dsmWeekly: September 6, 2023

These pull-apart barbecue chicken sliders make the perfect halftime snack. Pick up a rotisserie chicken from Gateway Market to keep assembly quick and easy. Photo: Duane Tinkey

FOOD AND DINING

The taste of victory: A game day recipe for the win

These melty, savory sliders from local chef Casey Halder are tiny but mighty. You can easily fit one or two on your tailgate plate, but let's be honest: They’re so tasty you’ll probably come back for three or four. (For two more of Halder's winning recipes, for grilled panzanella skewers and bacon-wrapped dates stuffed with goat cheese, check out the latest issue of dsm in print or online.)

Serves 12 (two sliders apiece)
Prep: 20 minutes
Total: 40 minutes

Ingredients
1 rotisserie chicken, shredded (about 1 1/2 pounds of meat)
1 1/2 cup barbeque sauce
4 ounces low-moisture shredded mozzarella, divided in half
4 ounces smoked gouda, shredded and divided
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper
Parchment paper
1 24-count package of King’s Hawaiian slider rolls, cut in half lengthwise
1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion
1/2 cup cilantro, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon black sesame seeds
1 teaspoon white sesame seeds

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, lightly toss to combine shredded chicken, 1 cup barbeque sauce and 2 ounces of each cheese. Set aside.
Mix butter, garlic, salt and pepper in a small bowl and set aside.
On a parchment-lined baking sheet, place the bottom half of the sliders. Spread chicken mixture evenly over the bottom half. Sprinkle with remaining cheese, drizzle with remaining barbecue sauce, top with red onion and cilantro. (Pro tip: Halder suggests submerging the sliced onions in ice water for a few minutes beforehand to reduce their sharp bite.) Place the other slider half on top. Brush tops of buns with garlic butter mixture, and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Place in the oven and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the cheese has melted and the tops of the buns are golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool for five minutes. Garnish with additional cilantro, if desired. Serve warm.

Genevieve Gros-Louis Salamone.

BEST BET

Indigenous themes, in music and sculpture

The violinist Genevieve Gros-Louis Salamone is an Iowan, a Canadian and a member of the Huron-Wendat Nation, which is based in what is now Quebec. But her current work as a film composer is taking her even farther afield, with projects and connections in Hollywood, London and Paris.

This weekend she’ll be in town for a free performance at 1:30 p.m. Sunday in the Des Moines Art Center’s lofty glass-and-concrete I.M. Pei wing. She’ll perform her original score “For Our Sisters” as a musical response to the Indigenous artist Cannupa Hanska Luger’s monumental 2018 sculpture “Every One.” Working independently from each other, both artists created their work to raise awareness about missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit individuals.

The performance rounds out the wide-ranging exhibition “Underneath Everything: Humility and Grandeur in Contemporary Ceramics,” which closes on Sunday.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Architecture on the Move (5:30 p.m. Friday): Take a walking tour with an architect to discover some of the unique stories behind Des Moines’ skyline. Meet at Capital Square for any of several downtwon routes, and all proceeds from ticket sales benefit the Iowa Architectural Foundation’s public educational programs.

Taj Mahal and Los Lobos (7 p.m. Thursday): The enduring blues star takes a turn at Hoyt Sherman Place, sharing a bill with the 50-year-old band from East Los Angeles and the North Mississippi Allstars popping in as special guests.

Herbie Hancock (7:30 p.m. Friday): The legendary jazz pianist who studied at Grinnell College and went on to win 14 Grammys, an Oscar and a Kennedy Center Honor performs for one night only on the grand old stage at Hoyt Sherman Place. A few tickets are still up for grabs.

“Temporary Insanity” (7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday): Local playwright Karen Schaeffer’s farce about a marketing duo’s dinner for a potentially lucrative client continues through Sept. 17 at Tallgrass Theater Company in West Des Moines.

“Once” (7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday): The quirky musical about a pair of street musicians in Dublin — one local and the other from the Czech Republic — opens this weekend and shakes the rafters through Sept. 24 at the Des Moines Playhouse.

Renaissance Faire (9 a.m.-5 p. Saturday and Sunday): The second of Fall Faire’s three weekends at Sleepy Hollow focuses on “pirates, (steam) punks and pets,” along with all the usual jousting, revelry and gargantuan turkey legs.

Touchdown Tailgate (10 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday): If you’d rather skip the tailgating recipe (above) and let someone else do the game day cooking, head out to Cowles Commons during this year’s Cy-Hawk showdown. You can watch the big game on a jumbotron surrounded by food trucks, craft beer from Ricochet and plenty of fans rooting for or against your team.

ARTS AND CULTURE

Artificial intelligence, real entertainment: Local playwrights Karen Schaeffer (who wrote "Temporary Insanity," noted above) and Alex Schaeffer recently won Drake University Theatre's 2023 Neighborhood Playwright Series. They'll receive a $500 prize and the chance to see their winning play, "PROLOG," performed as a staged reading Sept. 15-16 at Drake's Turner Jazz Center. Their original story imagines how artificial intelligence might evolve in the not-so-distant future. Tickets are free, but reservations are required.

Zuli Garcia of Knock and Drop Iowa.

IOWA STOPS HUNGER

Meet hunger-busting innovator Zuli Garcia

Writer: Michael Morain

When the pandemic hit, Knock and Drop Iowa founder Zuli Garcia heard through her job at the Des Moines Police Department about a number of Latino families who were struggling to make ends meet. She heard stories about kids eating cereal with water instead of milk, and parents stretching paychecks from one month to the next.

She had assumed there were services to take care of them. But when she realized the scope of the problem, she rallied a few friends and friends-of-friends to “knock” on doors and “drop” food on the doorstep, leaving quickly to avoid COVID-19.

Word spread. Others stepped up to help. They formed a nonprofit.

Garcia was born in El Salvador and grew up in California, where her dad is retired and lives on a fixed income. He occasionally receives donated food from a local pantry but isn’t a fan of the bland canned food it usually stocks. He recently told his daughter, “I’d love to live in Iowa where you give out all that amazing food that we eat.”

Even in its first couple of years, Knock and Drop Iowa has received significant support from local businesses and more established organizations around town. It’s working with the Food Bank of Iowa to supply more corn flour and with Capital City Fruit to gather more produce, like hot peppers, which usually don’t show up in traditional pantries. Trader Joe’s donated surplus flowers to distribute for Mother’s Day.

The group has also received grants from Refugee and Immigrant Voices in Action (RIVA) and Polk County Early Childhood Iowa to expand services beyond food distribution. It’s helped organize vaccine clinics, for example, and clothing drives for the winter.

“This isn’t your traditional food pantry,” Garcia said. “What else can we provide?”

Hunger Heroes virtual event
11:30 am.-12:30 p.m. Thursday

Garcia will join three others — Lutheran pastor John Kline, letter carrier Michelle Paulsen and Lamoni Food Pantry director Gwen Simpson — for a virtual discussion about creative solutions to alleviate hunger. It's part of Iowa Stops Hunger, an ongoing Business Publications Corporation initiative to raise awareness about food insecurity in Iowa and inspire action to combat it. Register online.