New art gallery

open downtown

Sleeping Dog Art Gallery (SDAG) is now open at 318 North Main Street in Burlington.

The gallery presents contemporary oil paintings, photomontages, mixed media and collages by its director, Peter S. Wise and at this time, some artists from New England, and he looks forward to eventually including artists from the Des Moines County area.

Wise was the Outstanding Artist from the class of 1967 at Burlington High School.

He is self-taught in art and he has returned to Burlington after more than 50 years away. During that time, Wise served in the Army, and also lived in Indiana and Massachusetts.

The Sleeping Dog name emerged from an anti-censorship coalition formed by Wise in Massachusetts in the early 1990s.

SDAG supports human rights and is LGBTQ-friendly, Wise explained.

Hours are irregular at this time but appointments are welcome at (508) 613-6282. All voicemails will be answered as soon as possible.

Specialty market open

Poppie’s Specialty Market at 724 Jefferson Street is now open for business.

Downtown residents can enjoy the convenience of a market and a grocery store all within walking distance.

Poppie’s offers everything from the specialty meats featured on The Busted Cup Brewhouse menu, to dry goods, toiletries, cheeses, desserts and more. More items will be added weekly.

The market’s hours are 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday, Monday, and Thursday; and 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Olomon to receive Quilt of Valor

Burlington Kiwanis Club member George Rinker and Arlys Fritz, Southeast Iowa Coordinator for Quilts of Valor, have arranged for Glenn Olomon to receive a Quilt of Valor at 11:30 a.m. Nov. 9 at the Kiwanis Club meeting at the Burlington Golf Club, and anyone can attend. The meal cost for nonmembers is $16.

Olomon was featured here last week with his fun and interesting stories about his first car ventures and a recent ride in a vintage auto that he really enjoyed.

“We (Patriotic Quilters of Southeast Iowa) will present a quilt to Glenn Olomon who served in the Army from 1951-1953 and was in Korea as an assistant gunner. He also was in the reserves for six years,” said Fritz.

“We are all pretty excited about it,” said Rinker, longtime Kiwanis volunteer and recent recipient of the club’s LeRoy Award honoring his hard work and dedication to the community.

“I am particularly excited about him getting (the quilt),” Rinker said. He had been seeking a longtime veteran for this year’s honor.

Three of Olomon’s brothers served in World War II, and another brother also served in Korea.

The Kiwanis Club always honors veterans at its meeting on or around Veterans Day (Nov. 11), with some type of special presentation. The weekly meetings feature a talk from someone in the community, and the Nov. 9 speaker will represent the military.

Burlington Kiwanis Club, which is celebrating 100 years and has more than 100 members serving the community, recently installed new officers and directors for 2023-2024. The members are thanking outgoing president Tony Hazell and welcoming new president Austin Schwartz.

Robert “Bob” Prall of Prall Insurance received recognition for his 30 years of perfect attendance.

Rinker described the meetings, where the oldest-tenured members sit together, as fun, with stories and anecdotes.

“We like to laugh,” said Rinker. “Our primary goal is to make life better for the children in the community, and have fun doing it.”

Adventure packs from DMCC

Adventure packs are a growing trend in nature centers, parks and communities.

Des Moines County Conservation now has five such packs available for rent for $5 per day.

“There is a birding pack, creek pack, bug hunt pack, tracking pack, and a night hike pack. We were able to make these through a grant from Walmart,” said Jacklyn Goodman, DMCC naturalist.

“These packs empower individuals to embark on independent nature explorations, enriching their outdoor adventures,” she said.

Marcus Nack, the DMCC environmental education manager, made a video about the packs. It is available for viewing on the Des Moines County Conservation Facebook page.

To learn more, call DMCC at (319) 753-8260.

Adventures in the kitchen — orange rolls and more

I’ve been taken down a notch in the kitchen. I’m not alone, right?

I saw a photo of little hard balls on a baking sheet, dotted with black and brown spots posted on Reddit, with the question, “What happened here? My rolls look like mushrooms.”

And I present to you a long-ago friend’s boyfriend, who was lacking in life skills and sense, and was jobless and not looking.

He did try to help out one day by making a chocolate cake, and unbelievably he thought you had to cook the eggs before adding them to the batter.

Her mom came over to visit and, unsuspecting, tried a piece of the cake, and her daughter told her he made it and asked her how it was.

She said it was pretty good “except for those hard little nuts.”

I once tried to beat brownie mix until it lost its gloss (like fudge), but that wasn’t really a disastrous move, and I love to bake and most of the time do pretty well.

So anyway, last weekend, I posted a recipe for orange rolls made at the Hotel Burlington years ago, and then of course had to make some.

I can see why people love those rolls. Each bite of orange goodness is heavenly, especially the areas of roll where the orange zest and sugar filling has soaked in.

The recipe made a lot of dough.

The first dough slices I baked in muffin tins, and while the recipe didn’t say, you apparently need to raise the rolls a bit once you have them in the pan before putting them in the oven. I didn’t figure that out, and those rolls were somewhat hard and didn’t turn out as fluffy as they should have.

The rest of the dough I cut into pieces and placed them side-by-side in a pan and raised them a bit, and those turned out much better.

So next time I will bake the slices in muffin tins but let them raise up a bit first in the pan before putting them in the oven.

The filling is just a mixture of the grated orange rind and sugar, made ahead of time. The next time, I believe I will make even more sugar and orange zest mixture than the recipe calls for, then let it sit for longer than called for, maybe a couple of days, before using it to make the rolls.

The recipe though is a good one.