Foodie Field Trip- NewBo City Market and Sykora Bakery

A couple of summers ago I belonged to a bloggers group in Iowa. The purpose of the group was to network with other bloggers, share ideas and hints, plan and attend classes and seminars and bigger conventions, and to create interest in our local areas. The other members were from all over the state and were interested in all different types of blogging subjects. One woman was a turkey farmer with her husband, another a stay home mom in Amish country, another a pig farmer, and yet another a military veteran now promoting a green lifestyle and homeschooling. This diverse group of people, both men and women, would hold a meet up a couple times a year and on one occasion, the meet up was help at a place called the NewBo City Market in Cedar Rapids. I had not heard of this market, or whatever it was, so I did a little research and it sounded exactly like something I would love. At the last minute I was unable to attend the meetup, and had to make do with every one else's pictures and stories about their experiences that day, and it made me even more sad that I'd missed out.

Fast forward about three years and here I am, with a whole Saturday of nothing to do and nowhere to be when inspiration struck and my friend Jessica and I decided to hit the highway on a little adventure. Cedar Rapids is not all that far from Des Moines so we got up early in the morning and set out to experience the market for ourselves.

You get a real big city feel when you step into the market. The building, which is a former warehouse and metalworks company, is very spacious and home to a number of local vendors offering a wide selection of food offerings, baked goods, meat products, health and beauty, coffee, and much more. Right in the heart of the New Bohemia District in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the market is open year round and is also a busy events center in addition to a cool market. This nonprofit organization prides itself on its commitment to the community, offering classes, entertainment, assistance with business startups, arts and educational opportunities.

Our visit to the market was awesome. It's so easy to get to and has loads of parking, something a lot of downtown districts in other cities can't say. When we arrived volunteers were out on the lawn setting up and Easter egg hunt for neighborhood kids. Stepping through the doors and it's almost sensory overload. Lots and lots of welcoming smells, busy sounds, laughter, happy people milling about. I was surprised at the variety of vendors in the market. The first one I saw was offering plants and interesting pottery pieces, and right next to them a vendor had a gorgeous display of botanical art- posters featuring different birds, butterflies, plants and flowers. A gourmet ice cream shop was to my right, and a steamed Asian dumpling stand was on the left. 

Essential oils, crystals and rocks, pizza, artisan breads, cheeses and meats, cakes and cupcakes, pies and plenty of food options for our lunch rounded out the market. There were food choices from the most popular cuisines- American style gourmet grilled cheese, barbeque, Mediterranean, Mexican, salads and vegetarian, and the Asian dumplings. Jessica chose a very very gooey and perfectly toasted grilled cheese with three cheeses and homemade hand cut sweet potato fries. I went for the dumplings and had Korean mandu and Chinese pork and cabbage. Everything was soooooo good. 

I snapped up some essential oils and a gorgeous loaf of crusty sourdough bread before we left the market and headed over to explore the Czech Village. It's hard to imagine that just ten years ago all of this part of the city was under ten feet or more of nasty muddy floodwater. Now it's busy and growing with all kinds of cool loft buildings and condos, shops, restaurants and interesting places to visit. 

The Czech village is literally a few blocks away from the market, on the other side of the river, and besides the lure of the antique shops, which you know, we just had to check out, offers something I plan on visiting everywhere I go- a bakery. In this case of course, it's a Czech bakery and featured cases of fruity kolache for sale, Czech cakes like the babovka and breads, a cafe that serves lunch, and Czech gift items. The bakery is named Sykora Bakery, and it's located in a building that's been around since the days of dirt roads and wooden sidewalks. Originally opened in 1903, the bakery was purchased by Joseph Sykora in 1927 and was operated by the Sykora family until 1994, when another local family purchased the bakery. Devastated by floodwaters in 2008 and it took over 300 volunteers to get things back into working order including completely gutting and rebuilding the building and replacing the eighty year old Hubbard ovens with modern equipment.

You know we grabbed some kolache to take back home, I chose cherry and apricot, one of each for The Chef and I to sample. Absolutely lovely. Flaky and tender pastry and generous amounts of the fruit filling that surely were homemade. They had big chunks of apricot and big sour cherries- these couldn't have come from a can or jar. They had many other flavors to choose from like apple, strawberry, blueberry, cheese, fig and poppyseed. That's maybe half of the flavors offered. The variety was huge! The babovka reminded me of bundt cakes and looked delicious.

The antique stores were fun to visit. They had a lot of things you see at any antique store as well at a fairly large selection of European and especially Czech, items for sale, such as artwork, books, glassware and china. The cast iron display was enormous!!!

We did a little sightseeing around Cedar Rapids before hopping back on the interstate and heading home, but in all honestly, it's not much to see. It's a very industrial city and not a lot of curb appeal for driving around, but if you seek out those little hidden gems like the market and the Czech Village, it's definitely worth a visit.

A Visit With Dad Results in a Crusty Bread Experiment

It's finally autumn weather. Here in Iowa you would think we'd have a normal four seasons experience but we have some of the goofiest weather. It's mid October and we have still had days in the 80s, near 90s. But that appears to be in the rear view mirror now. What a wonderful week of cool breezy days, a little slight nip of frost, leaves blowing in the breeze, red, yellow and orange. Misty autumn rain and foggy mornings. All the smells I love so much. The kind of day you want to pile on a sweater and rake. Make chili. Watch football. Bake something.

My day started out with a lovely visit from my dad. You would have to know my dad to really get it. Larry is a character. We talk about all sorts of things. What he is up to, other old dudes at the V.A. that Dad is hanging out with these days. His new shoes. How the Vikings are doing. These visits are priceless times with my dad because, as we all know, human life is very fragile. In a perfect world our parents will grow old and pass on, and I know that eventually that will happen. In the meantime I am just going to continue to enjoy time spent with Dad and his kooky stories about bunions, hearing aids, and terrible football.

One thing Dad has always done is advise me on which new authors- usually Minnesota authors- I need to be reading. We share a love for John Sanford novels and he always has me on his mind when he is picking up books at the library sale or a book exchange at the V.A. This weekend he had a different book for me by an author I did not know. The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz. Apparently this is a continuation of the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo books with a new author taking over for the prior author and Dad insisted I'd love it. So, read it I shall. My dad also always brings me some weird food item. Sometimes it's a big bag of macaroni, or a sack full of canned tomatoes. It might be a 20 pound hunk of chicken of the woods. You never know what to expect. Today it was a big bag of dried cranberries. This could be fun!

I am always up for baking something- that's no secret. I began to wonder what in the world I was going to do with 3 pounds of dried cranberries. My bakers brain immediately began to come up with ideas. Cookies of course, but I had no oatmeal.....cake?? Maybe apple cranberry cake? Oooooo quick bread!! Nooooo, I have all this yeast. I flipped through some of my recipes and wondered where I could incorporate some of these tasty little bits with ingredients I have at home to avoid going to the store. Flour? Check. Whole wheat flour even- check. Honey, pecans, check, check. In the freezer I still  have some of the crystallized ginger I made a while back. This was coming together like a perfect plan. Borrowing the same technique as the Skillet Bread Nathan and I made a few weeks ago I was able to come up with a delicious crusty loaf of fruity nutty healthy bread.

Cranberry Ginger Pecan Skillet Bread

2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/2 cups dried cranberries

1 cup chopped pecans

2 tablespoons minced crystallized ginger

4 tablespoons honey

1 packet yeast

2 1/2 cups warm water

butter for skillet

In a large bowl combine the flours. Add the cranberries, pecans and ginger. Toss to coat the fruit and nuts well.

I looooove craisins. They are so sweet and tart and taste
like fresh cranberries. These are way better than raisins.

In a large measuring cup measure the warm water. Stir in the honey until dissolved, then add the yeast. Allow the yeast to bloom and become foamy. 

Mix the water into the flour and fruit mixture and stir until combined. Cover with plastic and allow to rise in a warm place for about an hour and a half.

Generously butter a cast iron skillet or Dutch oven. I used my regular skillet- about 10 inches. Gently remove the dough from the bowl and place in the skillet. Dough will be sticky and soft. Form into a round disk, it doesn't have to touch the sides of the skillet. It will rise to fill the skillet. Again cover loosely and allow to rise another hour. Make sure to CHECK the dough about halfway through both rising times. The temp in your kitchen will affect the rise of the bread and if it's nice and warm it might rise faster. You want the dough to double in size. It may take as little as 30 minutes each time.

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the skillet in the oven and bake the bread for 40 minutes. Remove to a rack and cool- the bread will pop right out of the skillet. It's absolutely delicious served warm with lots of melty real butter.

In case you haven't caught on, I am absolutely hooked on these easy breads. No-knead doughs just couldn't be easier, and this is a fun and easy recipe to make with kids. I love the crunchy crust of the bread and the dense texture- it's not a fluffy bread like the sliced white bread you get at the store, but more like the rustic artisan breads you find in bakeries. They look impressive with their round shapes and look like something you spend a ton of time slaving over. Your secret is safe with me. Trust me, try one of these loaves, especially warm from the oven, and you'll be hooked too.

Childhood favorites grow up big time

You used to be a little kid. There is better than average chance that as a kid you ate a grilled cheese sandwich. Maybe you still do? Well folks......if you're still sustaining yourself with American cheese singles on plain white bread, things are about to get reeeeally exciting around here.

Something really wonderful is happening for my very good friend Todd Buffington. Todd and his friends Ryan Elson and Chris Hartman brainstormed, pooled resources, raised the startup funds, stayed up late nights writing business plans and budgets and menus and recipes and finally get their much deserved launch of their new business- Melts Without Borders.

Todd Buffington, left, and The Chef

Let me tell you a little about this Melts Without Borders deal. This mobile food cart is equipped to cook and serve hungry customers anywhere. Des Moines has been very slow to jump on the food truck trend but food carts are a different kind of animal. More portable, very versatile and easier to handle for a 3 man team. Besides the food cart they also have a prep kitchen and handbuilt smokehouse. In that smokehouse the guys, known as Ketchup, Mustard and Relish on their website, made handcrafted sausages and cured meats. Bologna that is NOT made from weird parts. Blackstrap molasses bacon smoked over apple wood. Sausages of all kinds. Condiments are special too. Secret recipe spicy tomato jam makes an appearance on the menu and some others are still being developed. 

A sampling of the housemade charcuterie. 

Now about the menu- not just a list of sandwiches. As the name implies, they serve melts without borders- and each sandwich not only carries a regional name but a regional twist on ingredients. Vegetarian sandwiches start off the menu with the classic grilled cheese built for a grown up, to French, Mediterranean, to Asian influenced flavors- you get a TON of flavor with no meat.

But if you're a carnivore- fear not. You will not be disappointed. The home cured bacon is a special favorite, along with classics like pulled pork and Canadian bacon. A few surprises make their appearance as well, and the menu can only expand as the charcuterie options grow. The bread choices are pretty impressive as well. From Texas toast to rustic artisan breads, loads of variety.

Todd mans the grill while Chris takes orders in the background

What did we eat? Well I got to have a little bit of 4 different sandwiches. My son in law Randy had the Mason Dixon- pulled pork, Memphis BBQ sauce and pepperjack cheese on Texas toast. Oh. My. Goodness. The pulled pork was tender and juicy, the barbeque sauce was absolutely delicious and the pepperjack cheese brought it all together. My daughter Debbee had the Toast Hawaii- house-cured Canadian bacon, pineapple and white cheddar, grilled on rustic crusty bread. The Canadian bacon was the best I have ever had. Tender and perfectly seasoned, the pineapple was the perfect accompaniment. 

The Chef had the Mount Vesuvius. I knew he'd pick that one. This sandwich is an Italian chef's dream. Locally made Graziano's Italian sausage, white and yellow American cheese and a jalapeno, onion and tomato hash on Texas toast- this sandwich......... I just have no words. One of the best sandwiches I have EVER had EVER. Seriously. I chose the 'Merica F**k Yea with Andi's tomato jam added. Buttery crunchy Texas toast, American cheese, crispy house-cured bacon and that sweet and spicy tomato jam that I love so much. That was just four sandwiches off the menu. You better believe I WILL be trying them all before long.

Then wash your awesome sandwich down with some home brewed beer or homemade soda. The guys are very active in the Iowa Brewers' Union and have some incredible craft brews. At tonight's launch I was able to try the Milk Stout. If you're a fan of dark beers, oh man, you will LOVE this one. Super dark and rich, this beer was so smooth and creamy and had lots of coffee undertones. I say creamy because it had such a luxurious mouthfeel and such a complex flavors. Excellent brew. I'm thinking that could make some killer mustard. 

Decisions,decisions......

Talking with Todd this evening about the brewing process was very interesting. Very scientific and we all agreed- brewing beer requires quite a bit of skill and knowledge of ingredients. Compared to winemaking, brewing beer is a totally different experience. Who knows, maybe The Chef will pick up a new hobby!

The guys at Melts Without Borders are serious about bringing GOOD food and GOOD drink to Des Moines and you better believe, they mean business !!