Hamilton, the Other Dundas

As I mentioned last week, Saturdays are family days around here. If you read the various guide books about how to conduct a proper municipal campaign, they emphasize the importance of canvassing on Saturday. Apparently, that's when most people are at home.

I'm not sure where the people who write this stuff live but at our house, Saturday is the last day you want to be approached by a stranger. We're way too busy! Saturday is the day when you finally have a chance to get stuff done!

Anyhow, the minute we turned off TSN (Hungarian GP qualification), we were out the door on our way to Fortino's for groceries.

After that, we were off to mid-town to check out The Hamilton Toy Museum's open house. I don't know who had more fun, me or the boy. This project is clearly a labour of love and we were glad to drop in and support such an amazing initiative. Plus, I learned that the boy is an adept air-hockey player!

Oh my gosh!

By this point, we were all pretty hungry so we dropped by the Bread Bar on Locke for lunch, which was very tasty. Just a few steps away was the the Locke Farmer's Market and we were "compelled" to grab a bottle of Tawse Cab/Merlot to go with dinner. I still maintain that the Ontario government's decision to classify wine as an agricultural product was pure genius.

WARNING: Campaign message ahead. I think it's really important for a candidate for council for Dundas to understand the City beyond the reaches of our town. Dundas is part of Hamilton and our councillor has a duty to understand the City in its entirety. Ideas that benefit Hamilton will ultimately benefit Dundas.

I've been hearing a lot of discontent about how Dundas subsidizes the rest of Hamilton and I do believe there is some truth to this. However, I think the best way to stabilize our tax rate is to revitalize Hamilton and enable the core to pay for itself. Just think about how attractive downtown Hamilton could be under full employment. This is something we can accomplish right away with the right mindset!

Anyhow, that's enough politicking for a Saturday. I'll just cap off this post with a recipe. Tonight, we made glazed BBQ ribs. I adapted the recipe from the LCBO's Food & Drink. I generally find their recipes a bit fussy so I aim to simplify them with an eye to achieving the same results.

Step 1: Season (salt and pepper) the ribs.

Step 2: Give them a good char over HOT charcoal.

Step 3: Cut the air to the coals and put the ribs aside to cook on indirect heat for a really long time.

Step 4: In a good size sauce pan combine (per rack of ribs) 1 cup root beer (we actually had some home-made root beer in the fridge!), 1/4 cup hoisin sauce, as many garlic cloves as you dare, some green onions, a good knob of ginger, some sriracha, black pepper, fish sauce and lime juice. It should look something like this:

Yummy!

Step 5: Reduce, reduce, reduce. Keep going until it coats the back of a spoon. Strain out the solids.

Step 6: Once the ribs are done on the grill, baste with the glaze. Cook about 4 minutes per side or until everything is good and sticky.

Step 7: Serve with chopped salted peanuts, all the other great things that summer has to offer (corn, tomatoes, lettuce, whatever... ), lots of wine and ENJOY!