Dear Customers,
I can still remember sitting in my Marketing 101 class in Plassman Hall on the campus of St. Bonaventure. It was the first week of September in 1973 and the consensus, at least among the undergraduates, was that class most certainly would be cancelled as soon as the professor arrived. After all, it was a federal holiday – Labor Day! I had visions of walking back to my dorm on First Dev (Deveraux Hall) and taking a much-anticipated nap!
Alas, it was not to be. If we had bothered to look in the dictionary under “stickler”, there would have been a picture of my professor, William Long. “It’s called Labor Day for a reason”, he intoned, “because so we are going to work!”
Using the local calendar, rather than the one based on revolutions of the Earth, we know that the Labor Day Holiday is the official end of summer. Due to school starting up after a gloriously hot summer, very few people are planning vacations this time of the year – and those who do have no kids under the age of 18. So even though Summer is still officially in session for another three weeks, for all intents and purposes, most of us have already resigned ourselves to “Fall”.
Labor Day is the last major holiday, now, until Thanksgiving. Of course, unless you count Halloween which I don’t! This coming weekend is your last three-day weekend for a while and as such deserves to be commemorated with a picnic, backyard BBQ or just a friendly get-together with family and friends. Pork Ribs are very popular among grillers, but few people know how to correctly cook them. Below is a recipe from our website that should solve that problem.
| 5lbs spareribs (cut into 4 ribs) | 1 tbsp smoked sweet paprika | 1 tbs kosher salt |
| 2 tsp dried oregano | 2 tsp ground cumin | 1 tsp chili powder |
| 1 tsp garlic powder | 1 tsp onion powder | ½ cup honey (heated till liquid) |
- Mix paprika, salt, oregano, cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, and onion powder together in small bowl. Sprinkle generously over both sides of ribs. Let stand at room temperature while preparing grill.
- Prepare outdoor grill for indirect medium-hot grilling. For a gas grill, remove cooking grates. Preheat grill on High. Turn 1 burner off. Place disposable aluminum foil pan over off burner and add 2 cups water to pan. Replace grates. Adjust heat to 350°F. For a charcoal grill, place disposable aluminum foil pan on 1 side of charcoal grate. Build fire on opposite side, and let burn until coals are coated with white ash. Spread coals in grill opposite pan and let burn 15-20 minutes. Add 2 cups water to pan. Position cooking grate in grill.
- Lightly oil cooking grate. Place ribs over foil pan and cover grill. Cook, adding water to pan as needed, until ribs are browned, fork-tender, and meat pulls away from end of bone, about 2 hours. (For charcoal grill, add 10 briquettes to fire every 45 minutes to maintain heat.) During last 20 minutes, occasionally brush both sides of ribs with warm honey. Let stand 5 minutes, cut into ribs, and serve hot.