Perfect Ribs

Warning!  This post contains meat.  Pork to be specific!  Heavenly baby back ribs. If you are vegetarian or keeping kosher this blog post may not be for you.

I liken ribs to bacon (and salami).  Sinfully good.  Something you don't have often but wish you could daily!  Drool worthy...

C is the rib master in our house.  He has perfected the technique for making ribs.  The last time he made them was for Valentine's Day.  What a sweetie!

We were picking up a few items at CostCo last Saturday and pulled up to the baby back ribs.  We looked at each other and knew we were long due for some tasty ribs!  Normally, we make sure to get our ribs from our favorite butcher but knew there wasn't time to stop.  CostCo ribs it was!

The secret to these ribs is to slow roast them with the seasoning rub and sealed for nearly two hours.  Once there is about 3/4 to an inch of bone showing they are ready to finish on the grill.  Ideally serve with corn on the cob.  Heaven.

Really, this post is about practice.  Practice making ribs?  Nope.  Practice taking pictures.  They are coming along but I wanted to practice so that means a somewhat repeat blog post.  (slash reminder that you are long overdue for some good ribs!  Why not try to make your own?)

As you can see by the last picture, the meat fell completely off the bone! I had to take a picture of that awesomeness even if it is royally gross.  Totally like gag me with a spoon!  Yes, I am an 80s kid.  Moral(s) to the story?  Keep practicing.  It is perfectly ok to buy baby back ribs from CostCo.  Just eat them with corn.

Perfect Ribs

1.5 Slabs of Baby Back Ribs
1 Tbsp Garlic Powder
1 Tbsp Ground Cumin
1 Tbsp Smoked Paprika
2 Tbsp Chili powder (we use a combo of New Mexico and Cayenne)
2 Tbsp Kosher Salt
3 Tbsp Ground Pepper (Freshly ground on the spot . . . it's a pain but totally worth it.)
BBQ Sauce (use your fav)
Tin Foil
Cookie sheet

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

With a paper towel remove the silvery membrane on the ribs. (this step was not needed with the CostCo Ribs, kind of nice) Use a fork and poke holes throughout the ribs between the bones so the rub will penetrate better.  Put ribs onto a cookie sheet.

Combine all seasonings in a small bowl (Garlic powder through Pepper).   Rub mixture onto both sides of ribs.  Cover cookie sheet tightly with tin foil so steam cannot escape.  Roast in oven for 1.5 hours.  After 1.5 hours check to see how much of the rib bone is exposed.  After that check every 15 minutes to see if the meat has crawled up the bones about 1/2 to 1 inch.  We needed 2 hours of total roasting.

At this point you can pop in fridge and finish up to a day later.  To finish: grill them basting your fav BBQ Sauce on them for about 30 minutes turning halfway.  They just look done ya know or if the slab bends in half when picking up or it begins to fall apart while flipping them on the grill . . . they ARE done.  Let them rest 10 minutes.  Slice individual ribs by holding the ribs so the bones are vertical and you can slice downward.  Serve with more BBQ sauce.  Recipe easily doubles or triples for a crowd, if you feel like sharing.

Sunday Pizza: 09.25.2011

You know the saying, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder."?  Believe it or not, that is exactly how we all felt and declared Sunday about our weekly pizza get-together.

As the fall approached C and I discussed our strategy for Sunday Pizza.  We decided our first week back to making pizzas we would not have anyone over so we could practice.  (feeling a little rusty after a three month hiatus)  We also decided we would have company over twice a month and decide the weekends more in advance.  This way our weekends are planned better and don't get too busy.

So far we have willingly happily gone against both decisions.  oops.   Last week, our first time back in the kitchen, Z asked to have his friends over.  Which we did and had a blast!  This week, we wanted to hang out with our dear friends Pete and Emily and their son, Elliott.  Two weekends of company in row?!  Oh me oh my!!  Totally, not stressful and worth it!

Sunday Pizza: 09.18.2011

Fall used to mean back-to-school and nervous teacher jitters for me.  Now, it means pumpkin lattes, apple everything, and Sunday Pizza!  That's right, Sunday Pizzas are back!!!

We took the summer off from making pizza.  I mean, who wants to run the oven in the middle of summer.  We had a great summer doing a whole bunch of nothing.  Z fell in love with the beach and pools.  His favorite toy all summer was a big ol' pile of dirt in our backyard.  We went to a couple concerts at the zoo, C's brother's wedding in Chicago, and tiny, quaint Anderson Island full of fresh water lakes.

Sunday Morning Brunch

I swear we eat more than eggs these days.  It does seem that way given I just posted about Eggs with Soyrizo and now I'm writing about Sunday brunch.  Plus, we had quiche at our friend, Andrea's, house for brunch Saturday too.  Guess we really don't eat much more than eggs afterall.

Hmmm not really sure what this post is about, Saturday or Sunday truthfully...As you see in the picture above there are two tickets from the Ben Harper show Saturday night.  He's so awesome and we also got to spend quality catch-up time with our good friends.  Most importantly my bff Carolyn!  Great time!!