obsessed w/cooking perfect pork?

like bacon?  love ribs? have a hard time going to the grocery store without taking a slow stroll through the pork section to look over the spare ribs, back ribs and pork shoulders? love pork – maybe a little too much? then you’re like me… 

oooh...ahhhh...oooh... get a towel to mop up excess saliva

having purchased a 10 pound pork shoulder to serve for my b-day-bbq, i wanted to make sure i cooked this thing right. i’d had previous success with a pork shoulder before, but wanted to find out more about the art of cooking that which turns into delectable, melt in your mouth pulled pork. surfing around various sites describing different grilling techniques (i’m a gas griller), i googled “pork shoulder” specifically and found a site which i believe is the mecca of pork shoulder and perhaps all things grillable & pork: amazingribs.com!.

having gone out for a great dinner, i was stuffed, but it was all i could do to keep from cooking and eating that shoulder right then and there. i surfed, surfed some more, looking through other pages, comments, recipes…gleaning wisdom, ideas, and working up a hefty appetite for that 10 pound butt sitting on my counter.

mmm...let's rub that thing and get it smokin

after reading through his site until about 1 am  (and only scratching the surface), i followed meathead’s  (my new facebook friend, craig goldwyn is known as “meathead”) direction as closely as i could, improvised a rub (loosely based on his memphis magic dust recipe- it was 1am and i didn’t have all of the spices) and cooked that butt (aka shoulder) from about 6am to 6pm.  the end result? tasty.  one person at the party (who will remain nameless) confessed that he ate 4 pork shoulder sandwiches!

so, if you’re like me and love grilling pork (and eating it) then you’ve got to check out the amazing ribs , “like” the site and stick it in your favorites, and get ready for some great pork bbq.

and, a big thanks to meathead for helping me serve up some stellar pork shoulder!

beck: he sings, he dances — he revives the masses…

oh wait, that’s beck hansen – usually just beck…. soy un perdido… 

...so why don't you kill me?

i had a bunch of clever, mostly sarcastic and pointed things to say about glenn beck and his “revival” speech last week, but i deleted them after reading this letter to him from Jim Wallis (from Sojourners).  I’ve highlighted a few of my favorite parts -a link to the full letter is below:  

Dear Glenn,
I think we got off on the wrong foot. I listened to your speech last Saturday and heard a lot of things that we agree on. In fact, I have used some of the same language of our need to turn to God, and the values of “faith, hope, and charity” (love). What I would like to find out, and others would too, is what you mean by that language. Until last weekend, you have consistently described yourself primarily as an entertainer, and the public has known you as a talk show host…. I know we disagree significantly on many issues of public policy, but you said that people can disagree on politics and still agree on basic values and try to come together… why don’t we finally have that civil dialogue I invited you to months ago? Your speech on the Mall suggested and even promised a change of heart on your part, so why don’t we talk?… 

what did he really mean?

… I’ve been asked … if it matters that you are a Mormon. I unequivocally answer, no, it does not. We don’t want more anti-Mormon bigotry any more than we want the anti-Muslim bigotry now … By the way, you should speak to that (against it). On Saturday you talked about the fact that our nation has some scars in our past. I think one of those scars is the historical persecution and bigotry that many Mormons have faced, as well as Catholics, Jews, and Muslims. But, as you said, instead of dwelling on the bad things of the past, we need to learn from them and look to the future. The best way to do that is to make sure we all stand for religious liberty and tolerance, and are careful not to denigrate anybody else’s faith tradition, experience, or language. If you are ever in need of an evangelical Christian to speak out against anti-Mormon sentiment directed at you or others, I am here to help.

In an interview the day after your rally you said that you would like to “amend” your statement in which you accused President Obama of being a racist and said he had a deep hatred in his heart for white people. I commend you for that… All of us say things we shouldn’t sometimes, but you have consistently mischaracterized the President’s faith. You also said in that interview that you would like to have a conversation about it. I’d like to do that…
I also think it would be a good thing to stop attacking people and churches you label as “social justice Christians,”… because I think you genuinely don’t understand the concept and how central it is to biblical faith, and… to the whole gospel. I am sure there are those who have misused the term, just as there are those who will co-opt any good label that exists. If “social justice” were truly code for Communism or Marxism or Nazism, as you have suggested, I would be right beside you in condemning it. 

What I heard Mr. Wallis saying...

In his opening sermon at Nazareth, Jesus gave his own mission statement when he declared, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, he has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Those were his very words, Glenn, including the stuff about releasing captives and freeing the oppressed—language you have been pretty critical of. In fact, the end of Jesus’ famous sermon in Luke 4, about proclaiming “the year of the Lord’s favor,” was a direct reference, according to most biblical scholars, to the “year of Jubilee” in the Hebrew scriptures, which called for a periodic freeing of slaves, cancelling of debts, and returning land to original owners. It was written into the Torah as legal code and not just left up to individual charity. It was about “social justice” and even “redistribution” — two of the least popular words on your show. You regularly criticize other people’s “versions” of Christianity. How about Jesus’ version of Christianity?…. (For the rest of the letter, click HERE)

Thank you Jim Wallis for your example of love and grace to someone who needs love and grace.

music… a desert island disc, or a phase?

i read a great post on a blog from npr this morning – “all songs considered” (for the direction to all things cool in  “pop culture” great thanks to the sensei) where the blogger asked readers to “name which artists have put out the most music they own but never listen to. whose cds sit in the longest, dustiest rows on your shelves?”   one of the readers posted:“My friend has a great name for this. She calls it phase music–all of those albums you buy because you love the band… then you put them on your iPod (you have so many of these CDs, so you must like the songs), and when they come up in the shuffle, you skip them.”

very interesting way of looking at it. a “phase” band.  good for the time frame in which you were listening to it, but maybe not so much any more.  

in the midnight hour

who were your phase bands? a few people/bands i have not played for a long time: – the cure, the smiths, john mellencamp, beck, simple minds, live, indigo girls, billy idol… a bunch from the 80’s, 90’s… there are many more -these are just a few i can think of w/o dusting off the cd books… 

what is interesting to me is the nature of pop music and what causes a band’s music to last? is it that the music transcends whatever is popular at the time to buy a lasting place on your personal jukebox? but what about the cds for you that might be on my non-play list? or vice versa?  i don’t know. 

a back in 2002 i won a “desert island disc” contest (trip to jamaica) by turning in the 3 discs i would want to have with me were i stuck on an island and only had 3 to listen to.  i chose yellow submarine, by the beatles, dulcinea, by toad the wet sprocket and achtung baby, by u2.  i can’t say i’d change that at this point. i do like the new u2 but that disc had something to it. 

if you have some thoughts or want to share a “phase” cd or two, or three discs you’d want to take on a desert island, i’d love to hear what yours are… 

 http://n.pr/97SV9R