Mom: ' there's something about Christmastime'
Me: 'something about Christmastime'
Mom: I wish every day was Christmas Nick
Me: 'You said it Mom. Then all the children of the world would hold hands and sing together in perfect harmony.'
Mom: 'And every store would be closed' [and on 94 headed to Chicago today, desperately searching for one place to eat, they were indeed all closed. Does the world really shut down for one day?]
After enough verses of Bryan Adams 80's cheese blaring over an already choppy Chicago FM radio, I had to put my foot down. Classical Pandora Christmas is one thing. I can listen to that. I like that actually. Its perfect background to the fire going, the post present frenzy, baking cookies, whatever. But when the pop and country music worlds both really decided to fully adopt Christmas music, anywhere from the 80's on, I think we all regretted it a little when it really set in. like after we invented the atom bomb and THEN saw what its effects. It reminded me of what Milan Kundera describes at the start of 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being', the idea of eternal reccurence. of all things in existence recurring over and over for all eternity in a constant circle of hurt and pain and weight. And now we're stuck in it thanks to Hallmark or whatever jackass thought this would be a good idea. And I think its fair to use music as a representative of all things Holidays. Jews, Muslims, sorry guys. You're excluded here.
For the first time ever I spent Christmas without my California family and helped out my Michigan mom. Mom couldve come out to see the 2 new babies but decided it best to stay and watch after Grandma Pisegna at the Lakeland Community nursing home. Iris, my moms girlfriend, went to Chicago to be with HER family. I don't think Mom or I regretted not going to Cali one bit. For whatever reason it was a nontaditional Christmas and we loved every second. We made a fire in the fire pit and it snowed and we dined on my slow cooked babyback ribs, cornbread pudding, and baked beans. We pulled off the blue painters tape lining the walls and made a mini blue painters tape Christmas tree. and mom said 'hang on' and ran to decorate it with the leftover Christmas lights. We looked around the freshly painted house, and then to our blue tape Christmas trophy, and then to eachother in complete satisfcation of a job well done. And thankful. We mustve have been the only people painting walls while the rest of the Christian world was dressing figgy pudding and buying and spending and listening to Bryan Adams.
slow cooked babyback ribs
the secret: low and slow in the oven. no grills. like the mantra, tough cuts of meat like this, cooked under low indirect heat for hours, loose their connective tissue easiest....and the result...that fall-off-the-bone sticky goodness we all crave. This is for 1 full rack. Heres how:
preheat oven to 200 F
find a good quality cajun dry rub. Otherwise If you want to throw the rub together yourself, toss the following spices together in a small bowl: 1 tsp each of smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, cinnamon, cumin, dry mustard, chili powder, cayenne, 1 TBSP each of sea salt, & 3 TBSP brown sugar. [as an extra step-you can skip this-I like to warm them up on a skillet on low heat for 5 minutes to wake up the spices]. wash and pat dry your rack. Now pour the dry mix entirely over the rack and rub it in squeezing it with both hands. Dont try and be neat about it. Take a 2 ft sheet of aluminum foil and lay the rib down backside up and make an envelope out if it, pinching and tucking in both ends. place on a baking sheet backside up, toss in the oven and cook for 6-7 hours at 200 F. pull it out. be careful as you open the packets and drain the fat. brush your favorite BBQ sauce over the ribs, plate it, and bobs your uncle!
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