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Faith-based bakery in the works
Taylor Marino and Kayla Marino are small-town sisters who love Jesus and baking.
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The Burlington Notre Dame graduates and granddaughters of Bob Brueck will bring Taste & Seek to downtown Burlington this summer.
Specifically, to family-owned Schramm’s building, at 218 Jefferson St., according go their Taste and Seek Facebook page.
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Taste, specializing in allergy-friendly gluten and dairy-free treats, will be the bakery side, and Seek will offer Christian products, they explained on the Taste and Seek Facebook page.
“Our mission is to provide a joyful atmosphere where others feel at home, and taste and see the goodness of the Lord,” they said in a post.
“Several years ago, Kayla was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. Discovering we all had food allergies, we became educated on the impact food has on our bodies. Through these struggles, we found our love for baking and providing allergen friendly treats that everyone can enjoy, as well as treats with traditional ingredients. During these early hardships, we also grew in our faith. Our business idea is to combine these two loves, Jesus and baking, while meeting needs in our local community,” they explained.
Good luck to them, this is going to be a wonderful addition to the downtown and a great place for those suffering from food allergies.
Conservation fundraiser banquet seeks sponsors
Sponsorship opportunities are available for I Heart County Parks Fundraising Banquet for Des Moines County Conservation Department on April 4.
The Partners for Conservation Foundation is hosting the banquet at Barn on the Ridge just outside of Burlington to raise funds for Des Moines County Conservation parks and programs. The event will include raffles, games, auctions, and a BBQ dinner.
Raffle and auction items include all the gear you need to get outside such as bikes, kayaks, camping and cabin stays, and so much more. Get your tickets today as this event is likely to sell out. Your ticket purchase covers your entry into the event and dinner.
Want to showcase your business or service to the avid outdoors community? Sponsorship opportunities are available. Contact Nicole Morris, event coordinator at (563) 554-3246, or email
All proceeds from this event will support Des Moines County parks and programs. To learn more about Des Moines County Conservation, go to .
Scary stories
Burlington School District’s website features a collection of scary stories and original artwork by Burlington students, “The Grayhound Graveyard.”
I’ve been enjoying the stories; they really are very good.
“The Grayhound Graveyard” is a compilation of horror stories written by Burlington students.
More than 130 stories were submitted by students in the Burlington Community School District’s first-ever Scary Story Writing Contest. From those entries, a panel of judges selected first-, second-, and third-place winners for each building level, as well as honorable mention in some cases.
The artwork accompanying these writings was provided courtesy of students in Burlington High School’s Visual Arts Achievement Program.
“Read if you dare.”
They can be found at:
Nominations due for Mayors’ Volunteer Awards
The Mayors’ Volunteer Awards (MVA) gives community organizations the opportunity to honor those who have given their time and talents to better our community.
People can nominate outstanding volunteers by March 1, to be recognized at the 2024 Mayors’ Volunteer Awards Dinner on April 13.
For More Information, email or call (319) 752-7831.
Find that big bucket in the sky
I recently watched a YouTube video featuring an episode of the Phil Donahue Show from 1993.
I recognized it as a show I watched back when it originally aired — of course I was much younger then, but then, like now, the topic really scratched my itch for wanting to prepare dishes and have them taste like restaurant or brand-name food, surely to be a hit with everyone I serve them to.
Of course now, you can search the internet and find all kinds of restaurant copycat recipes.
But Gloria Pitzer “The Recipe Detective” who wrote a books featuring her recipes was an original, way back before the internet. In the mid-70’s she’d been a newspaper food editor.
She really had a fun personality as she bantered with Donahue, who was of course, charmingly self-deprecating as he handed some of what Gloria cooked in front of everyone, like copycat Cracker Jacks and Twinkies, out to the audience and almost made me think he was going to trip and dump all of that coated popcorn onto the carpet.
Some lucky audience members got a “Wednesday’s” frosty, made with milk, softened ice cream and Nestle Quik.
By the way, that particular show brought in 500,000 requests for its transcript, more than any other show in the Phil Donahue Show history.
On the show, Gloria mixed strained beef baby food and beef broth with ground round (actually sounds gross), poked holes in the small patties while they cooked, on which she placed dried onions she’d soaked in water to make White Castle (White Tassel) burgers, that she placed on hot dog buns cut in half.
If I recall correctly, I tried that back then, and the patties fell apart easily. I might try that one again but grind the beef I use a bit finer if I do.
Gloria apparently had an amazing ability to taste something and discern how she could replicate them.
I did that only once — I came up with a double to Carlos O’Kelly’s fajita cheese crisp, by mixing cream of chicken soup with a bit of sour cream and Monterrey jack cheese, on a fried tortilla shell, topped with chicken and chives, and baked, then topped with tomato.
I’ve seen copycat recipes for that on the internet that disagree with my version.
But I love the idea of the kitchen as a lab where you try to duplicate things like peanut butter cups, as Gloria did, calling her version “Recess Peanut Butter Cups.”
From what I have read on Gloria, apparently she chatted once with Colonel Sanders on a radio program and he hinted that she might find a packaged mix in the grocery store that contains 11 herbs and spices. She came up with Good Seasons Italian Dressing mix.
She used that to invent her “Big Bucket in the Sky Fried Chicken.”
My mom used to do the technique she uses — fry the chicken then bake, and then the coating and chicken are tender.
I don’t do that, I brine my chicken in salt water, drain, then soak in water again in the refrigerator until it is very cold then go straight to the flour, then deep fry, for a really crisp coating. It does turn out like restaurant fried chicken.
For her copycat chicken, Gloria says to mix 1-1/2 cups self-rising flour, 1/2 T paprika, 1 ounce Lipton dry tomato soup mix, 1 packed of the Italian dressing mix and 1/1 teaspoon salt, for her chicken coating.
In one version you place the chicken on a greased baking sheet, and then dab butter on each piece and bake 375 degrees for 20-45 minutes until the juices run clear. In another, perhaps later version of her recipe, you fry the chicken briefly then place it in the oven covered with foil.
On the show, more than one person asked her how it is she wasn’t sued by the companies.
Her answer, because she was not completely replicating and selling the recipes using the very same ingredients the companies used, and her recipes were her own concoction, although some companies were amused by her efforts and some were furious enough, like Sara Lee, that she lost her newspaper job.
She said she didn’t know what famous restaurants and companies like Hostess and Hershey used for their ingredients, and she didn’t want to know.
I found her copycat Sara Lee’s carrot square cake recipe on the internet and I may try that as it sounds fantastic.
I have used a recipe I found on the internet for Little Debbie oatmeal creme pies.
The ones I made turned out very good, but much more expensive to make at home, and that is probably the case with a lot of copycat recipes.