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Standardby Julie10 Comments

Yes, you can totally grill lettuce! Not just romaine. And it’s stunning. Such a fun alternative to the usual summer salads. I got a shipment of living lettuce from Inspired Greens last week – gorgeous heads of lettuce grown in Alberta greenhouses and harvested in their pots, sold not in clamshells but in sturdy thin plastic cones, with their roots attached. They’re grown to adolescent size – a bit bigger than baby lettuces, so they stay fresh for ages, especially if you store them in a short glass of water in the fridge. Honestly, I try growing greens in my garden and patio containers with limited success every year – they wilt and bolt and never grow to be big and full and robust – and this is a bit like having a micro-garden on a shelf in my fridge. Far less frustrating.

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Standardby Julie11 Comments

When W was still a baby, just starting to pull himself up to toddle around the coffee table, he skipped directly from fruit and veggie purees to grown-up food, going straight for a platter of ribs at one Sunday barbecue and never going back. I have photos of him sitting out in the grass in his swimmers, happily knawing on a pork rib in the sun, sauced from ear to ear. This is how I feel when I get to eat ribs – carefree and happy, loving the opportunity to eat with my fingers, and usually covered with sauce. W will still choose ribs if he has any say in dinner. It’s on the top of all our lists, but best eaten when it’s warm enough to sit in shorts and flip flops, leaning in over the rib in hand, letting any drips land on the grass, then washing up in the sprinkler afterward. Ribs are the ultimate summer food, best served in the greatContinue reading

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Standardby Julie7 Comments

Mike complained loudly last night as I was pre-roasting pork ribs for CBC that I always make ribs for Jim (host of the Eyeopener) and never for him. There is some truth to this. OK, a lot of truth. But who makes ribs for dinner on an average Tuesday night? Or ever, really, unless it’s someone’s birthday, or a baarbecue, or some other sort of big event? The only time we ever get ribs is when Mike plays the Palomino or my mom picks up take-out from Swiss Chalet. I adore ribs, but they are so high in fat that I never feel right about making them for myself. I reserve them for making other people happy. Well-made ribs are the best way to win friends and influence people. Then again, I’ve eaten a lot of black bean soup this year, dammit. So I bought a big rack of pork back ribs today, and popped them in the oven this afternoon. This is the secretContinue reading

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