Family dinner

I used to rush home with dinner on my mind. What I served my son usually depended on how early or late I got home. 7:30 meant a regular meal, but anywhere after or closer to 8pm meant ordering out for the food to get there either before I arrive or as I walk in the door.

For the past few weeks, dinner while,sheltering in place has been a memorable time of bonding for my son and I. We sit together and choose a show we both like and watch as we eat dinner together. We used to eat in the living room, but mostly him eating as I sat to rest or prepare my dinner separately.

We used to order out for ribs, but I thought I’d give it a try a couple of weeks back. It was quite a success and I.m doing a second round today.

It wasn’t so much the recipe that I looked for but rather the method to cook the ribs in the oven, and I found this very helpful method reading “Easy, Fall-off-the-bone Oven Baked Ribs recipe”

• I like that this recipe taught me how to prepare the ribs by taking off the membrane at the back of the bones. I easily peeled it off from the corner of one end and gave it a tug towards the other end. This will make for a really tender rib by rib piece. You can cook the whole rack or cut it into two or three chunks.

• The ribs will shed a lot of juice and fat while cooking, so use a deep pan. I made the mistake of using a cookie sheet covered with foil, and while the sheet held all the juice, I didn’t realize how much because it was covered with foil. Some of the juice ended up spilling into the oven as I pulled it out to remove the foil and put on the barbecue sauce.

• After seasoning generously with salt and pepper, I let it cook in the oven for three hours, cooking covered with aluminum foil at 275F.

• After taking the ribs out, I slathered both sides generously with my choice of barbecue sauce and broiled it on low for 30 minutes. I kept things simple and used the old reliable barbecue sauce from the grocery. Works well for my boy. There are a ton of recipes for dry rubs and barbecue sauces out there to try, but the picky eater prefers it simpler.

I plan our meals on a day to day basis based on a list of his preferred dishes, still asking him for his preference when he wakes up around noon. His repertoire has grown by half and any addition to the old reliables is a welcome alternative. He probably finds it weird that I watch him eat with gusto, but it flatters me no end to see him savoring each bite. His seal of approval at the end of the meal with a thank you and a simple “That was a good dinner, Mom,” makes all the effort worth it. I am heartened that even if I offer to order out, he prefers I cook him dinner instead.

This is one of the gifts of sheltering in place that I’ve come to appreciate despite all the other things that go with it. Being able to have the luxury of preparing long-cooking meals while working from home has been a plus. The regular meals, I cook after I shut down the laptop and rest a bit. I don’t miss the commute going home when I would usually be too tired that I would nap on the bus. Special meals no longer need to be reserved for the weekend.

We’ve pretty much settled into our routine, although I would prefer he woke up by noon. These days, I let him sleep as late as he wants. School will be over soon and he won’t have to go through the attendance and sign on routine of online learning. But the meals will continue… even when we go back to the routine of me rushing home from working in the city.

He makes his rice on the cooker and sets the table. I’m trying to train him to share in the meal preparation which is part of the whole routine of the family dinner. He chooses a show we will both watch only together, over the meal. It stops when dinner ends, to be continued the next time we sit down together. That, too, is a continuing conversation. We laugh and talk as we eat — sometimes I ask him for spoilers which he won’t give. He tells me to wait and see.

That’s our family dinner in the time of corona. The sheltering in place has given us a new routine — something we will continue as we move forward to whatever as close to normal we can get.