Sunday, July 23, 2006

Amazing Ribs

I don't get to cook as near as much as I'd like to, but this weekend, my aunt came for dinner and I wanted to go all out for her. Gone are the days when I actually spent an hour or so each week planning my menus. So I headed for the meat market that had baby back ribs on sale. THEN headed home and looked for a recipe. Seems a little backwards, eh? Thankfully there's always allrecipes.com where I found this recipe for ribs. I had neither whiskey nor liquid smoke, but the recipe turned out just fine. The trick seems to be slowcooking the ribs in the oven first, which worked out perfectly because that's when I ran around making my house presentable. I never made ribs before, and I'm sure they're downright unhealthy but wow, these turned out great. I also made some steamed green beans in a light sweet-n-sour sauce, grilled potato planks and that spinach & strawberry salad that seems to be so popular right now. Topped it off with some fresh strawberry shortcake.

We ate on our newly remodeled back porch (of which I really need to post some pictures - Mike did a great job on it) and enjoyed a nice peaceful evening outside. Later on we headed in and watched Beyond the Sea, the life story of Bobby Darin. I'm a big Kevin Spacey fan, and my husband is a big Bobby Darin fan, so this movie will likely be one we watch again. The smile on my aunt's face (actually she's my great-aunt) as she tapped out the beat to Hello, Young Lovers and Mack the Knife made our night!

If ribs don't tickle your fancy or you're looking for something health - try these banana-blueberry muffins at Stacy's site. They're actually on my list to try this week.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Let me know if you try the muffins. We are going to be picking blueberries, and I always have ripe bananas, and I like oatmeal texture, so they sound great!

I love allrecipes, too. It sounds like you hostessed a successful night--you were happy and you pleased and pampered your guest and family. Perfect!

Susanne said...

Ribs are my absolute fave! I am so trying this recipe, less the whiskey also, but I do have liquid smoke. Your dinner sounds awesome. Your making us all hungry I hope you know. Too bad they don't have taste-o- ' puter, or smell-o-'puter. :)

Anonymous said...

Oh my, we love ribs! We don't usually cook them in the oven first, we marinate them a long while and then my husband waves his magic wand and does something on the grill to make them really good :) I love AllRecipes too, and have gotten several good ones from there. I'd love to hear how you did the green beans, they sound so good with a type of sweet-n-sour sauce, yum!

Thanks for the shout-out on the muffins - they are a bit dense, but tasty and pretty good for you, to boot. They're best hot out of the oven, but still good popped in the microwave later with a small pat of butter. You know that saying "everything's better with butter!" :)

Have a great day!

Jeannine said...

My sil taught me to always slow cook the ribs in the oven first and I've left them in on low for four to six hours at a time. By the time they're cooked on the grill the meat just falls right off the bone.

I'm sure they're not real healthy but we do enjoy them as a special treat anyway. :-)

Islandsparrow said...

That sounds like a lovely menu and a lovely evening!! But...what are potato planks? I've never heard of them. Thanks for the new muffin recipe - our bluberries are in season now so I'll be sure to try them!