes
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 (10 ounce) package chopped frozen broccoli, thawed
• 1/2 cup ranch-style salad dressing
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons dried parsley
• Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Pierce the skin of the potatoes with a fork.

Microwave pierced potatoes on high for 12 minutes. Place partially baked potatoes in the preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes. Slice off potato tops, scoop out the bulk of the interior of the potato being careful to leave the potato skins intact. In a medium bowl, mash the removed potato interior.

Heat a small skillet over medium heat, stir in butter. Sauté onions in the skillet until tender, about 5 minutes.

Combine onions, broccoli, and ranch dressing with the mashed potato. Brush the outside of the potato skins with oil. Spoon potato mixture into the skins. Arrange stuffed potatoes on a cookie sheet.

Bake potatoes for 15 minutes, or until heated through. Season with salt, pepper and parsley.

Source: allrecipes.com

Victims mourned on International Holocaust Remembrance Day in Berlin (Photo © Herald Times )

Nearly 70 years have passed since Renee Firestone was forced into a crowded train bound for Auschwitz.

The year was 1944. Firestone and her family were living in Hungary, where life was getting difficult for Jewish families. Firestone’s brother was taken to a work camp soon after his 18th birthday and her father had lost his business.

Firestone, her parents and younger sister thought they were going to a work camp in Germany. They were told they’d have housing and paying jobs. She’d heard rumors of mass graves filled with Jewish bodies, but was sure they were just that — rumors.

The idea of such horror was too great to believe.

The three days Firestone spent traveling in the cramped train, with no food and no water, brought those rumors to light.

Arriving at Auschwitz, Firestone was immediately separated from her parents. Keeping a death grip on her younger sister, Firestone managed to stay with her as they were forced to strip naked, shower in cold water, and have their heads shaved.

Dressed in similar gray cotton dresses, it was nearly impossible to tell one woman from another. The Nazis had stripped away their identity, just as they had taken their clothing and other belongings.

“People ask me if I hate the Nazis,” Firestone, now 89, said in a phone interview from her home in California. “I don’t judge because I have no right to judge.”

She doesn’t like to use the word hate. It’s too powerful. Hate, she said, is what causes people to kill.

There’s been enough killing.

“When I was liberated from the camp, I was 21 years old,” she said. “I was ignorant. They told us this would never happen again and I believed them.”

But it did. It has.

“The world didn’t learn anything from the Holocaust,” Firestone said.

That is why she travels the globe, sharing the story of her time in Auschwitz. She will speak at several locations in Cedar Rapids this week.

Firestone talks about her mother, who was taken to the gas chambers because she had gray hair. She talks about the day her sister disappeared, of not knowing what happened to her.

Decades would pass before she’d learn her sister was among the Jews tortured in the “medical-experiment hospitals.”

Rarely a day comes that Firestone doesn’t share her story with someone. The traveling, the questions and the memories can be difficult, but not talking would be harder.

“There are fewer survivors every year,” Firestone said. “It is important for us to speak. We have a responsibility to remind the world, to warn the world of what has happened. We have to start teaching our children. We can’t be afraid to tell them. Our children have to know what happened.”

That includes her own daughter, Klara Firestone, who is the founder and president of Second Generation, Los Angeles.

Renee Firestone

Firestone also has a granddaughter and three great-grandchildren — but she pauses after mentioning them.

Firestone has never wanted revenge for what happened to her. Revenge, she said, can lead to hate. She could let the past consume her, but she hasn’t.

She moved to the United States in 1948 with her husband and daughter. She learned English. She became a fashion designer. She became a voice of Holocaust survivors.

She lived.

“That’s my revenge on the Nazis,” Firestone said with a quiet laugh. “They wanted to kill us. I have three great-grandchildren.”

*******************************************************************************************************************

Holocaust survivor Renee Firestone will speak at several locations in Cedar Rapids this week:

• 11 a.m. Tuesday, April 16, in Iowa Hall at Kirkwood Community College
• 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, April 16, in the Chapel of Mercy at Mount Mercy University
• 9 a.m. Wednesday, April 17, at Washington High School
• 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 17, in Kesler Lecture Hall of Hickok Hall at Coe College
• 9:40 a.m. Thursday, April 18, at Xavier High School

Firestone’s visit is sponsored by the Joan and David Thaler Holocaust Memorial Foundation, which has brought Holocaust survivors and children of survivors to Eastern Iowa for more than 25 years.

“It’s about education and it’s about understanding,” Joan Thaler said. “It’s just amazing how much interest there is in this. We want people to know this has happened and we want them to learn from it.”

Volunteer John Vollenweinder or Coralville moves cases of pears so they can be sorted and distributed at The Crisis Center of Johnson County food bank in Iowa City on Monday, April 8, 2013. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette)

Editor’s note: One in a series of stories on poverty, a topic that The Gazette considers a content priority for 2013.

CEDAR RAPIDS — Amanda Pieper was thrilled to see eggplant in the HACAP Food Reservoir last year, but the vegetable was ignored by the food assistance agencies HACAP serves.

“We had a great donation,” said Pieper, the food reservoir’s director. “No one knew what to do with them, so they stayed in the warehouse and got yucky.”

This is a rare event in the reservoir’s history, but it highlights one of the challenges distributing food to those in need: Food nutrition education.

Obesity and diet-related diseases are rising among individuals struggling to afford food.

According to a study published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, food banks across the nation are altering their nutrition-related policies and practices to address these concerns.

“For those who struggle to put food on the table, it is not just about too few calories, it is also about not having access to healthy foods and adequate nutrition,” Marlene Schwartz, senior author and deputy director of the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, said in a statement. “In response, leading food banks across the country have adapted to strategically promote healthier foods and beverages.”

The researchers interviewed administrators from 20 food banks throughout the country about their current nutrition policies and practices, and the challenges they face. Every food bank that participated in the analysis was part of the Feeding America Network, a non-profit organization that consists of a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks.

HACAP is a member of the Feeding America Network, but administrators weren’t interviewed for the study.

HACAP doesn’t have written policies in place regarding nutrition beyond general food safety, but CEO Jane Drapeaux said distributing nutritious food is a top priority.

Demand rising

“Unfortunately, when it comes to donations, our hands are tied,” she said. “If someone wants to donate milk, we can’t say, ‘Oh, we only want 2 percent.’ ”

At a time when 13.4 percent of the state’s population doesn’t know where their next meal will comes from — this is according to 2010 figures from the most recent Feeding America’s Map the Meal Gap report — now isn’t the time to refuse donations.

“Donations are down, but the demands for service are higher than ever,” Drapeaux said.

In fiscal year 2009, HACAP, which serves a seven-county area, assisted 89,944 households, providing slightly more than 1.5 million meals. In 2012, those numbers increased to 94,087 households and 1.7 million meals.

“The nature of food banks is changing tremendously,” Pieper said. “We’ve never had to purchase as much as we do now.”

An estimated 14.1 percent of households in the U.S. were food insecure in 2011, according to the most recent data from the United States Department of Agriculture.

Of this population, 5.7 percent had very low food security, meaning that the food intake of one or more household members was reduced and their eating patterns were disrupted at times because the household lacked money and other resources for food.

Johnson County needs

The Crisis Center of Johnson County Food Bank has seen a 10 percent increase in services from this time period a year ago. The year before saw a 19 percent increase.

In fiscal year 2012, the center registered 1,567 new families for services in the food bank; 923 new families have registered so far this fiscal year, which ends June 30.

“Over the course of a year, a couple of years ago, a family would average seven visits a year,” said Sarah Benson Witry, the center’s food bank & emergency assistance director. “Now they average about nine visits.”

Meeting the needs of Iowa’s at-risk population is the immediate concern, but the long-term goal is to help stabilize families, helping them become self-sufficient. This includes providing healthy food so that poor dietary choices now don’t lead to expensive health concerns later.

The majority of food bank personnel who participated in Yale’s study reported increased efforts to provide more fresh produce to their clients, a practice Eastern Iowa food banks and organizations that help the food insecure population have adopted, too.

Last summer, HACAP partnered with the Downtown Farmers’ Market to build relationships with local vendors. It resulted in 1,500 pounds of fresh produce donated in just one day, which was immediately delivered to partner agencies. HACAP will be present at every Cedar Rapids farmers market this summer, as will Table to Table in Iowa City.

Bob Andrlik, Table to Table’s executive director, estimates that the non-profit food rescue and delivery organization received more than 10,000 pounds of food last season.

“This is food that didn’t sell, but it’s absolutely fresh,” he says. “Before, they probably took it back and put it on the compost pile, but we found vendors who’d rather donate it. As word got out, donations increased.”

Produce challenges

But not all fresh produce is eagerly accepted at food banks. It isn’t that the food isn’t appreciated, but that the clients aren’t always sure how to prepare it.

“Sometimes, when you take organic and interesting foods to food pantries, they’re a little leery, but once they learn about it and try it, they ask, ‘Do you have any more of that?’ ” Andrlik said.

Witry said the Crisis Center tries to have volunteers with working knowledge of the produce available on hand to answer questions.

“It would be great if we had more of the education programs,” she said.

HACAP is stepping up its education efforts by sharing information about cleaning, storing and preparing fresh produce with the agencies it serves.

“We want to give our clients the knowledge to help them get away from the salt, the sodium, and focus on natural flavors,” she said.

This effort isn’t exclusive to produce, though. HACAP also will distribute recipes that show how clients can use the food they have access to at the food bank to prepare nutritious meals for themselves and their family.

“Instead of just opening a can of green beans or pears, we’re gathering information about what other items from the food pantry you can pair with it to make a healthy meal,” Pieper said.

Educating kids

Part of this education starts with children. HACAP’s backpack program provides a backpack of food to children at-risk of not eating when they aren’t in school. The program, which quadrupled this year, provides food for 900 backpacks each weekend to 30 schools in Linn, Iowa, Johnson, Jones, Cedar, Benton and Washington counties.

According to Pieper, one in four kids in HACAP’s service area goes hungry once a week, not knowing where their next meal will come from.

Each backpack contains about 3,200 calories of nutritious, kid-friendly foods, like 100 percent juice and whole-wheat crackers.

“From the reviews that we’ve received, the parents love that their kids are getting healthier foods,” Pieper said. “They recognize these foods when they’re in the grocery store with their parents. They’ll say, ‘Oh, unsweetened applesauce. I like that.’”

Witry has witnessed teens snatching up bags of lettuce at the food bank, asking their parents if they can take it home.

“People who think this population won’t eat healthier food need to know that isn’t true,” she said.

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Give food or money?

When it comes to giving a donation to the food bank, what’s better to give?

Amanda Pieper, director of the HACAP Food Reservoir, said both.

Donating money will stretch a dollar further — every dollar equals $12 buying power — but perishable and non-perishable donations help those in need immediately.

“Food donations I can get to our partner organizations right away,” she said. “We can get more food with monetary donations, but purchasing takes time.”

Sarah Benson Witry, food bank and emergency assistance director for The Crisis Center of Johnson County, also said financial donations go further, but item donations provide variety.

“I’m going to buy 20, 30 or 40 of one item, whereas someone might donate something they bought on a 2-for-1 deal, putting an item I might never purchase on our shelves,” she said.

Some of the healthy items always needed at food banks include canned tuna and chicken; low sodium soup and low fat soup; 100 percent fruit juice; whole grain crackers and cereal; whole wheat pasta; canned fruit in juice; low sodium canned vegetables; and low-fat or low-sodium pasta sauce.

HACAP can accept donations at any time. The Crisis Center accepts donations from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday. Call (319) 351-0128 for more information regarding donations for both sites.

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Giving opportunities

• The Crisis Center of Johnson County is currently in the middle of its “Shower the Crisis Center” donation drive, collecting formula, diapers, baby food and baby wipes for its shelves.

These items are often requested by clients, but only available through donations.

This drive, which will continue through the end of April, is a rare case in which The Crisis Center is not requesting financial donations, since the agency does not currently have purchasing resources to buy baby items at reduced costs.

• Table to Table will host its “Amazing Grace” annual fundraising dinner from 6 to 8:30 p.m. on April 18. This is a come-and-go-as-you-please food tasting event that will allow patrons to sample a much larger variety of local cuisine, prepared and donated by area restaurants.

The event will be held at the Celebration Farm, located four miles north of I-80 on Hwy. 1, across from the Morse Road turnoff. Tickets are $60 per person or $400 per “van-load” of eight people or more. Reservations may be made online at www.table2table.org.

The annual dinner helps to support the agency’s work of collecting donations of wholesome foods that would otherwise be landfilled, and delivering them free of charge to other area agencies for use in local meal and food distribution programs. Since Table to Table’s inception in 1996, more than 10 million pounds of food have been collected and distributed.

Jumbo hot dogs with various condiments are seen during the Cedar Rapids Kernels' game against the Beloit Snappers at Veterans Memorial Stadium on Saturday, April 6, 2013, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette-KCRG)

CEDAR RAPIDS — The Chicago Hot Dog is probably the most popular menu item at The Flying Weenie.

Topped with mustard, onion, tomatoes, dill spear, relish, sport peppers and celery salt — or anything else the customer wants, according to the menu — this is a hot dog to sink your teeth into, and then some.

Owner John Martin serves countless Chicago Hot Dogs every day — even though he’s never had one.

“I don’t like all the topping,” Martin says. “I prefer plain hot dogs. That’s when you can really taste the meat.”

Good meat is what makes a good hot dog. Of course, this iconic food is littered with tales of being made out of anything but meat — a long-standing fear that launched Bruce Kraig’s career as a hot dog historian.

“People have always been worried about the meat that’s in their hot dogs,” said Kraig, professor emeritus at Roosevelt University in Chicago. “It’s such a fascinating topic.”

Kraig’s book exploring the ancestry of the popular food — “Hot Dog: A Global History” — was released by Reaktion Books in 2009. His latest publication, “Man Bites Dog: Hot Dog Culture in America (AltaMira Press; Nov. 20, 2012),” focuses on the cultural side on the bun.

Partnering with photographer Patty Carroll, the pair explore the hot dog’s place in our society, from the metal carts so popular in New York City and Chicago, to iconic restaurants like Pink’s Famous Hot Dog in Los Angeles.

A jumbo hot dog with ketchup as seen during the Cedar Rapids Kernels' game against the Beloit Snappers at Veterans Memorial Stadium on Saturday, April 6, 2013, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette-KCRG)

“Hot dogs are our look into American culture,” Kraig said.

Think about it. Hot dogs are a staple of backyard barbecues, county fairs and sporting events. After all, you can hold a hot dog with one hand. They are precooked, so they’re fast to prepare and are affordable in large quantities.

“It makes sense to have them at public events,” Kraig said.

Take baseball, for instance. With the season under way, fans are filling the stands with trays of nachos, soft pretzels and, of course, hot dogs.

The Cedar Rapids Kernels’ concessions sold 113,000 hot dogs during the 2012 season — and we aren’t just talking about your traditional wiener. The Kernels’ menu includes the 1/2 pound foot long, the jumbo hot dog, corn dogs, mini corn dogs — even veggie hot dogs.

New to this year’s lineup — gluten free hot dog buns. Jessica Fergesen, the Kernels’ director of corporate sales and marketing, said the new food was added “so individuals with wheat allergies can enjoy a hot dog at the game.”

Martin’s menu at the Flying Weenie includes hot Italian sausage, Polish sausage, a chili dog, a chili cheese dog and a bacon cheese dog.

“I think everybody likes a good hot dog, but a lot of people haven’t had a good one,” Martin says.

There’s a difference, he says, between real hot dogs and those you buy in a pack at the store.

“I’ve had people come in only having a generic hot dog,” Martin says. “They try one, they taste the difference and they come back.”

Just as important as what people choose to put in their bun — pork, beef or vegetarian — are the items that top it. Sauerkraut, relish, chili — even apples, as evidenced by the Washington State Hot Dog recipe (below) that pairs hot dogs and cheddar cheese with Granny Smith apples.

“What’s on hot dogs, traditionally, is cultural by region,” Kraig says.

From yellow mustard and grilled onions in New York City to the coleslaw-covered hot dogs of the southern states, the way we cook, top and eat our hot dogs says a lot about where we live. That’s why Kraig says no self-respecting Chicagoan will top a hot dog with ketchup.

“This is an abomination; it destroys the flavor,” he says. “You have to be able to taste the dog.”

Jumbo hot dogs with various condiments are seen during the Cedar Rapids Kernels' game against the Beloit Snappers at Veterans Memorial Stadium on Saturday, April 6, 2013, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette-KCRG)

*********************************************************************************************************

WASHINGTON STATE HOT DOGS

• 8 hot dogs, 8 to a pound
• 1 tablespoon (or more) brown or Dijon mustard
• 3 Granny Smith or other tart apples, thinly sliced – the peels may be left on
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• ½ cup coarsely grated cheddar cheese – a Washington State cheese is best

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place hot dogs in a baking dish. Spread with mustard. Spread apple slices over the hot dogs and sprinkle with brown sugar. Bake for about 20 minutes, until apples are tender. Sprinkle grated cheese over top of dish, replace in oven, and bake until cheese melts, about 5 minutes.

Makes 8 hot dogs.

Recipe adapted from: Dorothy Dean, “These Recipes for Hot Dogs May Please,” Seattle Spokesman-Review, June 20, 1951. It appears in Man Bites Dog: Hot Dog Culture in America by Bruce Kraig and Parry Carroll (AltaMira Press; Nov. 20, 2012).

I had apples. I had oranges. I had onions and red potatoes, green grapes and red. I bought bananas, lettuce, basil and blueberries.

It was a beautiful, colorful cart and, I admit, I felt a bit self-righteous as I pushed past people who had carts filled with canned pasta sauce, sugared cereals and frozen waffles.

But then Wednesday happened. I was pulling single parent duties on a week when both kids had activities every night and, as luck would have it, it was my turn to drive for most of them. Their one free night, I had an interview that couldn’t be rescheduled.

I was driving home around 8 p.m. when I remembered we needed bread. I pulled into the grocery store, grabbed a small basket, and went in search of bread and maybe a little snack.

I walked up to the checkout lane with a basket containing two bags of chips, two candy bars, a container of doughnuts and a box of cookies.

“Bad day?” the checkout girl asked.

I wanted to tell her one of the candy bars was for my son and the other for a friend. (True story.) I wanted to say the chips would be used in my kids’ sack lunches for the next two weeks.

I had no excuse for the cookies or the doughnuts.

What I really wanted to tell her was how well I shopped the weekend before. I wanted to tell her about the healthy meals I’ve been making and blogging about, but even I, in my stressed-out-I-can’t-believe-I-forgot-the-bread state of mind, knew that was crazy.

I did eat several of the cookies that night and I had a doughnut after running the next day.

And it’s OK.

Eating healthy is a mindful practice, but I’m not going to beat myself up when what I imagine doesn’t materialize in real life. Negative self-talk will only send me back to the bakery aisle, so instead I tell myself to try better the next day.

Of course, that will be a lot easier once the cookies are out of my house.

I’m happy to report that the healthy produce I bought did not go to waste, but here’s a good recipe for when fresh vegetables aren’t an option.

VEGGIE-RIFIC MEATLOAF

• 1¼ pounds raw lean ground turkey
• 2 cups frozen petite mixed vegetables
• 1 cup canned crushed tomatoes
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a loaf pan with nonstick spray and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine turkey, vegetables and ¾ of the canned crushed tomatoes, ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Mix well.

Transfer mixture to loaf pan and top with remaining ¼ cup canned crushed tomatoes. Bake in the oven until meatloaf is cooked through, about 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Makes 5 servings.

Source: Hungry Girl 300 Under 300: 300 Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Dishes Under 300 Calories by Lisa Lillien (St. Martin’s Griffin; March 29, 2011)

Despite their geographical closeness, until this year the three school communities had never worked together on a project benefiting all of their students.

Last spring, members of the Garner Elementary School Parent-Teacher Organization cooked up an idea to collect recipes from staff, students and families.

“We thought it would be fun to reach out to the other PTO board in North Liberty as a way to build community strength,” said Jennifer Rose, co-president of Garner’s PTO. “The kids eventually all come together at the junior high level.”

Plus, most of Garner’s older student population attended either Penn or Van Allen before transferring to the city’s newest elementary school in 2010.

Their idea was met with enthusiasm. All three schools solicited recipes from staff and students’ families.

Nearly 300 recipes were collected and will soon be published in the first North Liberty Elementary School cookbook.

Each cookbook is divided into eight sections: appetizers and beverages; soups and salads; bread and rolls; vegetables and sides; main dishes; desserts; cookies and candies; and Kids’ Favorite.

“It’s just a huge mix,” Rose said. “I’d say the main dish section actually turned out to be our biggest. We had to send out a few emails asking for more vegetable and side dish recipes.”

Pre-sale order forms have been sent home with students from all three elementary schools. The goal is to have the cookbooks printed and ready for delivery before school dismisses for summer vacation.

The plan is to print enough cookbooks to fill orders, although that number could increase if community demand is high.

Cost is $10 per cookbook. Proceeds will be divided evenly among the three schools, although Rose says fundraising wasn’t top priority.

“We didn’t see this as a fundraiser, so we set the price low,” she says. “The goal was always collaboration and we’ve done a lot more of that. There’s been a lot more communication, a lot more reaching out to each other. It’s silly for us not to use each other. We’re literally a mile apart.”

Rose hopes the partnership that has formed between the three PTOs will extend to the school communities overall. If a cookbook doesn’t do it, the PTOs have organized a fun run on May 18, with a route that will take participants past all three schools.

Proceeds from the run will benefit the Family Resource Centers at Garner, Penn and Van Allen.

To order a cookbook, email the Garner PTO presidents at contact-president@garnerpto.org.

Lily Herrmeyer, a student at West Cedar Elementary School in Waverly, is the Iowa winner of the Bonnie Plants Cabbage Program. Herrmeyer received a $1,000 scholarship for her over-sized vegetable. (Photo submitted)

It was almost a year ago that Lily Herrmeyer came home from school with some atypical homework — a cabbage plant.

Carol Young, Lily’s third grade teacher at West Cedar Elementary in Waverly, and West Cedar’s other third grade teacher have distributed the cabbage plants to their students for years as part of the Bonnie Plants Cabbage Program.

Participation is up to the student, though.

Lily is her first student to enter. She’s also the first to win.

“Now that we’ve had a winner in the building, I will be curious to see if we have more students interested in the program,” said Young, who will soon be handing out plants for the 2013 crop. “We may have 45 excited third-graders.”

As the 2012 winner, Lily received a $1,000 scholarship.

“I definitely did not think that would happen,” Lily, 10, said. “My mom got a phone call and I started turning cartwheels in the hallway.”

Bonnie Plants Third Grade Cabbage Program was launched in 2002 with the goal of inspiring a love of vegetable gardening in young people. The program focuses on cabbage plants because cabbages were the first plant sold by the company in 1918.

The company distributed more than 1.5 million free cabbage plants to third- grade classrooms in 48 states — Alaska and Hawaii are excluded — last year. The cabbages are the O.S. Cross variety, which is known for producing giant, oversized heads.

Students plant the cabbage and care for it over summer vacation. At the end of the season, teachers from each class select the student who has grown the best cabbage, based on size and appearance.

“I just remember she said she definitely wanted to plant it and see how big it would grow,” said Jessica Herrmeyer, Lily’s mom.

Lily’s cabbage plant produced leaves as large as four-feet across, double that when you consider her plant grew into two cabbages.

“She had twins,” Jessica Herrmeyer said.

Caring for the plant during last summer’s drought was challenging, but Lily’s grandfather assisted her throughout the process.

“He grows a lot of stuff, so he helped,” she said.

At the end of the summer, a picture of the cabbage and the student is submitted to Bonnie Plants. The student also is included in a statewide scholarship drawing.

After the official contest photo was taken, Lily, who is now in fourth grade, had a new problem.

What was she going to do with her extra-large cabbage?

“We got her grandmother’s coleslaw recipe,” Jessica Herrmeyer said. “Now she makes coleslaw all the time.”

“I love it,” Lily said.

spinach salad

Have you visited allspice in Des Moines’ East Village?

If not, you must. Today, if you can swing it, or Saturday, if you can’t.

Home to so many great spices, rubs, vinegars and olive oils, allspice is a foodie’s paradise. I became addicted after my sister gave me a vanilla sample for Christmas two years ago. There was Mexican vanilla, of course, but also Tahitian vanilla and vanilla powder, which can be used the same as the liquid. I love adding it to streusel for extra flavor.

Gazette photographer Liz Martin and I visited allspice recently. My plan was to buy more vanilla, which I did. Then I picked up a jar of mace and a small bottle of rose water before I joined Liz by the vinegars and olive oils.

That’s where I went a little crazy.

I left with a few bottle of olive oil and a few bottles of vinegar. If the descriptions don’t make you want to try-try-try and buy-buy-buy, trying a few sample shots will.

I had no idea I’d leave with a bottle of Dark Chocolate Balsamic Vinegar and Blood Orange Olive Oil, or that combining the two would become my new favorite salad dressing (thanks to the suggestion and sample shot from the store’s co-owner).

I made a baby spinach, strawberry and slivered almonds salad Saturday night, then drizzled it with the oil and vinegar mix before serving. Three of the four people in my house loved it.

Person #4 opted for plain spinach and orange slices.

.......

I usually make a curry chicken salad, adding curry – to taste – to mayonnaise, and mixing it with the chicken and sliced red grapes. I’ve tried other recipes, but this is my go-to.

I found a healthier version in “The Sparkpeople Cookbook” and it may just be my new favorite. This saald has the sweetness of fruit, the crunch of walnuts and the healthy benefits of celery.

CRUNCHY CHICKEN SALAD

• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast
• 2 tablespoon chopped walnut halves
• 1 cup red grapes, seedless, sliced in health lengthwise
• 1 cup celery, finely sliced
• 1 Granny Smith apple, cored and diced into cubes

For the dressing:

• 2 tablespoons reduced-fat mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons plain non-fat Greek yogurt
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon poppy seeds

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray a casserole dish with nonstick spray. Place the chicken in the dish and cover with warm water. Poach the chicken in the oven until no longer pink in the center, about 20 minutes.

Spread the walnuts in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast in the oven while the chicken is poaching. Toast until the nuts are fragrant, about 5 minutes (watch carefully; they can burn quickly). Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Cool the cooked chicken in the refrigerator. Once cool, dice into 1/2-inch cubes

In a large mixing bowl, combine the mayonnaise, yogurt, lemon juice and poppy seeds. Add the diced chicken, walnuts, grapes, celery and apple. Toss to combine. Chill for 30 minutes before serving.

Makes 4 servings.

Source: The Sparkpeople Cookbook: Love Your Food, Lose the Weight by Meg Galvin, Stepfanie Romine and Chris Downie (Hay House; Jan. 2, 2013)

Cedar Rapids native and University of Iowa graduate Melissa Lockwood has found her niche in the fashion industry: Creating one-of-a-kind clothing from fabric salvaged from New York City’s fashion district. An exhibit of her work opens at CSPS on April 5. (Photo submitted)

The phrase “Being in the right place at the right time” is said a lot, but no one exemplifies it better than Melissa Lockwood.

It was a chance meeting at a public park in Iowa City that led to Lockwood enrolling at the University of Iowa, where she graduated in 1996 with a master of fine arts degree in interdisciplinary arts.

“I was moving to Iowa City for work and had pulled over at a park, where I happened to meet the head of the university’s intermedia program,” she says.

It was a trip to New York City that inspired the Cedar Rapids native to move to the city in 1997.

“I moved there for the music,” she says.

And it was a combination of boredom and exhaustion that made her pick up an IQ test booklet in a friend’s living room while working on an installation project in Belgium.

“I did OK,” she says of the test’s results.

But the logic puzzle drawings in the booklet inspired her to copy them onto a dress she made.

“It was made of this faux leather fabric and I just added the designs to it with a black Sharpie,” Lockwood says.

A friend took an interest in the dress and encouraged Lockwood, who regarded fashion as a hobby, to make it her focus.

Lockwood took that advice, launching her own IQTEST fashion label, and sharing her designs at several shows in New York City, including Williamsburg Fashion Weekend.

An exhibit of Lockwood’s work opens today at CSPS, 1103 Third St. SE. The exhibit will run through April 28.

“We try to bring people from Cedar Rapids back to Cedar Rapids, to show what they’ve done in the meantime,” says Mel Andringa, producing director for CSPS. “We have followed her work for a couple years and this area in which she’s working now fits with the annual Eco-Fest and Earth Day events.”

What sets Lockwood apart from other designers are the materials she uses to make her designs: Fabric salvaged from New York City’s fashion district.

Fabric salvaged from New York City’s fashion district finds a new life under Melissa Lockwood’s IQTEST label. An exhibit of the Cedar Rapids native and University of Iowa work opens at CSPS on April 5. (Photo submitted)

“The fabric is what the mass producing designers throw away,” Lockwood says. “When you see all this fabric in Dumpsters and you know it’s going to a landfill — the statistics are shocking.”

She says 28 million tons of fabric winds up in landfills each year.

“Even if this fabric was taken to get recycled, you have to factor in what resources would be used to transport the fabric to be washed in order for it to become recyclable,” she says.

Reusing the fabric to create one-of-a-kind designs, however, has minimal environmental effect.

“I just think there’s so much waste in the world already,” Lockwood says. “Why not take what other people throw away and use it to create wearable items?”

 WORKSHOP

Melissa Lockwood will hold a workshop at 7 p.m. Wednesday (4/17) at CSPS. Cost is $15. Preregister by calling CSPS at (319) 364-1580 or emailing todd@legionarts.org.

“The workshop is about recycling garments,” she says. ” The reuse of discarded garments, how to make them into something fun to wear. An example is changing a T-shirt into a skirt. Or a sweater into a hat …

“I like the idea of having a clothing swap,” she says. “Everyone could bring garments they don’t want anymore (something they would usually donate to a charity). All the garments get tossed into a pile and then people have fun digging through and taking whatever they want. Stuff that is left over can be donated to a charity.

An April 19 fashion show will be at 8 p.m. at CSPS and will feature Lockwood and her fashions as well as the clothing created by participants in the Wednesday workshop.

panini

Here I am, a food writer, and I only made dinner twice this week. The other days were either leftovers, fend-for-yourself meals or something taken from the freezer.

I tell myself there’s no point in cooking when my husband is out of town for basketball since the kids’ reaction to something new is iffy. In reality, though, I was more likely distracted by a book, the season finale of “The Walking Dead” or even going for a run.

I ran out of excuses, though, when my son started talking about the report on Alzheimer’s disease he wrote for health class.

“Mom, there’s no cure for Alzheimer’s,” he said. “There’s only medicine to slow it down.”

We talked about why Alzheimer’s happens to some people and not others. Genetics plays a huge part, he said, but so does taking care of your body and mind.

“What should we do?” I asked.

“We have to be healthy,” he said. “We have to exercise and keep our brains sharp. We have to eat food that’s good for us, like fruits and vegetables. A lot of vegetables.”

I just looked at him. My son is my picky eater. There are some healthy foods he loves – oranges, fresh spinach, carrots and bananas – but there’s so much he won’t even try.

“Vegetables, huh?”

“Oh, man. Why did I write that in my report?”

Everyone – I don’t care how healthy you eat – can benefit from adding more vegetables to their diet, but variety is just as important as quantity. There isn’t a single fruit or vegetable that provides all of the nutrients we need to be healthy.

I’m going to focus on increasing my fruit and vegetable intake this month. And, to hold myself accountable, I’ll be sharing my recipes on my blog at http://thegazette.com/category/blogs/everybody-eats/. If you have a fruit or vegetable recipe to share, let me know!

To kick things off, here’s a Panini sandwich I made that my kids actually loved. I added some baked chicken, but it’s great as a vegetarian option, too. If you don’t have a Panini maker at home, that’s OK. Visit www.paninihappy.com for tips on using appliances you have in your kitchen.

POPEYE PANINI

• 2 ciabatta rolls, split
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, halved
• 3 ounces mozzarella cheese, thinly slices
• 6 thin slices tomato
• ½ cup baby spinach
• A pinch each of salt and freshly ground pepper
• Baked chicken, sliced (optional)

Preheat Panini grill to high.

Brush both the crust and sides of the rolls with a tablespoon of the oil. Place on a work surface, crust side down. Rub cut sides with garlic; discard the cloves.

On bottom halves, evenly layer with mozzarella, tomato and spinach. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and drizzle with remaining oil. Cover with top halves and press gently to pack.

Place sandwiches in grill, close the top plate and cook until golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Serve immediately.

Makes 2 servings.

Source: “200 Best Panini Recipes” by Tiffany Collins (Robert Rose, Inc.; 2008)

.......

Mmm.

I had some yummy leftovers of my own. I made Basil Vegetable Linguine for dinner the other night – it was delicious — and brought some in for lunch today.

I have consumed more green beans in the past 24 hours than I have in the past 24 years!

BASIL VEGETABLE LINGUINE

• 8 ounces green beans, cut into ¼-inch pieces
• 8 ounces red-skinned new potatoes, peels and cut into ¼-inch pieces
• 12 ounces dried linguine
• 1 cup pesto (or less to taste)
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 6 ripe plum tomatoes, cut into ¼-inch dice
• ½ cup slivered fresh basil leaves

Bring saucepan of lightly salter water to boil. Add the green beans and quick until just tender, about 1 minute. Using a skimmer, remove them from the pot to a colander. Rinse under cold water to stop the cooking. Drain, pat dry and set aside.

Add the potatoes to the boiling water and cook until just tender, about 2 minutes. Drain the potatoes in a colander and run under cold water to stop the cooking. Drain, pat dry and set aside.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the linguine and cook until just tender, about 8 minutes. Drain the pasta well and place in a serving bowl. Add the pesto and toss well. Season with pepper.

Sprinkle the green beans, potatoes and tomatoes over the linguine and top with the slivered basil. Serve immediately, tossing the pasta at the table.

Source: Celebrate! By Sheila Lukins (Workman Publishing Company; Oct. 1, 2003)

stir fry

I’m a jump-in-and-go person — and I’m not just talking about swimming.

As the mother of two, my weeknights are a juggling act of practice schedules, car pools, homework and — oh yeah — dinner. And we don’t ease into the craziness. The busiest nights of our week are Monday and Tuesday. There is no time to take a deep breathe and gear up for the week ahead. We have to go now-now-now!

I’m not ready for the school year to end, but I do look forward to some of the after-school activities winding down, if only for a chance to have a conversation with my kids that doesn’t involve shouting “I’ll pick you up at 7!” out of the car window. Until then, we’ll make do with the craziness, turning to tried-but-true easy dinner recipes that get everyone the nutrients they need to push through the night, with minimal clean up after.

In attempt to beef up my families’ fruits and vegetable intake (you can read more about it this in Thursday’s Gazette), I increased the number of peppers in my chicken stir fry recipe. This meant there were more pushed aside on my kids’ dinner plates than usual, but they still ate half, which also is more than usual.

On a Monday, I take whatever victory I can.

CHICKEN STIR FRY

Serves 4

• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed
• 1 tablespoon peanut oil (can also use olive oil or vegetable oil)
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• Garlic, 2 cloves, diced
• Low sodium soy sauce, several shakes of the bottle (depending on your taste)
• Green, red and yellow peppers, diced (I usually use one of each color, but you can include more if you want)

Heat a skillet over medium high heat. Add olive oil. Swirl in pan. Add onions. Saute until softened. Add garlic. Saute another minute. Add the chicken. Add the soy sauce until the chicken is covered and you don’t worry about burning the garlic or onions. (Roughly a tablespoon of soy sauce, but it’s really up to you and your tastes.)

Cook chicken until it is no longer pink in the center, about 8 minutes. Reduce heat to medium low. Add peppers. Stir and let cook for a couple of minutes, but not too long because you want them to maintain their crispness.

Serve over rice.

Source: This is something I came up with years ago and continue to mess with, adding vegetables whenever something is in season or I need to clean out the crisper. Mushrooms, fresh green beans and diced zucchini are great additions, too.

DES MOINES – Kassie Mather wasn’t anxious at the finals of the 2013 Hy-Vee Cake Designer Challenge Wednesday.

The same couldn’t be said of her family.

Standing near Mather’s work table, watching as she transformed cupcakes, sheet cakes and sugar cookies into popcorn, hot dogs and a rotating carousel, they whispered amongst themselves about her progress, keeping an eye on the time as time ticked away.

Mather, a cake designer at the Edgewood Road Hy-Vee in Cedar Rapids, was oblivious.

“I’m not nervous,” she says. “I feel like I should be, but I’m not.”

It could be because she had a scare the day before the competition.

Mather had used crushed green maraschino cherries as relish for her hot dog cake at the northwest regional competition, which took place in Cedar Rapids last month. Mather won first place at that contest, receiving a trip to the finals at Jordan Creek Town Center in Des Moines.

However, when she went to get the cherries Tuesday, she couldn’t find them.

“I was told they’re a seasonal item,” she said.

She panicked, just for a minute, before devising a backup plan: Crushed pineapple, which she dyed green.

“I actually think it looks better,” Mather said.

Mather was one of 18 Hy-Vee cake designers in Wednesday’s competition. The annual contest, now in its eighth year, features the top three winners from six regional events.

“We have about 500 cake designers employed in our entire company,” said Tony Byington, Hy-Vee’s assistant vice president of bakery operations. “These 18 are the best of the best.”

The designers had four hours to transform a half-sheet cake, a quarter-sheet cake, 24 cupcakes, a dozen cookies, and a tiered cake to fit their theme. As such, fondant became potato chips, a sheet cake a unicorn head and sugar cookies poker chips.

“This is just too fun,” said Janine Schwendinger of Rochester, Minn. “I absolutely love cake decorating. I can’t believe they pay me to do this.”

Her enthusiasm was echoed by Jessica Foster at the work station to her left.

It was Foster’s first year competing in the finals. A cake designer from Prairie Village, Kan., she said advancing to the Des Moines competition was all she wanted.

“It’s the honor of being here, the experience – it’s incredible,” Foster said.

Many of the designers know of each other from previous competitions or interactions on the Hy-Vee cake designer Facebook page. Wednesday’s event allowed for many of them to finally meet face-to-face, which resulted in hugs, praise and the exchange of knowledge as everyone took pictures of each other’s cakes.

“What better training is there then being surrounded by the best designers in the company?” Byington asked.

But that’s just one aspect of the contest. The cake designer challenge also serves as an employee appreciation event for the designers, giving them the opportunity to showcase their skills at the highest level, while providing visual proof of their talent to potential customers.

“As customers walk through the bakery of any Hy-Vee store, they see the cupcakes and sheet cakes, but they don’t realize what our designers are capable of,” Byington said. “This contest shows we can do the cakes you see on TV.”

First, second and third-place awards were given to three designers, as well as a Designer’s Choice prize, which is voted on by contestants.

Katie O’Connor of Lincoln, Neb., was awarded first place for her “I Love Cake Decorating” theme. She will either choose between a $1,750 cash prize or a paid trip to Baltimore, Md., to visit Chef Duff Goldman of “Ace of Cakes.”

Schwendinger won second place,  and a and a $750 cash prize, for her Enchanted Forest theme, while Rhoda Schultz of Mankato, Minn., was awarded third place – and $500 – for her harlequin theme. Schultz also won the Designer’s Choice award, which came with an additional $500.

Each of the 18 designers also received a plaque and a $100 Hy-Vee card.

When Altman was little, eating well meant driving from Queens into Manhattan for secret lunches in French restaurants with her father. A quick meal at a Jewish deli served in a pinch.

Later, eating well meant preparing elaborate brunches and dinner for her friends.

Now, eating well means eating simply, embracing the minimalist preparations she snubbed for so long.

“We know that with some cuts of meat and fish, the less we do to them, the better,” says Altman, the author of “Poor Man’s Feast: A Love Story of Comfort, Desire, and the Art of Simple Cooking,” (Chronicle Books; March 5, 2013), in a recent phone interview. “I understood that as a cook. I knew that, in my head, but it was never really practical for me.”

Then she met Susan Turner, the woman from Connecticut who would shatter Altman’s gastronomic expectations.

When you are a foodie living in New York City, the best way to impress your also-culinary-obsessed girlfriend is to arrive at her home with food she can’t buy at her small-town grocery store. That was the approach Altman took early in her relationship with Turner, but she was continuously refuted.

Rather than be amazed, Turner was amused at the efforts Altman took in the kitchen. Turner rebuffed Altman’s attempts to cook impressively. She favored humble meals. Turner’s food was neither tall nor fancy, and she expected the same from Altman.

“I had to relearn how to live,” Altman says. “I had to relearn how to cook. It really forced me to be aware when I’m cooking.”

She had to let go of the trappings from her previous culinary expectations and approach cooking with a calm and quiet demeanor. She had to realize that making dinner wasn’t supposed to be a challenge, a daylong effort resulting in a meal made purely for adulation, but an act of love resulting in a meal that reflects that emotion.

As Altman embraced this new philosophy, she was eager to share her knowledge with others. In late 2008, she launched her food blog: Poor Man’s Feast. The title, she says, is an idiomatic expression.

“Anything, in the right circumstances, can be elevated to a high, emotional quality,” Altman says.

A bowl of soup on a winter day or a poached egg on a piece of toast can become the best meal of your life with the right company. As Altman’s love for the woman who would become her wife evolved, so did her expectations of food.

Altman has written dozens of articles that tout the financial and medical benefits of simple cooking. Her blog, which won the 2012 James Beard Award for Individual Food Blog, shares her personal experience, but her memoir focuses on the emotional benefits of pure ingredients, pure intent.

“Life is complicated enough,” Altman says. “We’re bombarded by food messages and health messages constantly. What I want people to know is that cooking with simple ingredients, with ingredients you can afford, means you will eat well. Your family will eat well.”

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Elissa Altman will read from her book, “Poor Man’s Feast: A Love Story of Comfort, Desire, and the Art of Simple Cooking” (Chronicle Books; March 5, 2013), at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 29, at Prairie Lights Bookstore, 15 South Dubuque St. in Iowa City.

Raised by a father who loved food and a mother who was scared of it, the conflicting philosophies resulted in a bipolar gastronomical background. Altman and her father secretly dined at the best restaurants in New York City, but went home to canned asparagus.

While the meals her mother made were nothing to blog about, the pageantry that surrounded them was.

“In my family, nice is perfectly fine. But fancy is always much better,” Altman writes in the first chapter of her memoir, “Poor Man’s Feast: A Love Story of Comfort, Desire, and the Art of Simple Cooking” (Chronicle Books; March 5, 2013).

That explains how Altman, a Jewish foodie with a love of cheese and expensive cuts of meat, would spend years obsessed with all things edible. She’d fill her tiny Chelsea apartment with knives and cleavers, and prepare elaborate dinners designed to amaze.

Looking back, Altman acknowledges the spectacle that was her culinary experience. So focused on making food impressive, she neglected to appreciate its simplicity.

So how does she transform from fancy foodie to simple cooking extraordinaire?

Love.

“Love can change everything — if you’re open to it,” Altman says in a recent phone interview.

It was her relationship with Susan Turner, now Altman’s wife, who transformed Altman from a knife-wielding culinary perfectionist to a woman content with growing her own vegetables and herbs. For more than four years, Altman has blogged about the benefits of cooking simply on her James Beard award-winning blog, Poor Man’s Feast. Her new book of the same name further illustrates her journey from more to less.

Part memoir and part cookbook, “Poor Man’s Feast” shows how — and why — Altman shed her trappings of pageantry, leaving her apartment in the city for a home filled with animals in Connecticut.

Anyone who’s ever moved from the city to the country will appreciate Altman’s panic when she can’t fulfill her craving for sliced pickled beef tongue at 3 a.m.

Anyone who had a parent obsessed with weight will understand how their fears affect your approach to food.

And anyone eager to impress a new love will sympathize as Altman tries to awe her girlfriend with fancy dishes, only to be rebuffed for more common fare.

A prizewinning writer, journalist and essayist writing on food and culture, Altman has the culinary know-how, but she never comes off as a know-it-all.

“Poor Man’s Feast” is her story of how and why she chose to live a simpler life.

She leaves us wondering: If she can do it, why can’t we?