• 1 box white cake mix
• 1 small can crushed pineapple
• 3 oz. instant pudding (any flavor)
• 3 bannanas, sliced
• 8 oz. whipped topping
• coconut
• chopped pecans

Bake cake as directed in a deep 9×13 inch pan. When cake is done and still warm, poke holes in top with wooden spoon handle. Heat pineapple and sugar together. Stir until dissolved. Pour over cake. Prepare pudding mix according to directions. Pour over cooled cake. Cover with bannanas. Put whipped topping on top. Sprinkle coconut on top. Top with pecans.

Toast chopped pecans in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. Cool. Roll balls of vanilla ice cream in pecans. Keep in freezer until ready to serve. Place in attractive dish, spoon hot fudge sauce over and serve. Can make own hot fudge sauce or heat up chocolate syrup. Could use other flavors of ice cream if desired. Like a hot fudge sundae only more elegant.

The City of Woodbine, in Harrison County, celebrated a ribbon cutting ceremony in their historic downtown Monday night. In the last 18 months, Woodbine welcomed 13 new businesses and 35 new employees to its 3 by 3 block Main Street District while renovating 25 historic buildings into energy efficient storefronts, office spaces and upper-story apartments. On Monday night, Iowa Governor Terry Branstad and Lt. Governor Kim Reynolds attended the ribbon cutting ceremony. Branstad said the transformation in Woodbine was phenomenal.

He said the community had a lot of old buildings that were falling down. The Main Street program, he says, helped to make it something that everyone can be proud of. Branstad says Woodbine should be an inspiration to other towns.

A crowd of close to 300 people witnessed a photo re-staging of a 1911 Chautauqua “Big Doings in Woodbine Town” streetscape scene complete with period costumes, horse and buggy and automobiles ranging from back in the early 1900s all the way to a brand new John Deere tractor. The ribbon cutting ceremony finished quite a long day for Governor Branstad. His day began in the Guthrie County community of Panora, and included lunch featuring Iowa’s Best Burger, in Coon Rapids, as well as a stop in Audubon, and finally, Harlan.

The Governor will travel through northwest Iowa today starting in Onawa this morning.

(Joel McCall/KNOD)

Almost one in five Iowans smoke and a program to help them quit is getting new accolades. A survey of Iowans who smoke finds 83-percent wish they could quit. From that figure, Operation 83 was launched. Lori Mein, a nurse practitioner at the Mercy Clinic in Des Moines, says they work with Quitline Iowa to give smokers the necessary tools.

Smokers who come to the clinic can get one-on-one counseling, while those on Title 19 Medicaid may qualify for three months of medication that can ease the transition to a smoke-free lifestyle. Operation 83 is being featured in a new publication, “Staying Well,” from the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network. Seven months after completing the program, up to 24-percent of clients weren’t using tobacco. Only about four-percent of smokers without support could say the same. While she’s a lifelong non-smoker, Mein says she’s lost several family members to smoking, though it wasn’t to lung disease or cancer, but heart disease.

The latest figures from the CDC find just about 19-percent of Iowans smoke, or 429-thousand people. That’s slightly above the national average. Tobacco use is blamed for killing more than 44-thousand Iowans every year. Learn more at “www.quitlineiowa.org” or call 800-Quit-Now.

(Radio Iowa)