Glazed Baby Back Ribs

True Confessions was a confession magazine targeted at young women readers. It was originally published by Fawcett Publications beginning in 1922.
This magazine brought readers a fresh batch of emotionally charged, compelling stories. Each month, True Confessions offered heartbreaking, hilarious and inspiring reader-to-reader stories. It looked into the hearts and homes of women and revealed their greatest joys and disappointments. The magazine was full of can't-wait-to-read stories, as well as helpful advice and support pieces, written especially for women.
The magazine is no longer in circulation but I can remember in my growing up years seeing copies of this magazine at the drug store. I always wanted to buy one but knew my mother would frown on such a purchase.   

But I do have a True Confession to make. My sister and I religiously read the obituaries everyday. We have been doing this for over 20 years. It all started with our dad who had this habit of reading obituaries every morning in the paper. When he moved to a different state my sister and I kept up the practice just in case there would be one obit he would want to know about. Besides some obits can be interesting reads.

Ann Hood's novel The Obituary Writer is a literary romance that focuses on women's issues and the foundations of intimate relationships. The story is set in two different time periods, Hood tells two stories that eventually come together at novel's end. Claire is a young mother in 1960, just as John F. Kennedy has become president. She has a young daughter, and wonders if this is all there is to be excited about in her marriage, especially as she embarks on an affair with a married man. The trip that Claire and her husband, Peter, make to visit his mother on her 80th birthday changes everything in their lives.
Meanwhile, Vivien, a wealthy, private school educated young woman, is grieving in 1917, having lost her married lover during the San Francisco earthquake more than a decade earlier. She has pined for him, and let no other man in her life. She never knew, for sure, if he had died, and she starts to think he is a mystery man, currently living with amnesia in a Denver hospital. She writes beautiful obituaries for anyone who knows her talents. They are not traditional obituaries, but rather, are filled with poetry and interesting information about someone's lost loved one. Viven never truly believes her lover has died, and even thirteen years later continues to look for her lost love.
This book is a wonderful novel about love, different levels of grief and two women who have experienced both. I thought the author did a nice job in transitioning between time frames and I loved how she captured so many authentic things from 1961....songs, JFK, hair styles, clothing and even decorating. 

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Glazed  Baby Back Ribs

recipe adapted from dashrecipes.com/grill May 2013

Cook's notes: Absolutely delicious glaze and it could also be used on chicken.

Ingredients:

• 2 racks of pork baby back ribs
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. onion powder
• 2 TB. Worcestershire sauce divided
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 6 TB. thawed orange juice concentrate
• 3 TB. rice vinegar
• 3 TB. hoisin sauce  
• 4 TB. ketchup
• 1 tsp.fresh lemon juice
•  1 tsp.Dijon mustard
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• 2 TB. chopped cilantro 

Directions:

• Preheat oven 375
• Pat ribs dry and place in a large baking dish
• Combine molasses, garlic powder, onion powder and 1 TB. Worcestershire
• Rub mixture into ribs and season with salt and pepper 
• Cover with foil and bake 50 minutes
• While ribs are baking in a saucepan combine broth, juice concentrate and remaining 1 TB. Worcestershire sauce, vinegar,hoisin, ketchup, lemon juice, mustard and garlic
• Bring to a simmer and cook 10 minutes stirring until thickened 
• Add more ketchup or lemon juice to taste, divide glaze into 2 bowls
• Preheat grill to medium brush ribs with glaze and grill until caramelized and sticky about 10 minutes
• Top ribs with cilantro-discard glaze and serve ribs with glaze from second bowl