Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Swapping

Basil Egg Noodles. Chocolate Stout Cake. Soy and Sesame Kale Chips. No, this isn't my weekly grocery list. These are some of the items I bartered for at my first official Indy Food Swap.

An eclectic group of 40 or so foodies gather once a month at the Indianapolis City Market to participate in Indy Food Swap - an event that allows amateur culinary wannabes like myself to showcase their cooking and baking skills and trade culinary goodies with others. So if you have too many pickled beets in your pantry or find yourself sitting on an overabundance of hand-foraged mushrooms, the Indy Food Swap is calling your name.

Suzanne Krowiak started the Indy Food Swap in August 2011 and it has taken off. In fact, today's food swap sold out in a mere two hours (who knew?). There are entire websites, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and blogs dedicated to food swaps (the Food Swap Network is a great resource and lists food swaps nationally and internationally). The concept is simple: People bring in homegrown, homemade or foraged foods and set up on tables in the farmers market tradition. But instead of paying with cash, participants trade the items they brought in for new ones.



Suzanne Krowiak explaining that some swappers won't want to trade with you due to allergies, special diets or general distaste (hence the face).


When I arrived at the swap, I filled out a name tag and my official bid sheet, which included spaces to write my name, item, notes and special information (i.e. gluten-free, vegan). The bid sheet also had numbered spaces for bidders to write their offers. As the tables began to fill up, I noticed the offerings were as diverse as the swappers: There were traditional baked goods like old fashioned chocolate cake, but there were also Gianduja Bars, jars of Cara Cara Orange Curd and Ball Jars brimming with Pickled Peppers.

I set up my Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups, cut samples to dole out to swappers, signed my bid sheet and wished for the best.



My Peanut Butter Cups packaged up, ready for swapping. Also on my table: (two)bite-size samples.


About 30 minutes in, Suzanne called out, "Ladies and gentlemen, start your swapping." Suddenly, 40 foodies were hustling to get to their favorite tables to sample and fill out the bid cards. Feeling the adrenaline in the air, I couldn't help but take a peek at my station and wonder what my humble Peanut Butter Cups would earn. Would I score Kathy's French Herb Cheese Spread? Or Blaire's Spicy Pizza Sauce? What about Suz's Goat Cheese Balls? And though I couldn't tell you what it is, the Estonian Kringel Bread had my name, er, bid written all over it.


A very full bid sheet. The Estonian Kringel Bread (a cinnamon braided bread) was the "A-Lister" of the swap.

For a few seconds, I had that last-kid-to-be-picked-by-the-captain-of-the-dodgeball-team feeling. As the swappers began walking from table to table, I kept looking back at my Peanut Butter Cups, listening to the swapper's reactions as they were being sampled. But it was only a matter of minutes before my Peanut Butter Cup bid sheet began to fill up - front and back.

Isn't swapping just the best?

The actual swapping didn't occur until the last 30 minutes. Swappers were instructed to look at their original bid sheets and seek out the offerers via name tags. I was relieved when one swapper sought me out almost immediately, handing me a pretty jar of Basil-Infused Extra Virgin Olive Oil for a three-pack of giant Peanut Butter Cups. (You see, I made one amateur mistake of making about five dozen Peanut Butter Cups last night, thinking there would be way more food and way more swappers then there actually were. Needless to say, there was plenty of chocolate to go around!). 

I left the City Market with a basket full of local goodies: Limoncello, Spicy Pizza Sauce, Strawberry Black Pepper Jam, Orange Craisin Bread, Basil-Infused Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Soy n' Sesame Kale Chips (a treat on the ride home) and Chocolate Biscotti to name a few. A special shout out goes to swappers Suz for the Orange Craisin Bread and Jen for the Chocolate Stout Bread (it comes as no surprise that two of my favorites are carbohydrates). 

So what did I think of my first food swap? To sum it up, my fridge has never had it so good.

My loot: Chocolate Stout Bread, Limoncello, French Herb Cheese Spread, Soy n' Sesame Kale Chips, Chocolate Biscotti and more. Indy Food Swap: my fridge thanks you.


Interested in attending a swap? They take place once a month at the Indianapolis City Market, usually on a Saturday from 2:30-4. Registration fills quickly. A few tips:
• Arrive at least 15 minutes early. You will want this time to unpack, assemble samples and "beautify" your station.
•  Don't make five dozen of your item. Depending on the item, usually a dozen or so should be substantial enough.
• Make something unique. The most swap-worthy items are things you wouldn't - or couldn't - make yourself or buy from the grocery. Example from this swap: cheese pierogis, black pepper shortbread cookies and goat balls (a mixture of goat cheese, dates, glazed walnuts and brown sugar).
• Samples are a must.
• Bring a reusable bag or basket to carry your goodies home.
• From a Google search: “It’s uncool to repeat yourself."

Peanut Butter Cups
Adapted from Design Sponge
*Note: Has been known to cure even the worst of chocolate cravings 

Peanut Butter Cups

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate (or any chocolate of your choosing)
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup graham crackers, crushed

The Deal
Line a muffin pan with 12 paper liners. Set aside.
Melt 1 cup of the chocolate in a double boiler. Remove the bowl of melted chocolate from the stove and turn off the heat.
Using the back of a spoon, paint a layer of melted chocolate onto the bottoms and sides of the paper liners. Don’t skimp on chocolate here; coat the liners generously. Set the bowl aside with any remaining melted chocolate left in it.
Put the muffin pan in the refrigerator for 20 minutes while you make the peanut-butter filling.
In a mixing bowl, combine the peanut butter, crushed graham crackers, and powdered sugar. Stir with a spoon until well combined.
Return the bowl used to melt the chocolate to the top of the double boiler. Add the remaining 1 and 1/2 cups of chocolate and melt.
As the chocolate is melting, remove the muffin pan from the refrigerator. Put a mound of peanut butter (about a tablespoon size) into each paper liner. Tap down each mound with your fingertips to “nest” it into the chocolate bottom (easiest to do this is you wet your fingertips slightly).
By now, the chocolate added to the double boiler should be melted. Using a spoon, dollop the top of each peanut butter mixture mound with a generous portion of chocolate and smooth out the top.
Place the muffin pan in the refrigerator. The cups should be set within an hour.

The Cycle Studio: Rollin' Like a Big Shot

I love bikes. No, not the fancy kind with the slim tires, low handlebars and sleek, flat seats (really, whose tush actually fits comfortably on that type of seat anyway?). A mountain bike isn't really my style either. I doubt you'll ever find me "off-roading" on a rocky dirt path with muddy shoes and calves. I'm more of the cruiser-type. You know, the type of bike with oversized tires, an upright riding position and most importantly, lots of cool vintage styling. Add a basket to the front so I can jaunt around with a fluffy white puppy on a perfectly sunny day and I'm in my happy place.

So you can imagine my hesitation when I was told to check out The Cycle Studio - an indoor cycling training facility in Carmel that is powered by CompuTrainer. CompuTrainer is a state of the art multi-rider system that collects and displays data such as power watts, mph, cadence, average watts/kilogram, heart rate and basically everything a "real" bike rider would want to know. Needless to say, I decided to leave my cruiser parked in my apartment garage and give The Cycle Studio a try.

My first class was humbling. I walked in and everyone was warming up on their individual CompuTrainers, switching around fancy gears and pedaling their legs at lightening bolt speed. You know when you are driving in your car on a fall day and you see a pack of riders with the whole get-up - bike shorts, jerseys, clip-on shoes - zip by you? Well, that's what it was like inside The Cycle Studio. And then there's me in my lululemon crops and tank, Asics and pink hybrid bike.

Shea Rankin, the owner of The Cycle Studio and triathlon coach, helped me get my bike set up on the CompuTrainer and explained the different gears and how to adjust them. About every 20 or 30 minutes I would maneuver the wrong gear adjustment and the entire chain would come off and my bike would come to a screeching halt. I was truly an amateur.

All set up on the CompuTrainer for a Saturday morning ride. That's me bopping around in the back left corner.

Shea then explained the course, which can range from customized races with hills and sprints mixed in to actual Ironman races (I think it's perfectly fair to tell people that I once completed Ironman Canada). The CompuTrainer is calibrated to each rider's weight and the fly wheel adjusts as you ride hills. In spinning, you can adjust your own resistance as you see fit. On CompuTrainers, the resistance changes for you based on the course and whether you want to or not, you better adjust your speed and power with it.

At the front of The Cycle Studio is a giant screen with the course and each rider's name, stats and place on the course. You best believe that for my first few rides I was consistently stuck in place number eight, thousands of miles behind place number seven. Number seven, though seated right in front of me, was so far off in the distance of the course that I would have to hop into a motorized vehicle, nay, a flying engine, to ever catch up with him.

The giant screen at the front of the studio with the course and each rider's stats.

The neat thing about The Cycle Studio is that each cyclist rides at his or her own pace. A 20-minute time trial (yes, it's as brutal and ferocious as it sounds) determines your LT (lactate threshold), which then determines your other heart rate zones, starting at Zone 1 or Tempo all the way up to Zone 6 or VO2 Max. So essentially, you are riding at your own skill level and your own ability. But once that competitive streak sneaks in, it's hard to resist trying to edge yourself past the person ahead.

My hybrid bike. Notice the pink accents.

Fancy road bike with slim tires and low handlebars.

For triathletes who want to improve their cycling performance, The Cycle Studio is top notch. Riders can actually race on real courses such as Kona, Louisville and Wisconsin. Most importantly, riders get personalized coaching from one of the best - Shea. Shea has competed in hundreds of triathlons, from sprint distance to Ironman. She is a competitive age-grouper, often winning sprint races and placing in the top 10 of her age group on the national level.

But besides her skills and impressive biography, Shea is warm, welcoming and funny. I am probably the only rider who visits The Cycle Studio with goals just to get a good workout (no plans anytime soon for an Ironman for me), but Shea coaches me just the same as she does her other riders ("core tucked in," "relax your shoulders," "get those watts up") and has the same high expectations for me as she does her top riders.

Bikes in storage at The Cycle Studio. Indiana winters mean riding inside. It's always 68 degrees and sunny at The Cycle Studio!

The Cycle Studio has shown me that with effort, patience and stamina come improved results (in my second time trial on Thursday my LT went up from 164 to 178). I have been riding at The Cycle Studio since last summer and can proudly state that my chain no longer falls off when I switch gears and I'm not consistently stuck in place number eight. After six months riding with Shea and her athletes, I am now a more confident person on and off the bike.

Fitting quote on a wall inside The Cycle Studio.

While I will never be the studio's next "Mindy Nicolet" - who was the Top Amatuer Female in the 2012 Ironman Arizona - Mindy and the other riders at The Cycle Studio inspire me. Athletes like Mindy remind me that there will always be people ahead of you in the race - sometimes by thousands of miles and other times by just a few miles. But you are truly in a race with only yourself - a race to achieve your own maximum watts and then maybe - hopefully - improve those watts over time. Baz Luhrmann said it best in his famous song "Everbody's Free To Wear Suncreen": Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind. The race is long and, in the end, it’s only with yourself.