Magazine

A dad holding a baby near a pellet smoker on a backyard patio

Before and After: Smoking Baby Back Ribs With An 11-Month-Old

It's 6:14 AM on a damp Portland Saturday, exactly 43.7 degrees outside, and I'm standing on my patio holding a squirming eleven-month-old in my left arm and a slippery rack of raw pork in my right. I'm staring at the...

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Dad checking smoker temperature while baby plays on a bamboo blanket with a rib bone

Why Smoking Baby Back Ribs 2-2-1 Actually Works for Tired Parents

Let's talk about the biggest lie on the BBQ internet. If you search for rib recipes, every guy with a beard and black nitrile gloves tells you that the 3-2-1 method is the absolute gospel for your weekend cookout. I...

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A dad overanalyzing the exact thickness of a vegetable spear for his baby

The Cucumber Protocol: From Slippery Hazards to Teething Hacks

It's 6:15 AM in our Portland kitchen, and I'm staring at a cutting board with a digital caliper in my hand. My wife, Sarah, is pouring her coffee, watching me measure a wet green vegetable down to the millimeter. "It...

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A messy baby eating semolina porridge in a highchair

The myth of the aesthetic baby suji bowl and what to do instead

Scraping hardened semolina off the ceiling fan wasn't exactly what I pictured when my mother-in-law told me suji would be the perfect first food for my son. I'm standing on a dining chair with a butter knife, chipping away at...

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A chaotic backyard barbecue setup with smoked baby back ribs and kids playing on blankets.

My Chaotic Weekend Learning How to Smoke Baby Back Ribs With Kids

I was elbow-deep in raw pork juice at 6:15 AM on a Saturday, staring blankly at a massive, slippery cut of meat while Maya, who's seven and currently entrenched in her "question everything" phase, stood three inches from my hip...

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Toddler holding a clean rib bone sitting on a bamboo blanket on the grass

St Louis Ribs vs Baby Back: Which is Actually Safe for Your Baby

My mother-in-law told me handing my ten-month-old a rib bone was essentially attempted murder. My favorite internet momfluencer swore a massive rack of meat was the ultimate teething hack. And when I asked my pediatrician about it, she just gave...

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A highly suspicious infant looking at a plastic spoon covered in beige oat mush

Surviving the great weaning transition of 2022

It was precisely 11:14 am on a Tuesday, and I was standing on a dining chair trying to scrape what appeared to be organic beige cement off the kitchen ceiling with a silicone spatula. The twins were exactly six months...

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Messy kitchen counter with baby puree recipes ingredients and a silicone spoon

Realistic Baby Puree Recipes (And My Exploding Blender Disaster)

It was 4:12 PM on a Tuesday, and I was standing on a dining chair scraping aggressively orange sweet potato mush off my kitchen ceiling with a spatula. I was wearing my favorite cream-colored cashmere blend sweaterβ€”because apparently, sleep deprivation...

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Toddler eating messy barbecue ribs on a summer patio

How Long to Smoke Baby Back Ribs Without Ruining Saturday

It was 5:42 PM on a Saturday in July, and I was sweating through a gray tank top that already had a suspicious smear of Sweet Baby Ray's on the hip. My husband was standing on the patio, staring into...

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