Southern Slow-Cooking Bar-B-Q Ribs



           You do not have to be a great cook, to cook pork ribs that fall off the bone.  You can even have a meal like this on a work night.  With a little planning, it is easy.  First of all, ribs are not just a summer thing, and ribs don't always have to be cooked on a grill.  After reading this blog, you may never cook ribs any other way. 

A Northeaster, moved in last night, and yesterday.  The drop in temperature caused the smoke alarm to go off.  This happen last year and scared the you know what out of us. Five years ago, our house burned the eve of Christmas Eve at 1 o'clock in the morning.  The old heater never did it, but well, this is not the other house either.  Enough of that.

         As I always tell the young one, " Back in the cowboy days, when I was young we............".  We were able to buy pork ribs cheap.  Thanks to the Blacks in the South, we have slow cooked ribs that fall off the bone.  Guess first we need to catch ribs on sale, because they are not cheap any more.  Someone went and let the secret out.  The thing is, I have gone to so many cookouts where they ruined the ribs.  I could just cry, it is a sin to ruin the ribs.  Bar-B-Q is not about the sauce.

         

          Now, buying ribs in the store is easy.  People ask me how to pick ribs, because theirs are tough, and I say I pick by price.  They are ribs, you are buying a bunch of bones with a little meat on them.  Try to get as much meat as you can, but they are really all the same.  The whole thing in a nut shell is, they just was never told the right way to cook them.  While you are at the store to look at spices.  Don't freak out their are 100's to pick from, just like sauces.  I always hear that in the south they use a mustard Bar-B-Q sauce.  I never have, not that they are not good too.  It is all up to taste, and I like to change it up.  Bar-B-Q, and Bar-B-Q sauce, are two different things.  Bar-B-Q, is the cooking of meat, slow.  Grilling is what you do cooking hamburgers in the back yard.  Bar-B-Q, can be done on a grill, or in the oven in your house.  A Gas Grill is the same as cooking in the house except no flies.  Charcoal Grilling, or better yet,Oak, or Hickory, wood make good Bar-B-Q.



          We are going to cook our ribs in the oven.  Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees, and take the ribs out of the package, and place in baking pan.  Your ribs will be great if all you do is this, and cover with tin foil.  In the spice department in your grocery store, they have all kinds of rubs.  I have three different ones in my cabinet.  One for chicken, one pork, and one called Sweet and Smoky, for ribs.  Do Not put sauce on it yet, but you can put rub.  Place the covered pan in the oven, and close the door.  Now, what next?  In about 15 or 20 minutes come back and turn the oven down to 200 degrees, then it is up to you. 

         We are cooking slow, I mean take the kids to the park slow.  If you want to be gone all day, turn it down to 125-150.  We are going to keep ours at 200, and put some collards on, to put in the freezer.  Right now I going to tell you how to make the best bake potato ever.  Take that scrubber thing like you use on pots, and pans, hopefully a new one.  Under running water scrub the outside of the potato vigorously.  Then take a fork and poke forty, eleven, million, holes into the potatoes.  Place each potato in a square of aluminum with a 1/4 stick of margarine on each side.  Seal, margarine and potato, and place in oven with ribs.  Do this before turning the temperature down, and cook together.  Yum mm.



          While you go read a good book, and enjoy this beautiful day.  I'm going outside in this crisp-Autumn air, and wash greens.  I have been putting them in the freeze all week.  Today is a mixture, of greens.  Spinach, and Mustard Greens, to go with the mushrooms and cherry tomatoes I bought, and make a salad.  I find washing them in 5 gal. buckets is best, and keeps the mess outside.  Washing, back and forth 4 to 6 times, gets all the dirt off, and ready to cook.



          After removing stems, leaves from the trees, and anything else that doesn't belong, they are ready to cook.  This takes a long time so, now still with time on my hands, I'm going to crack pecans.  Every year at this time I crack nuts, well pecans, for cooking.  Received a bag of pecans from some local trees, and that makes it even better.  Local grocery stores have them already cracked, and quite often we buy them.  The first one I cracked was rotten, as were others, but I did get this bag full.  Plus, the best part is I got to eat some.



       

          One nice thing is, hopefully, something good is on TV.  This being Halloween weekend every thing is zombies.  I'm not much on gore, but what shah-gonna-do.  One thing is, I bought a pack of brownie mix for a dollar, at the Dollar Store.  They don't make that many, but they had packs of; peanut butter, sugar, chocolate chip cookie, and brownie mix.  I bought one of each.  Put a hand full of pecans in the chopper, and added it to the brownie mix.  Sorry no picture, with ever thing we are cooking I thought it would be to much for you.

          OK, let us speed this up 3, or 4 hours, and check on those ribs.  We have the greens on top of the stove smelling up the house, with wonderful flavors.  Open the oven door, and you have pleasure written all over your face.  Use pot holders, and set it on top of the stove.  Now is the time to put on the sauce.  Once again it is all a matter of taste, and you don't have to add sauce.  The true taste of that slow cooking, is great all by it self.  Now that is Bar-B-Q!



          We, are going to use KC Masterpiece, on this masterpiece.  I should get paid for plugging them, but I don't.  That is just what I like.  Like I said before, it is not sauce that makes good Bar-B-Q, it is slow cooking.  Now, pour off some of the juice, and spread generous amount of sauce.  Put the tinfoil back on, and turn the oven up to 350 degree for about 30 minutes.  Every one in the house is saying when are we going to eat?  Just tell um, it il-be ready, when I say it's ready, and not before.  Then go back to reading your book knowing you are the master of the universe. 

          After 30 minutes or so, take the ribs back out.  Re-move the tin foil, spread some more sauce, and place back in oven without the foil.  Turn the oven to 450 for about 20 minutes.  Watch inside the oven, for the sauce to dry up some.  Add butter toast or french bread, and take out potatoes.  I hope at some point you made the salad, because I forgot to add it to the blog.



          If you have never had Bar-B-Q, that falls off the bone before, do not try to remove the ribs from pan to serve.  Serve it right from the pan on the stove.  Trust me, no one will mind.  Just tell them to get in line, behind you.  Notice when you open the foil off of your potato, the moist yellow color from the butter.  Eat it skin and all, it is much better for you that way.  The ribs I bought, were not on sale, and just $13.00.  This is a meal for two days at my house.  I bought a Corn beef, that same day for $9.00.  Guess what my next blog is?



  

Finger Lick-en

         

         

         







         

          

The Money Masters and Who Shot JR?????

      This is a painting of my Aunt Maude's house at  the turn of the century.  I have a lot of memories of that house when I was a kid.  The very first painting I ever did was of that house.  Their was a barn up on the hill behind it.  We would sit in the top, at the back of it at night, and down the hill on the back side was the dirt race track.  In the 60's you could hear um all over the country side.  I only got to go to the race a couple times.  The best seat was in Aunt Maude's barn you could see everything from up there.  When we actually went we came home covered in red dust.  Red mud all over our shoes and in the car, paints and cloths.  Today their NasCar has nothing on that dirt track, they never even stopped for rain.  No that was when the race really was good, and from the barn we were dry.  

      This was a great place to be a kid.  There was two or three old cars from the 1930's with bullet holes all in them.  Look like Bonnie and Clyde's, or maybe Dillinger's cars.  Farm family is where I come from.  Not farms like out west who feed the whole country.  Farm family, that we would go to Aunt Maud's house and the woman sit around a table and snap beans.  I can hear her lace up black shoes on the wood floors. Her stockings down around her ankles, clomp, clomp, clomp.  I'm not sure but this kitchen I think, was her back porch at one time.  It had a small bathroom to the left, as you came in the back door,  and the kitchen was to the right.  There was a big sink, with the old hand pump.  The sink was deep enough to wash a whole bushel of corn.  

      In my minds eye, I can still see her out the field of corn right beside her house.  She is bent over at the waist, stocking around her ankles, watering the corn with a cup.  A cup, and a bucket of water, giving each stalk a drink.  If it was Sunday, then we were at Aunt Maude's house.  My Grandmother, running a knife down ears of corn.  That's cream corn, green beans, a chicken frying, and home made biscuits.  The only time we were aloud in the house was to eat, or the weather was bad.  

      The table always had a table cloth, and the silverware was silver.  The rooms all had coal stoves, and the lights were just a single bulb hanging from the center of the ceiling.  It was dark in the house even in the middle of the day.  In the hall, and in the living room, was a Victrola, and 78 records.  A hall run the middle of the house, out on to the front porch.  Out there was a porch swing, and some oak rocking chairs.  All the pictures on the walls had bubble glass, and were from, like the first camera ever made. 

       Now, about 3 miles down Jones Mill Road is the mill.  Papa Jones, house sat up on a hill and down by the creek was the Grit's Mill.  My uncle Jim Jones lived there, and it was another house where you had to play outside.  Now, just like Aunt Maude's house it had a long drive way up to the house.  I didn't realize at the time, but the stage coach line ran up close to the houses.  It was when they cut the black top road, they straighten it out.  My Great Grandpa had to buy land from the man across the street, to get to his mailbox.  

   

      I thought every one was so old.  They wore dresses they must have made, and their shoes black leather.  A working out house, us kids had to use, part of the staying out side thing.  Grandma would say we were to be seen, and not heard.  No talking at the dinner table at all, or the back of a spoon across your knuckles.  Coming in all black in your Sunday best cloths, from playing in the coal bend.  

     You know that was not really that long ago.  The world sure has change though.  "Occupy Wall Street", all over the news.  "Occupy Government",  "Occupy Earth", how did we let just a few smart bankers do this.  This place and this town called Fountain Inn, is more than just paintings.  

       Just like this old buckboard, and that old dirt track, it is gone.  How is it that all of this has happened in so short of a time.  Back then $50.00 was a lot of money, now every one wants to be a millionaire.  I watched at first when these young people started protesting and none of it was getting into the news.  TV stations, news papers, no one was talking.  I started asking questions, and not getting answers.  

      Now, there is nothing that will stir me up more, than to ignore me.  Or worse tell me it is nothing, when I know it's something.  I started looking into this "Occupy" mess.  After about three weeks it finally was put on the TV news.  Nothing but a bunch of college kids that want the American people to pay for their college loans, won't get a job, and just want to draw unemployment.  None of these protesters even know what they want.  They are not organized.  This could be nothing farther from the truth.

      Now, just when we started realizing that Democrats and Republicans have been doing nothing but disagree on everything.  The Republicans have put the entire country out of work, trying to get Obama out of the White House.  These young people, occupying Wall Street, and they are not just young people.  It is not just in NY City any more either.  It is all over the country, the news has to notice now.  So, what can we do?  I started researching how it is that corporate America got so powerful.  In order to fix it, we need to know what broke it to start with.

      Why is it there is a news black out?  It is not just this occupy wall street thing.  Think about the fact there is no Watergate stories. Viet-Nam was in the news every night, and we have soldiers coming home with missing arms and legs, and none of it on TV.  Then all of a sudden I got the answers I was looking for, in a 3 1/2 hour video on you tube.  It was called "Money Masters", and like who shot JR, things started making sense.  Hell I figured out who shot JFK, Abraham Lincoln, and what caused the great depression.  

    "Money Masters"  You would think if some thing like this is on you tube, every body would know about it.  Then after you see it, and learn the truth, why hasn't someone fixed it long time ago.  I don't, but I know now, it just might be to late.  Is it that our presidents, congress, all of them are apart of it.  Have they pulled the cash out of the economy, caused banks to fail, and sent our jobs away, just to show how powerful they are.  I was wondering how in the world China even got our debt.  The money changers.  The only thing that made Jesus lose his temper was the money changers.  The Knights Templar, started banking.  The masters of money, own the whole world.  There is no Gold in Ft. Knox.  With interest, and credit, they have indebted the United States.  They wiped out Russia's economy, and by using China's cheap labor, the US will follow.  

      There is a way to stop this if it is not to late.  The first thing we need to do is bring back Abraham Lincoln's greenback's.  If our government can issue bonds, it can issue cash.  CASH that is interest free.  Use these newly created cash notes to pay off the debt.  2nd and the most important, abolish fractional reserve banking.  As the debt is paid off, the reserve requirements of all banks and financial institutions would be raised proportionally at the same time.  To absorb the new cash notes.  And 3rd, a bill, or act, was put threw congress, and signed by the president, with out most of congress even there, they were on Christmas break.  This was the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.   After abolishing the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, and the National Banking Act of 1864, we must never let this happen again.  Now, finally we must withdraw the United States from the IMF, the BIS, and the World Bank.  

      Considering that these people who are running our country have been at it 100 years, I don't think they are just going to let us stop them that easy.  Look at how Moammar Gadhafi, or Osama Bi Laden died. You know now that being Democratic or Republican doesn't make any difference any more, they both have sold us out.  If we are lucky enough to find a few honest people to put in Congress.  Think about the fact they robbed Ft. Knox right under our noses.  Another depression is possible if they so wish it.  We must have our own interest free cash notes.  We have to have someone not afraid of assassination, and figure out how to protect them, if we find them.
      No just making a bunch of signs and sitting in some park is not going the undo what has been done.  I hope the country is prepared to go threw what it will take to fix it.  If it is not to late.  
         

              

Taking Applications

      

      With so much going on with all this "Occupy" stuff, I made a statement "Occupy Earth".  That is exactly what it is starting to look like.  I complained that it was not being covered by the media, then after 3 weeks it started to spread.  I too, have been unemployed for an extended time.  I have never in my life collected unemployment.  Being a Painter, has really become one of those hindsight deals.  In hindsight, Paint companies didn't withhold taxes.  Paint companies had no insurance.  When you finished painting something, you moved on to the next job, or company.  After 30 years my resume is like 3 pages long.  
      Toward the end of the time where I was working, It started with jobs where I had more experience that my bosses.  Home owners would bring their questions about the job to me, instead of the owner of the company.   Not good, I would have to let me go too.  Then there was the jobs where I was exploited.  After years of painting, I have become very efficient with spray painting, or brush and roll.  I end up painting jobs all by myself, which is hard on a person day in and day out.  Might as well go back into business myself.
      Filling out applications, God I hate it.  It is like trying to remember all the places I have lived.  One thing I hate is the social security number.  It was meant for the collection of money from you, and your employer for retirement.  We all know that our government stole from it, till it was all gone.  Now, they try to make us think that social security  is like welfare.  How in the world has it become that our social security number is used for credit checks, and your credit score prevents you from getting a job.  
      Now my daddy taught me to be a man of my word.  If I must have credit, pay it on time, and pay it off as soon as possible.  To live within my means, if I wanted something, save for it.  All of that seems to be thrown out the window today.  Since social security is gone, our government has borrowed trillions, not billions, but trillions, with a "T", from China, a communist country.  
      I feel like Rip-van-winkle, who has some how just woke up.  I have never worn a suit, except to church.  Now I'm suppose ware one to fill out an application, or interview for a job, they have no intention giving me.  The application process is plain out job 
discrimination, plain and simple.  How else is it that 350 people apply for a job, no one gets hired, and 600 apply the following month.  That many people did not fail the drug test.  
      Now, they have sent troops to Africa.  This "Occupy Wall Street"  was not put on TV, or in the news for 3 weeks.  Then when it was it was portrayed as just kids with no jobs, wanting to freeload on taxpayers.  Wanting free college, and paid to be unemployed.  How naive and stupid can you be.  You tell me I need to go back to school.  They got out of college with loans to pay, and their jobs have been sent over seas.  It is not an education factor, when the jobs were sent to Mexico, or China.  It was cheap labor, child labor, and no environmental restrictions.  Corporate greed, plain and simple.
       These are not Democrats, or Republicans.  This movement is for  radical reform of the entire election process.  The whole song and dance of who can raise the most money wins.  The 99%, plan to end the collusion between corporations, and politicians.  What is going to happen when these police officers go home, and realize they are part of the 99% them selves.  A lot of talk about the white shirt police officers.  Corporation rent a cop, off our tax dollars.  These police officers have wives, and children, who see them as human, and love them.  This all is quickly becoming "Occupy Earth".  
       It was only a few months ago that our government threaten to not pay our military their checks.  Our fighting men and woman, have not forgotten that.  Bill Clinton said at his birthday, "It is not just going to be what we do about America, but what we do about America, and the World.  I find it inspiring that there is no leader or hierarchy, no specific agenda, no ties to a political party.  This is truly grass roots.  The way this country was formed.  We all need to get our voice into Democracy.  Democracy is not for sitting on the side lines.  We have a obligation to our children, and our selves, to get involved.  I would be afraid of any one who said he had all the answers, but We the People can.  This is the time for America to really set the example for the world.