(Radio Iowa) – Who better than a dentist to recommend food you can really sink your teeth into? A University of Iowa pediatric dentistry professor has compiled a cookbook that includes family recipes dating back more than a century and 100-percent of the proceeds go to an Iowa charity. Dr. Michael Kanellis says his book, “Iowa Mike’s Family Recipes,” contains 247 pages of tasty kitchen concoctions that cover a range of cuisines and cultures.

“I did this kind of as a project for myself during the pandemic, to try to round up all the recipes that we use on a weekly or monthly basis and self-publish it into a single cookbook,” Kanellis says, “and then one of the third-year dental students at the college thought it might be a good idea to have a fundraiser.”

During just two recent noon-time sales on the Iowa City campus, Kanellis says the cookbook has already raised more than $1,400. All the proceeds from the sale go to a fund at the College of Dentistry to help pay for dental care for kids that don’t have dental insurance,” he says, “or who maximize their benefits and still have more treatment needs.”

His family has a long history with food, as Kanellis’ uncle opened a restaurant, The Majestic Lunch, in Cedar Rapids in 1916. He’s revised and added to the original cookbook, combining recipes he’s accumulated over decades in three-ring binders, recipe boxes and hard drives. It includes Greek, Mexican and Midwestern comfort foods.

“I never liked pork chops until I came across a recipe for baked pork chops that is just amazing and now we eat that a lot, which I’m surprised, so you know it’s good if you don’t like it to start with and then you love it when you taste it,” Kanellis says. “There’s some pasta recipes in there that are incredible. There’s a lot of appetizers, too.”

You can order the book on Amazon, but if you do, Kanellis says it’ll cost more and it won’t benefit the UI’s Pediatric Smiles Fund. Instead, he urges people to contact him directly at: michael-kanellis@uiowa.edu to order the cookbook for $20.

DES MOINES – Gov. Kim Reynolds has issued an extension of a proclamation that authorizes the use and deployment of all available state resources, supplies, equipment, and materials to continue to assist Dallas County and the Perry Community in their response to and recovery from the tragic January 4th shooting at Perry High School. The proclamation extension is effective immediately and continues through March 6, 2024. 

The Department of Public Safety, the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services, and other state agencies have been supporting the community since the shooting on January 4th. The proclamation activates the emergency authorities of all state agencies, prompts enhanced coordination processes at the State Emergency Operations Center, and removes any administrative barriers to providing state resources and assistance in the days and weeks ahead.  

You can view the full proclamation here. 

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Court of Appeals denies the appeal of a woman convicted of murder in Marion County. Michelle Boat was convicted of first-degree murder for stabbing Tracy Mondabough to death as Mondabough sat in a truck outside her Pella home in May of 2020. Mondabough was seeing Boat’s estranged husband.

Boat’s appeal said she should have been allowed to remove a juror who had been a witness at the murder trial of the woman’s ex-husband. The Appeals Court ruling says the juror genuinely said she had no fixed opinion on the merits of the case and she could be impartial.

The ruling also denied Boat’s claim that improper instructions were given to the jury.

The Iowa Judicial Building. (RI photo)

Here’s the ruling: StatevBoat PDF