Sadly, you can’t read these stories without coming across the others that none of us want to hear. There are the tragic shootings of unarmed people. There was the arrest and excessive force against a Utah nurse who wouldn’t violate policy and the law for a detective, but there are more than I could even get in to listing.

I have been fascinated with the litigation surrounding cops who arrest firefighters over a pissing contest. I have just finished looking at 6 cases in the last 10 years where an officer on some sort of traffic crash arrests a firefighter who is helping a patient for not doing whatever the officer said. In every case, the officer was in the wrong.

My complaint here isn’t even all these issues, however that is certainly a HUGE problem. The thing I am so upset about today is the defense by the brothers in blue in ALL these cases.

Every time I see an officer doing wrong in the news, I go research it myself online. I try to get every fact and every side of the story before I make up my own mind on if the officer is in the wrong. Unfortunately the first thing I see online is the complete opposite among current law enforcement. They blindly defend whatever the officer in question did. When the officer in question has actually done wrong, or worse committed a crime they are themselves tarnishing the reputation of law enforcement.

I have said it before, but it bears repeating. We need to pay ALL law enforcement better. We need to train them better. We need to screen them better. We have too many cops out there who aren’t suited for the job, and they are getting the credit of the good guys who are coming to their defense when they do wrong.

If you have a impulse control, anger management problem, superiority complex or simply an axe to grind you shouldn’t be a police officer. Federal law enforcement screens for these types of things when they do backgrounds on their applicants. They actually talk to friends and family and even enemies of the applicant get a feel for who their applicants are. This isn’t done at hardly any other level of law enforcement. Its expensive. Additionally, its hard to get applicants who don’t have these issues when you pay $20,000 to $40,000 a year to start in a job where you put your life on the line.

When I was a police officer starting out, I paid my own way through academy (few departments in my state paid for it), I purchased my own weapon, duty gear and uniforms, and I started at $10 an hour. This wasn’t that uncommon in Missouri. A red state, who loves their guns, supports the troops and is supposed to be pro law enforcement doesn’t really back the badge financially.

There is so much that needs to be fixed with our criminal justice system, but a good start would be fixing our police departments. Abuse of authority needs to stop, killing when an officer’s life isn’t in danger needs to stop, and blind support of bad cops needs to stop.

Now that I rambled off topic a bit, back to my smoking…. I have always wanted to smoke my own ribs. I discovered that I absolutely loved ribs when I was 18. Believe it or not I had never had them before and I tried them at Ruby Tuesday’s. I was in love! I have made them in the crock pot ever since. I like them fall off the bone and they always came out great that way. The problem was I could never get that great smokey flavor. I tried liquid smoke and smoke seasoning, but it wasn’t the same. I do my pulled pork and other similar slow smoked things in the crock pot as well.

Last month when my wife’s sister and her husband visited I decided it was time for a smoker. I read up online and looked at the options. The gas are great, but temps are a lot harder to control and nobody likes overcooked meat. I nearly bought a little portable propane one since we like to camp, and may yet get one, but for now I opted for the Masterbuilt MES 130B. I got it on sale for $150 which was a great price for an introductory smoker I thought. Most start around $300. This one is digital and has a timer. The higher models have a remote and a probe, but I have my own probe thermometer so none of that really mattered to me. The one really nice feature is the chip loader on the right. You can add chips without actually opening the door and letting heat out.

So my ribs ended up to die for. I rubbed them with my own secret dry rub. Then let wrapped them and put them in the fridge overnight. Today I went and let my smoker preheat to 225 degrees. I placed each rack of ribs on a rack in the smoker with half mesquite and half hickory chips and smoked for 3 hours. Then I brought them in and wrapped them in foil adding a little apple juice to the the foil pouch and let them go another hour and a half.

These were literally the best ribs I have ever had. And that is saying something because I have had a lot of ribs in my day, but never with enough of this perfect smoke.

For those who have never had or even heard of a maid rite it is like a hamburger only it’s seasoned crumbled ground beef. They seem simple, but they aren’t. They are a complex delicious flavor. My wife and I were recently craving them and since moving out west we have discovered, that you can not only NOT find them, but most people have never even heard of them. I thought I would post a recipe for anyone wanting to try them at home. Like I said, they are a complex flavor, but they are very simple to make.

Another item you can get at these restaurants that I can barely find out here is a breaded pork tenderloin sandwich. I will cover those in another post.

Below is the recipe you can find all over the internet. Below it you will see how I modified it to make it better.

ORIGINAL MAID RITES

• 1 1/2 lb. hamburger
• 1 med. onion, minced
• 1 tbsp. prepared mustard
• 1/2 c. water
• 1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 tsp. salt or to taste

Simmer hamburger and onion. Do not brown. Add other ingredients and simmer. Serve on buns with catsup and mustard, if desired.

Firstly, I cook the hamburger in a skillet until it is mostly done, I try to leave no pink. Then, I transfer it to a crock pot to simmer for 2 or 3 hours. I add about 2 cups of water. In the last 30 min. I open the lid to allow the water to steam out. I also use onion flakes and about 3 table spoons of onion powder, ironically I think I get a better flavor this way. Instead of salt I use season salt and fresh cracked pepper is a must. I also add 2 teaspoons garlic powder or granulated. My mother-in-law uses beef bullion, but I have yet to try that one.

I strongly recommend you give it a try!