Cooking with Hitler- Part II

I returned from court on Wednesday to find an family email from my brother Carlos, aka Hitler. My brother was nicknamed Hitler by my childhood friends partly because he used to beat us up in order to play our video games. And while time has made Hitler much smaller than me, it has done little to mellow him.

"We will wait, first, for Ray to show up, and secondly, if he brings any ribs to enjoy them…" wrote Hitler. "I will make/bring enough chicken for us all in the event Ray runs out of time to get the spare ribs…" I could almost feel the lecture coming through the email- the youngest brother who is always missing family poker night, family dinner night, family bowling Sunday....might now leave his father without ribs!!!

Admittedly, I had been somewhat remiss in my family dinner obligations what with my absence during my jury trial. My past contributions, while tasty, had been courtesty of El Rancho Restaurant and the like. The last time I had cooked for the family had been... well, let's just say a little while.

So, I prepared early this time around. I marinated a couple racks each of pork and beef ribs. It's a simple marinade- some citrus juice, brown sugar and red chili form the base of my marinade with other spices added to taste. I stuff the ribs into a small plastic trash bag with the marinade and leave it overnight in the fridge.

I made a practice run of ribs and tri-tip in the morning for my house and left everything ready to cook after getting out of work.

Unfortunately, I didn't get out of work until close to 6pm. I rushed home, fired up the Orion, added some more rub to the ribs, tequilla to the cooker and beer to the chef. Then I ignored most of the phone calls that began arriving at around 7pm.

Hitler: "Are you planning on coming today or tomorrow?"

Mayra: "You know, we are kind of hungry and all there is this chicken Milanesa that Hitler made..."

My mother: This call I answered. She wanted to know how long it would take me to show up. I told it'd be another twenty minutes.

At 8:15 PM, I walked into my parent's house carrying 2 racks of pork ribs, 2 racks of beef ribs, and a selection of barbecue sauce.

Better late than never, right? I walked into my fair share of lectures, but once the family was eating all was forgiven. Hitler even gave me his recipe for chicken Milanesa- superthin chicken breast dipped in egg and breaded with a fancier version of shake and bake, then you fry it beyond recognition!

All in all, a good night at the family dinner.