Archives for August 2006

I grilled some corn last night and while I was shucking it I thought of nothing. Then it popped in my head “I wonder if everyone shucks the same way”.

There have been studies about how people put toilet paper on the holder, how people pull it off and how they use it so I am curious how people shuck corn.

I personally go one layer at a time and savor it. Corn is my favorite summer food and I want the whole experience to last as long as possible.

So how do you Shuck?

Just a little food for thought….ah word puns I am so clever.

Amazingly the weather is never bad when my dad makes ribs. A summer staple we eat them on the three passages of summer: Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day.

My parents owned a set of Square wooden plates and I can’t remember eating ribs on anything else. After over 30 years of use they are a little chipped around the edges and would probably be considered some kind health risk by germaphobes, but to me they are as essential to ribs as a champagne glass is to champagne. UPDATE: Those plates were retired, but mom found new ones to continue the tradition.

Every time he fires up the grill and sets of the rotisserie the sky is a deep blue and the air is sticky and sweet with the summer humidity. The grass is as green as it could get and feels soft and damp on bare feet. No matter how old I get I always feel like a small child hanging out in the backyard talking to him while he makes the ribs. There are a few other things that are essential to making good ribs. You need a good beverage, great music, and even better company. We usually have wine, beer, bourbon and Arnold Palmers with some James Taylor or the Rolling Stones (or to really annoy my brother Jimmy Buffet).

He starts the ribs hours before dinner. They cook over the grill for what seems like forever. My mom makes “Don’s favorite BBQ sauce”(an old Bon Appetit recipe) in the kitchen so it is ready for the ribs. The rib meals are always adventures in gluttony. We have spare ribs, corn on the cob, coleslaw and green beans. It always looks like more ribs than we need but there are rarely leftovers. Eating light on the day of ribs is wise. It is kind of a science. You don’t want to eat nothing all day because you will end up eating too quickly and filling up before you get your share. The key is to have a snack for lunch and a snack shortly before dinner. This plan will keep the starving at bay and will leave plenty of room to make sure you get your fair share of ribs. It sounds horrible and un-lady like, but it is ribs. Any meal served with two napkins wasn’t meant to be lady like.

Now that I have moved away from home I request ribs every time I go home in the summer. On one of these trips, they tried to sneak a different bbq sauce in on me. There was loud protesting and it is well known in the house that when I come home I would like things served according to tradition, green grass, blue sky and all.

UPDATE:Since moving back we try to make it down for all occasions involving ribs and there is always some Don’t BBQ sauce ribs.

family dinners seem to conjure up some great memories. I will add more stories about the truly great ones i have had later this week. thanks to everyone that has read so far.
this is what my brother had to add to the post about epicurian parents.

michael said…
So, I can testify to this and possibly add some further insight. Dinner at 146 lilac was serious business. In fact the entire neighborhood was made aware every evening by the alarming whistle my dad sounded, that to this day I have yet to hear replicated. He would make sure that wherever we were, we knew we had only enough time to get home wash up and grab our soft beverages, we didn’t call it pop. There were definite trial periods where recipies were modified and fitted to taste, phased in and out creating an epicurian evolution of sorts. Some recipies are still around to this day and other never made it.

When anne and i figured out that this was unique among our friends and thier families we began to protest, silent at first and then learning to pick our battles, and how to get away with not quite finishing, but still getting some dessert. When friends came over I would be a bit embarrassed when dinner came around, and the food had to be explained often with tutorials on how to properly manuver the food from the serving dishes to your plate and finally into your mouth. Frequently, friends would be convinced that they despised onions, or peppers, or some other culinary element, then much to their surprise it was to their liking.

To this day friends of mine note that my parents are the best cooks. They have singlehandedly opened minds to different foods and ways of eating. I guess it was easy to take this all for granted growing up, but now when I think about making dinner I don’t hesitate to use my intuition or go out on a limb.