Dad Street

Interestingly enough I love cooking and yet haven’t talked about it at all on this site. I think mostly because I’ve really been focused on keeping my site about being a Dad. But what could be more dad friendly than cooking for your family, right? I love cooking gourmet foods but just don’t get to do it very often. With the onset of summer and Memorial Day weekend upon us my mouth was watering for one of my favorite grill recipes. What was great was that both O and Jake loved it! Jake is 21 months and O just turned 3 so I’m thinking if it passed their taste test it should work for your family too.

I wish I could say this was my own homemade recipe but alas, I cannot. I’ve pulled the recipe from a Bon Appetite Magazine. Yes, I subscribe to Bon Appetite. Remember? I said I cook!

The only variation to the recipe below is that I let the ribs marinate in pineapple juice for 24 hours before putting them in the oven. I haven’t tried this yet but I also think they could be more tender if I slow-cooked them or boiled them (perhaps in pineapple juice) before grilling them. Using this recipe they are nice and tender but they’re not fall-off-the-bone tender. Otherwise, this is one of my favorite sauces.

Pairing

I’m a big wine guy (not like a fat wine guy, I just like wine a lot) and so pairing a good wine to match your food is important. I’d go two ways with these ribs. I’d either go with a nice jammy Zinfandel (Yes, red not white) or go to the other side and match it up with a nice Champagne or Sparkling wine. Perhaps a nice Reisling might work well too. I think the acidity and certainly the fizz from the Champagne would cut through the fat nice and highlight the honey in the rib sauce.

Well here’s the recipe for you to try at home. Let me know what you think!

Ingredients:

5 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup bourbon
1 1/2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon plum sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons mild-flavored (light) molasses
1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
3/4 teaspoon hot chili paste (such as sambal oelek)*
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

2 2 1/4- to 2 1/2-pound racks baby back pork ribs
1 cup unsweetened pineapple juice

Preperation:

Whisk first 11 ingredients in small bowl.

Do ahead: Glaze can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Place long sheet of heavy-duty foil on each of 2 large rimmed baking sheets. Sprinkle rib racks on all sides with salt and pepper. Place 1 rib rack on each foil sheet. Fold up sides of each foil sheet around rib rack to form boat-like shape. Pour 1/2 cup pineapple juice over each rib rack. Fold up foil to seal packets. Bake until ribs are tender, about 1 hour. Remove ribs from foil packets. Transfer to roasting pan; pour any juices from foil over and cool.

Do ahead: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover with plastic wrap; refrigerate.

Prepare barbecue (medium heat). Cut each rib rack in half. Grill until browned, brushing frequently with glaze and turning often, about 10 minutes. Cut racks between bones into ribs.

*An Indonesian hot chili paste; available at many supermarkets, at Asian markets, and from mingspantry.com.

My wife and I are not picky eaters. In fact, there are few things we don’t like to eat. I was actually raised on a somewhat restrictive diet growing up. I was born in a Jewish household where we kept kosher. For those of you not familiar with kosher eating, there’s some basic rules to it. For the most part, you’re not allowed to eat meat and milk together (think, no cheese burgers or meat on your pizza) and you’re not allowed to eat any scavenger. A scavenger is considered to be animals such as shell fish (shrimp, crabs, lobster) and pig product. There were also certain cuts of beef you couldn’t eat as well (cuts that come from the rear of the cow). This has more to do with tradition as things have changed from 6,000 years ago. You don’t see people keeling over dying from eating meat and milk. Unless they eat too much meat and milk. I guess you could eat so much that you’d explode. In my younger days drinking hemp milk (no I never smoked it) I got really hungry afterwards. Once I came down from my milk binging (no I never smoked it) only to realize I’d eaten an entire meat and cheese pizza.

Where was I? I have no idea what I was talking about. Must be all those brain cells I killed drinking hemp milk (no I never smoked it).

Anyway, I think the reason I love trying all kinds of foods now, besides the fact that I just like food, is because I was restricted from doing so as a child. I’ve kind of carried that mentality over to my children as well. At least in terms of wanting them to have a wide variety of foods to try. I’ve always wanted them to be able to experience different culinary delights and delicacies from all over. O has a pretty expanded pallette and likes most foods we put in front of her. When Jake was born we were hoping he’d be just as open to trying new things. That was until we found out about his allergies.

Jake had been eating breastmilk and jarred baby food for the first 12 months of his life. Babies are not supposed to eat eggs, milk, and/or nuts before they turn 1. Well, shortly before Jakes first birthday he tried some milk and he broke out, swelled up, and seemed to be breathing heavy. It scared the living crap out of us! After giving him some benadryl prescribed by my Pediatrician cousin, he was fine.

We had determined it’d be best to take him to his own Pediatrician by the house for a full check up. I didn’t mention erlier but Jake also has eczema. From what we’ve been told children who have eczema usually have food allergies associated with them. The good news, from what we were told, is that children often times outgrow both the eczema and the allergies. the Dr. told us to try again when he turned 2.

So, we’ve been avoiding all things milk, eggs, and nuts since we found out.

Well for the most part.

There was that one time I accidentally gave him Egg Nog. Yeah, the kind with milk and raw eggs. Crazy thing was, nothing happened! Then there was that time the other night where we thought, “let’s get all experimental on his ass and give him peanut butter”. By the time the second kid comes along you ask yourself, “What’s the worst that can happen? We’ll just take him to the ER” and you become a little more loosy goosey than you had with the first. Well, his cheeks broke out and back came the Benadryl.

So, now I sit here and hope that he outgrows this thing! I can’t even imagine him going through life not being able to eat these things. It’s only going to get harder once he goes to school and is around other kids. He’ll be tempted to eat things and of course he’ll be uknowingly presented with foods he can’t eat. From a logistical standpoint it’s hard even now at home. We have to think about what we’re making for dinner and when we’re out it’s tough going to that Pizza Joint.

Now might be a good time for us to reconsider our diet as a family too. I’m not saying I want to turn into a Herbivore but there’s a lot of good dairy free diets out there that I’m hearing about. Do you have children with allergies? What are some of your favorite resources for finding recipes, etc.? I may just have to research some and post those here.

Isn’t it funny in life how you could be visiting some strange town one day and then find yourself living there years later? You know the things that happen to us today that have different meaning to us down the road? Well, that sort of thing happened to me this weekend.

The Boss works as the Lead Radiation Therapist at our local hospital. So every year we volunteer at the Cancer Survivor’s Day event held at the Fairgrounds. It’s a great event hosted for all those who have survived their battle with cancer and of course family and friends. They have food, drinks, games for children, and music. It’s a great time and something we’ve really enjoyed being a part of.

What? The only reason we volunteer is because we man the cake table? Who told you that? That is sooo not true. Well…yes..I mean it does happen to be my favorite cake but come on! Speaking of cake…I don’t know why I think this is so morbid (yes I do) but the name of the cake is “Death By Chocolate”. Hello? May I remind you this is Cancer Survivor’s Day? Death by Chocolate? Should we really be serving anything with the name “Death” in it to people who are celebrating life? What if someone choked on a piece of Death by Chocolate cake? That would put a spin on things, huh? Where was I going with this? Oh geez…I have no idea.

Oh right, I was talking about how things take on different meanings throughout your life. Volunteering here was a nice gesture and something that was fun to do every year. I never thought I would be connected on a different level though. Not until this past year when my mom was diagnosed with cancer. Although, she wasn’t able to attend the event (we live on opposite coasts) I felt as if I was celebrating for her. She’s still fighting the fight going through her treatment now but she is definitely a survivor so she was there in spirit. I suppose going there here on out will have a different meaning for me as I’m now more than just a volunteer I’m a Survivor’s Son.

Well we did have a really good time and nobody died as a result of eating Death by Chocolate. Although, O sure did have a good time chowing down on a piece herself! Jake got stuck sucking on a water bottle. Here’s a little video I shot of O and Jake in the background.

After the cake we went over to the slide. It was this huge air filled slide that looked like a lot of fun. Of course, I was trying to calculate what kind of pressure it would support as I knew my fat ass would have to climb up it with O. We made it to the top and down we went. I’m pretty sure we picked up some pretty good speed going down due to all that weight I was carrying…No, I don’t mean O’s weight. Here’s a little video of me squealing like a little girl going down the slide.

Of course no event worth writing about would be complete without a face painting shot. O decided that it’d be fun to have her face painted and who am I to say no to that?

As we were leaving the fairgrounds we heard someone singing on stage. Walking past these two really expensive Coach Buses we wondered if there was a connection. Could it be Bob Dylan?? In fact, he was scheduled to perform this summer and we had totally forgotten! So, we got an earful of Bob practicing on stage just feet from us. The Monterey Fairgrounds is a small little hole in the wall so the idea that we were that close to the man himself was pretty cool. Why he didn’t run over to the Cancer Survivor event is beyond me but that would’ve been a very cool thing had he done that. Oh well, I guess he was working on his vocals for the big show!

Every year will have new meaning for me as we volunteer at the event. Hopefully one of these years we can bring my mom down so she can full on celebrate as well. I’ll make sure she gets a really big piece of Death by Chocolate and let her know that if that stupid disease can’t get her then that cake’s not going to be a match either!

Grilling On The Street: Honey Bourbon Baby Back Ribs

He’s Allergic To Milk, Eggs, and Nuts?

Bob Dylan, Face Painting, Cancer, and Death by Chocolate