Cat bounce… it’s the new angry birds but without the anger, challenge, or competition. Just mindless cat bouncing for those stressful days that end glossy-eyed at the computer.
… and if I wore shirts like this, I’d be rockin’ this one until Nov. 7.
Monthly Archives: October 2012
soo…
The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of obligation and exhaustion. Entering my fourth week of uncompensated overtime coupled with a cough that won’t quit I just may be reaching my breaking point. Its time to win the lottery already. I’m lucky though that I haven’t fallen into full-blown sickness – just headaches, ear-aches, flem, and crippling congestion. It could have been way worse. Now if I can just get well enough to get my flu shot I can coast through winter.
As I’ve begun another hiring spree I am finding, once again, some answers to why there are so many unemployed people in the United States – – or, at least in Durham. A combination of bad education and underwhelming work ethic leave some employers with few choices. It’s never a good sign, for instance, when someone claims to be “etail oriented”. “Detail oriened” isn’t any better – – especially when the candidate didn’t bother to capitalize their own name. But perhaps I’m being nit-picky. It’s also not impressive when someone says the reason they want to work at your store is “cause it looks real easy”. A compliment for my team, perhaps, but not a compelling reason to hire someone new.
All that as it is, I’ve also found more qualified, nice people this go-round than last. More and more folks looking for second or third jobs because the ones they already have don’t pay enough to provide for their necessities. It’s sad too because the more complicated their availability, the harder it is to secure additional employment. I can say for myself that as much as I want to work with people it is hard enough to meet everyone’s wants and needs when they have open availability. I’m not interested in adding on additional complications. Yet when you come across a single father desperate for an additional job but bound by the bus and daycare schedules (plus his existing schedule at his other job) it is hard to say no.
The process of hiring, being extremely over worked, sick, and over-exhausted has left me rather emotional too. I’m ready for a vacation… or a month off like the French do.
pumped up, beyond red bull wings
I wonder, did you see this article in the times?
I stumbled across it during a short break at work a couple weeks ago and was horrified. The prevalence of prescription stimulants across college campuses has been widely discussed in recent years. So has the trend towards over-diagnosing ADHD and other attention disorders. However, this is the first I’ve heard of willful mis-diagnosis as a kind of mediation for low income struggling children.
I can understand the physician’s perspective well enough. What else can the doctor do for these struggling kids besides prescribe medication? What position is the doctor in to help these children succeed academically beyond writing ‘scripts? Socially though we’re failing these children in our neglect and our cultural reliance on the notion of magic pills. Dr. Anderson, the so-called “social justice” doctor prescribing adderall to low income kids, cuts to the core of the issue: “We’ve decided as a society that it’s too expensive to modify the kid’s environment. So we have to modify the kid.” Yet I can’t help but think of George Bernard Shaw’s quip about not wasting time on social questions. “What is the matter with the poor”, he said, “is poverty; what is the matter with the rich is uselessness”.
Giving 11 year olds prescription stimulants when what they really need are good teachers, strong communities, and healthy home-lives does not solve the problem. Where are these children going to be 10 years down the line? Will they become addicted to adderall like the thousands of college kids who learned the hard way how dependent adderall made their minds? And what makes a parent embrace psychotropic medications yet shun giving their child coffee because it might stunt their growth?
The most obvious question, of course, is will the medications boost academic performance enough to initiate lasting positive change in the child’s life? Does getting an A in a poor inner-city school make a long lasting difference? Can it get that child into college? And, if it does, how will that child’s odds stack against a wealthy, successful student from a top school who now uses adderall or concerta recreationally to ensure a 4.0 GPA?
None of which is to say that giving the lower income, socially drowning children a medically-induced boost is out of line necessarily… maybe it is better than nothing even if it doesn’t bridge the gap that income disparity is wedging within our nation. Still, it just seems…. I guess pathetic that we’re resigning ourselves to that course of action.
I can’t honestly say that I was surprised by the finding. More so I was surprised to discover that my views on the matter may be naive and antiquated. As I’ve spoken with a couple of people on the matter, I’ve heard more complacency with medicated measures than I anticipated. The perspective seems to be that something is better than nothing and, more importantly, the risk of failing academically is greater than whatever health risks stimulants may pose for future adulthood.
There may be something to that line of though. What is the risk of academic failure for a young American today? What prospects does a high school drop out have for a future in the American workforce? What doors do college degrees really open? Even aside from high unemployment rates, it wouldn’t surprise me to find that it is becoming harder and harder to find a good job without a degree.
I’m interested to know what others think on this matter… and I wonder if more similar stories will begin popping up following Dr. Anderson’s confession.
18 with 11 years experience
Happy Birthday to my husband who turned 29 yesterday!
Surprise delivery via UPS?
Uh-huh!
(his mamma loves him)
Presents on the table?
Duh!
(a birthday isn’t a birthday without some presents on the table)
Birthday purr-fest?
Of course!
(our little lover cat wouldn’t have it any other way)
Birthday breakfast of eggs, sausage, and pancakes with cream cheese frosting?
Unquestionably!
(gluten free or not birthday pancakes will find a way)
Gadgets and geekery?
You bet’cha!
(this man is drawn to the technical)
A little silliness, a little drama?
Naturally!
(even at 89 this one’ll still be a goofball)
Mojitos?
Mos Def!
(because that makes everything better)
Birthday pot roast and veggies?
Oh Yes!
(because his favorite meal is the one-pot-meal)
Successful mission on the part of the birthday angel?
Without fail!
(it was a good one, y’all)
Global Leadership Conference 2012
At 5:07 am this last Wednesday I was making my way to 32,000 feet, headed south bound for Houston, Texas. The 2012 Starbucks Leadership Conference drew more than 10,000 of us into town for four days of service, learning, networking, team bonding, and corporate gospel.
For the most part the conference was a glorified pep-rally. Yet the planners did a great job of structuring learning and development into the agenda. The lab, for instance, brought the industry of coffee to life in ways most of us had never experienced. Short of enjoying a trip to origin, the lab brought us closer to the process of growing, the process of blending and roasting, and the process of marketing than anything I can imagine. My knowledge of coffee and tea is relatively extensive – I didn’t advance to my position without it. But up to now my knowledge has largely been theoretical. I’ve read about coffee; I’ve heard stories about coffee; I’ve seen pictures of coffee. This was the first time I got to see rows upon rows of baby coffee trees or dip my hands into a barrel of unroasted coffee beans and take in their aroma. It was my first experience listening for the second pop of the beans as they roasted to perfection or seeing the components of a tea blend separated out, identified, and made available to touch and smell individually. It was cool.
We also got to learn about some of the new things Starbucks is doing – – new products, new partnerships, new strategies for growth. For anyone on the inside, the momentum and movement in the company is already known and felt. In fact, there are often so many things happening on a corporate level, and happening so fast, that we don’t even have advance knowledge. Customers come in with news and information that we haven’t even heard yet. Sometimes it’s work just to keep up-to-date.
On the whole the planners did a fantastic job of coordinating and prepping the logistics of the event. They put us all up in hotels around the city – – I stayed at one of the Marriott locations. They fed us very, very well and were prepared for all sorts of dietary concerns (vegetarian, vegan, even gluten free!). Not only were we served extensive meals three times a day, they set up elaborate snack and beverage bars around the convention center in-between meals with fresh and dried fruit, nuts, popcorn, chips, coffee, tea, water, sodas, refreshers, VIA… One could not starve! The last night was party night and they set up margarita bars, a food truck rodeo (which was really, really fun!), and multiple stages featuring live music from local bands. Transportation, however, proved troublesome and problematic. Because our hotels were scattered across the sprawling city many of us faced 45 minute to an hour commutes (and for anyone familiar with Houston traffic, it goes without saying that sometimes the commute doubled!). As a result, those in my situation had to be ready and boarding the bus by 6 am and couldn’t expect to be “home” until 9, 10, even 11 at night.
We got an exclusive night at the ball park complete with karaoke, photo-booths, and a night of free-all-you-can-eat ball park food (which I have to say wasn’t my favorite dinner) and were welcomed heartily to Sambuca and the House of Blues.
And a Starbucks convention wouldn’t be complete without a coffee tasting… so we had three! Two in Toyota Center amongst 10,000 other partners and one in the lab from the new verismo machine.
In addition to everything else, each partner had at least 4 hours of community service scheduled during their stay. Collectively we helped build parks, refurbish houses, plant flowers, build and paint birdhouses and wildlife enclosures, assemble hygiene kits for the homeless, write and decorate holiday cards, paint artwork, facilitate a food shelter, and more.
Most of the speeches at the general assemblies were just ra-ra-company but there were a few speeches that were incredibly good and made up for the others we had to bear. Nancy Koehn, a Harvard professor and historian, gave a great speech on leadership through the story of Ernest Shackleton. Even though she has published this story and its message for leaders before, I was honored to hear her speak because she is so animated and funny and just fantastic. Reverend Calvin Butts III gave a sensational speech on what it means to lead in our world today and motivated the crowd to see ourselves as leaders in the world at large, not just in our stores. I was skeptical and quite surprised when he was introduced to the stage. A reverend? I thought. Why is a non-religious company bringing a baptist preacher from Harlem to the stage? Less than a minute in and I was completely overcome. Not only was he engaging and inspirational and funny, his prose was poetic and his message went far beyond anything corporate or coffee related. His speech was powerful, it was political, it was social, it was real. He was really amazing. And, of course, Howard Schultz gave a great speech about social commitment and responsibility. I will say this about the company I work for: I believe Howard Schultz is sincere, genuine, and has a good heart. You see it in his actions, you hear it in his speeches, you read it in his books, and when you talk to him you know. I have my doubts about a lot of the others, from all levels in fact. But at the very top of the pyramid there is an eye for good. {That being said, why he why revered like a rockstar and hounded like a celebrity throughout the entire weekend, I will never understand. What is the obsession with getting a photograph with him or an autograph? I don’t see the point.}
It was no surprise to me that there was a large percentage of the assemblage that was insincere and, well, comprised of jerks. Maya Angelou once said you can tell a lot about a person by the way they handle these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights. So true. And, this last week I learned you can tell a lot about a person by the way they handle waiting in line, walking in a crowd, and arriving late to the airport. It was no small irony to me that three days into a conference in which our egos were perpetually rubbed and we were being told over and over again how wonderful and considerate and socially aware we were, that more than 2 people were literally trampled to the ground as others pushed their way through Toyota Center frantically racing for a front row seat so that they could hear more lectures on the virtues of our company and its management team. Yes. Soo considerate we all are. And, of course, how it warmed my spirit to hear managers from across the country cuss out a poor, minimum-wage bus driver for doing his job well and following directions. It’s a longer story than I really want to go into. But, honestly, wtf. The whole message, the whole point of this thing was completely lost on some ’em. But who knows… maybe they’re good at selling coffee.
The most valuable thing that has come from my time in Houston is the enriched relationship I now share with fellow managers in my district. We discovered that despite our deep differences, we have more in common than we’d ever realized and many of us are up against similar frustrations, challenges, and day-to-day crises. Coming home we have a newly enriched support system and empathy for one another.
Despite the propaganda/brainwashing element of it all, I learned more than I’d anticipated and had more fun than expected too, though I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t happy to be home.
garden highlights 2012
This basically marks the end of our second year gardening.
Biggest accomplishments of 2011:
– building the fence
– digging 5 main garden beds
– planting two apple trees, one cherry tree, one raspberry bush, 2 rose bushes, 3 crepe myrtles, 3 gardenia bushes, 2 forsythia, and 13 thuja evergreens. (Unfortunately, the apple trees, cherry tree, raspberry bush, and forsythia seem to have died.)
– installed a semi-automatic watering and drainage system
Biggest accomplishments of 2012:
– discovered what we thought were peas last year was actually morning glory
-nearly doubled our planting beds (much thanks to Luke’s dad!)
– overwhelming success with dahlia bulbs, dragons tongue beans, and tomatoes!
– moderate success with corn, mint, bell peppers, zucchini, and cucumbers
– learned how to prune rose bushes
– discovered miracle grow
– landscaped the garden with mulch-covered paths (much thanks to Luke’s mom!) and created a brick edging around the “common area” in the garden
– re-landscaped the front garden bed and added a small bed around our front tree
– improved our existing watering system
-installed a cat window and freed our kitty-cats
– won our fight against the HOA and can officially keep our fence!
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Much of our success this year took us by surprise and we had a hard time keeping up with production – tomato production in particular. I made one giant batch of garden-fresh salsa and shared tomatoes with a co-worker to make a second batch. We enjoyed a few cucumbers, ate some of our dragon’s tongue, and attempted several times in vain to make our zucchini taste good. On the whole though we lost much of our yield and the garden is looking quite over-run at the moment — we’ve got some work to do for next summer.
One of the things we’ll need to problem-solve is our mulch-lined paths. Every time it rains all the mulch from the main walkway rushes into the common area and we have a miserable time raking it back. We’re also going to have try, yet again, to overpower and annihilate the damn squash bugs that kill our melons, squash, gourds, and pumpkins. Bugs. I hate bugs.
Other projects for next summer…maybe we’ll build a little deck out back. (We’ve been talking about it for the last two years.) I’m also wanting to re-vamp our circular bed out front and possibly add a bed along the side of our driveway. Visiting my mom really inspired me to do some container gardening too. She’s developed a great talent in that regard – – her flowers are so beautiful and uplifting. I’m not sure I’ve got the commitment and discipline needed to keep them alive though. I’ll need to start small.
For now, au revoir garden. It’s been a nice summer.
IMG 0265 from Elizabeth Caldwell on Vimeo.
breasts, beadledom, and bad business
On September 24 Fran Drescher, America’s favorite nanny, unwittingly stepped into a puddle of controversy while out promoting her new movie. Did you hear about this? Fran Drescher, a uterine cancer survivor and founder of Cancer Schmancer, warned mothers that their breast milk could be passing poisonous, toxic chemicals to their babies and urged nursing mothers to have their milk checked. Oh the audacity! Mothers from every corner seemed to cry out in anger and outrage that she would question their American milk.
I’ve come up against this before. A few years back Luke and I attended a lecture by a renowned doctor and researcher at the University of Washington in which she made a strong case for paying closer attention to the kinds of household products and commodities we purchase. There are harmful chemicals and toxins in everything from household cleaners to couches and living room furniture to make-up and other toiletries to babies’ bottles and developmental toys. Indoor air quality is reaching devastating lows as a result of so many noxious pollutants in consumer products we fill our homes with and our bodies are acting as sponges soaking these harmful chemicals in day by day. The problem is pervasive. The problem is serious. And the problem is not disappearing.
Family and friends had a hard time accepting our turn towards more natural products and our vigilance in choosing against products laden with artificial fragrances. We were told again and again that we were taking it too far and that we should just loosen up and relax. When I mentioned the dangers these chemicals pose for things like breast milk my mother-in-law, brother-in-law and his wife all responded with exasperation and annoyance. That was it; I had crossed the line. Nothing compares to the intimacy and bonding of breast feeding, they cried. And breast milk is healthy and transfers immunities and important nutrients, they insisted. The resentment directed towards my remark was fierce enough that I never broached the topic again in their presence, never mind the fact that I had never suggested an alternative to breastfeeding.
It is a strange phenomenon in my view that the response from my family but also, it seems, from various mothers across the country is outrage when the topic of breast milk is brought up in relation to toxic chemicals. The defensiveness is outright and palpable as these mothers seem to take the very mention of the topic as an attack on their responsibility as mothers. In fact, the issue at hand is our failure as a global community to take our health and the health of our children seriously.
The research and science has been in for almost 3 decades, minimum. With very little effort, one can substantiate Fran Drescher’s comments from a myriad of sources. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), the Environmental Working Group, the New York Times, The Scientific American, the Environmental Science & Technology Journal, the Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry, NPR (National Public Radio)… these are just some of the sources you’ll find on Google. Tap into some academic databases like pubmed.gov, WorldCat, Web of Knowledge, Springer Link, or JSTOR and you’ll find yourself awash in scholarly journals corroborating Drescher’s claims.
And yet the overwhelming critique of Drescher was she is not a doctor, she is not a researcher, she cannot know what she’s talking about so don’t listen to her. Of course they’re right. Fran Drescher is an actress not a doctor. It’s an easy criticism to make but it distracts us from the implications of what she’s sharing: namely, our compliance as consumers with hazardous business practices is putting our children in danger and we need to change the way our products are made.
In 2005 Florence Williams wrote an incredible article for the New York Times Magazine that put the issue facing nursing mothers in very stark yet approachable terms. She wrote, “When we nurse our babies, we feed them not only the fats, sugars, and proteins that fire their immune systems, metabolisms, and cerebral synapses. We also feed them, albeit in minuscule amounts, paint thinners, dry-cleaning fluids, wood preservatives, toilet deodorizers, cosmetic additives, gasoline byproducts, rocket fuel, termite poisons, fungicides and flame retardants”. Some of these chemicals will stay with the babies long enough to be passed on to their offspring. In October of 2007 the scholarly journal Advances in Neonatal Care reported that the average nursing child consumes about 50 times the daily PCB intake of average adults. The journal estimated these exposures are 18% higher than formula fed babies.
Interestingly, the larger issue of harmful toxin up-take had been recognized internationally in 2001 when 120 nations met in Stockholm to craft a treaty that would begin the process of banning these poisonous chemicals. In 2004 the Stockholm convention went into effect without US participation. Even though the treaty was accepted in over 50 other countries, the U.S. senate refused to ratify it. And so, it comes as no surprise that today American women have some of the highest concentrations of flame retardants and other pollutants including pesticides, heavy metals, organic compounds such as DDT, PCDDs, PCDFs, PCBs, and even traces of some chemicals that have supposedly already been banned even in the United States in their breasts.
The facts are startling, frightening, infuriating, and unsettling. Everyone should be concerned. And everyone, especially nursing mothers, should know that the argument here is not that breastfeeding is bad. Breastfeeding is the example of the problem that hits home the hardest.
Nursing mothers should consider getting their milk checked because it is worth knowing what you’re feeding your child and what you, yourself, have been exposed to. However, there is no Nestle conspiracy here. Almost every authority on the subject agrees that for most women breastfeeding will still be considered the healthiest choice despite present toxins. Formula has its own problems with pollution and lacks important nutrients and benefits that breast milk offers. Again, the point is not to challenge the practice of breastfeeding. The point is get the word out that we are being exposed to pernicious toxins and should work to limit our exposure both individually but also collectively on the national and global scale.
The easiest ways to limit ones’ exposure to these chemicals is to avoid cigarettes and alcohol; to restrict contact with paints, glues, furniture strippers, nail polish, and gasoline fumes; to avoid artificial fragrances; to wash and peel fruits to minimize pesticide consumption; to abstain from swordfish, shark, and other freshwater fish; and to tend towards a vegetarian diet because up to 90% of human exposure to fat-soluble toxins is attributed to meat and fish in our diet. Things like flame retardants can be difficult to minimize because they’re sprayed on our mattresses, sofas, carpets, and other furniture items. However, we can dispose of old foam filled items, choose hardwood floors when possible, use vacuums fitted with HEPA filters, choose pajamas made with natural fibers over ‘fire resistant’ pajamas, and inspect labels on pillows to find ones without harmful retardants.
The more difficult step we need to take as a collective is to pressure our government to put our health first and reform fire safety laws, consumer packaging and labeling requirements, farming practices, and put stronger measures in place to protect and inform the consumer. Once again at the state level California seems to be leading the way in their efforts to exempt breastfeeding pillows, strollers, infant carriers, and bassinets from the requirements that they be made fire resistant. On a larger scale though, the NRDC needs support in urging congress to update and strengthen the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) of 1976 that was intended to ensure chemicals are safe throughout their lifecycle but has been undercut by the current powerlessness of the EPA. In some cases chemicals that have been identified by the FDA as dangerous for human consumption and are banned in food are left unregulated in the manufacture of cosmetics, toiletries, household cleaners, and toys.
This isn’t a partisan issue. Republicans, democrats, libertarians, independents, unaffiliated, and the politically inactive all value the health of their family and friends. They may go about ensuring the health and safety of our citizens in different ways in different circumstances but in this instance industry has proven it requires regulation to guarantee compliance. Companies left and right continue to use proven, dangerous chemicals in the manufacture of household items and, in some cases, deliberately leave these additives off the labels of products sold. The honor system isn’t cutting it. We have to speak up, we have to stand up, we have to make our voice heard.
Texas Barbecue
There’s nothing like a few years of eating vegetarian to bring out the deepest seated affection for succulent steaks, burgers, bacon, and, of course, barbecue. I still like to distance myself from the whole this-is-the-flesh-of-a-real-animal thing but, then again, I always did even before I went vegetarian. In truth, I think the violence of eating is something that humans are alone in having to grapple with and it will always affect some more than others. It’s both the blessing and the curse of modern society that the majority of people in the developed world are detached from the way their food is grown. In the United States especially people don’t know and, I think, don’t really care where their food comes from.
My turn to vegetarianism in college wasn’t really as deep and meaningful as all of that though. I eased into a vegetarian diet slowly. There were a lot meats (and meals made with meat) that I simply didn’t like the taste of. The ones I did tended to challenge my culinary talents to the point that the list grew smaller and smaller. Plus, meat is expensive.
My trials in the kitchen and with becoming a financially independent adult coincided with an academic environment in which ethics, philosophy, and politics took center stage. And so, before long Luke and I decided we would be fine eliminating meat – – as well as our contribution to the bloody side of corporate agribusiness – – from our diet all-together. And we were.
While we never intended to approach our new dietary choice like zealots, the surprising resistance to vegetarianism by a handful of family members and friends did imbue our lifestyle with a certain degree of fervor.
And then, this last Spring after a long day’s work in the garden, we both ordered bacon cheeseburgers at The Cheesecake Factory like it was nothing at all. A very fitting turn of events given the nonchalance of our journey towards a meat-less diet years before. That was the spark too. Suddenly we craved burgers and bacon like it was no one’s business. We began a quest for the best burger in Durham and did our best to make up for all the cholesterol we had avoided in the previous 5 years.
I still dislike the same meats as before. Pork? No thanks. Rib-eye steak? Nah, that’s alright. Carnival turkey leg? Umm, eww.
But I digress. This post is about Texas barbecue. I. love. Texas. Barbecue. Yes, I had forgotten about it for a while there but the weakness is back in full force. Though I only discovered recently how important the Texas part is in Texas Barbecue. I’m a Texan and as far as I’m concerned barbecue means brisket. My understanding though is a regional one for sure because Luke didn’t even know what brisket meant. I’ve asked around at work too. Co-workers, customers, vendors… I’ve found a total of 2, yes two people who knew what brisket is.
I thought, surely these people have had brisket but maybe they just call it something different. So, I asked around and did my google-ing until I’d determined where the best barbecue place in Durham is and I gave it a go. There was only one option: barbecue. By the pint. Yes! I was ready. Imagine my surprise when I got home and saw this:
In case the picture doesn’t do it justice, let me say it looked gross. Very, very gross. Luke was all, “what did you get???” with a great stink-eye expression. To be fair, it was edible… we got it once again a week later. Buttt, not exactly gooood…. and not what I would consider real barbecue.
So, without my beloved Railroad Barbecue nearby, I had to take matters into my own hands. Its hard to make great brisket without a smoker or a grill but I found a great way to approximate the real thing in the oven. And because I believe in sharing the love, I’m gonna walk you through it here so that you can make your own.
Here’s what you’ll need:
2 tbsp ancho chili powder
1 tbsp salt, I like fleur de sel
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp ground black pepper
1/2 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tbsp white sugar
2 tsp Colman’s mustard powder
1 tsp cayenne pepper, optional
1 tsp oregano, optional
1 bay leaf, crushed up as finely as possible
a 4 pound-ish beef brisket with a nice layer of fat about 1/4 inch thick.
a big cast iron skillet with a lid or a dutch oven
a handful of carrots, optional
2 cups beef stock (or beer) and about a cup or so of water
3-4 tsp liquid smoke
3-4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
*This recipe can be easily expanded or reduced. The photos below are from a 2.25 lb brisket I made the other night and just halved the other ingredients.
What you’ll do:
1. Preheat your oven to 350.
2. Make a dry rub by combining the first 11 ingredients (the cayenne pepper and oregano are optional). You can buy barbecue rubs in the store already mixed together but I think this combo not only tastes way better but is super easy too.
3. I like to rinse the brisket under cold water and then pat dry before rubbing it well with the spice mix. Be sure to season the brisket well on both sides and on the edges and use your hands to really massage it in. You shouldn’t have any of the rub left over.
4. Transfer the brisket with the fat side up to your cast iron dutch oven or skillet and roast in the preheated oven uncovered for 1 hour.
*The fat on the brisket is really important here because it not only gives the brisket a better flavor it keeps it from drying out while you cook it.
5. By now you’re going to be enjoying the most incredible aromas wafting from your kitchen. Add the beef stock (or beer) and enough water to fill the skillet or dutch oven with about 1/2-1.5 inches of liquid. Add the carrots, if using. (I usually toss in a handful of baby carrots because its easy.) Use a little less water if you’re not using carrots. Add the liquid smoke and Worcestershire sauce.
* Beef stock makes the brisket taste a little more like pot roast, beer gives it a slightly different flavor. I haven’t tried using wine yet but I’ve read that some people like to use beef stock and then substitute dry red wine for the water.
6. Lower the oven to 300, cover your cast iron with a tight fitting lid, and continue cooking for 3ish hours. At the 3 hour mark you’re probably good to go but if you’re not ready to eat yet just turn the oven off but leave the cast iron inside for however long. I’ve left it for a few hours and it was still ah-mazing.
7. I like to scrape the fat off the top before cutting and serving but its really up to you. Be sure to cut across the grain and top with some of the juice from the pan.
Boom Goes the Dynamite 