Incredible St. Louis Ribs

I used Tyler Florence’s ultimate rib recipe for these and they were lip licking good!  The recipe calls for baby back ribs, but I used the St. Louis style.  This is what summer is all about….eating great barbeque and soaking up some of that warm sunshine.  I served mine with some crispy kale and potato salad.  Try them for yourself.

Ingredients:

• 2 slabs baby back ribs or St. Louis style ribs (about 3 pounds)
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Olive Oil
• 2 bacon slices
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1/2 onion
• 3 smashed garlic cloves
• 2 cups ketchup
• 1 cup peach or apricot preserves
• 2 tablespoons dijon mustard 
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 tablespoons red or white wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground paprika

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. Put the ribs on a baking sheet, season with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Stick them in the oven, and let the ribs bake, low and slow for 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours

Meanwhile, make the sauce. Wrap the bacon around the middle of the thyme sprigs and tie with kitchen twine so you have a bundle. Heat a 2 T of oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the thyme bundle and cook slowly for 3 to 4 minutes to cook out some of  the bacon fat and give the sauce a nice smoky taste. Add the onion and garlic and cook slowly for 5 minutes. Add all of the rest of the sauce ingredients, give the sauce a stir, and turn the heat down to low. Cook slowly for 20 minutes. Put some sauce in a separate bowl for basting, reserving the remaining sauce for serving.

Baste the ribs with the sauce and let them continue cooking, basting twice more, for 30 more minutes. When the ribs are cooked, take them out of the oven.

When ready to eat, preheat the broiler or grill for 5 minutes and cook the ribs, basting with the sauce. They should become crisp and charred, about 5 minutes on each side. Pick the onion and garlic out of the sauce and serve with ribs.

Cowboy Spaghetti

Growing up my brother and I had spaghetti for dinner probably once a week.  I felt like I had noodles and tomato sauce coming out of my ears.  I was sick, sick, sick of spaghetti and swore off it for many years.  I started making this Rachel Ray version a couple of years ago and now it is the only spaghetti I eat.  The cheddar cheese and sliced scallions on top give it a much different flavor and crumbled bacon makes anything taste better.  Try it out!

Ingredients:

1 lb gluten-free spaghetti noodles

1 T olive oil

4 slices bacon chopped

1 lb ground sirloin

1 medium onion chopped

3 cloves of garlic chopped

salt and pepper to taste

2 tsp hot sauce (I used Frank’s hot sauce)

1 T Worcestershire sauce

1/2 c gluten-free beer or beef stock

14 oz fire roasted or regular diced tomatoes

8 oz can tomato sauce

8 oz shredded cheddar cheese

4 scallions sliced on the bias

Cook spaghetti according to package directions.  Brown bacon in a large skillet or dutch oven and drain.   Add olive oil to bacon fat and add sirloin.  Brown beef for 4-5 minutes and than add onions and garlic.   Season with salt, pepper, hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce.  Deglaze pan with beer or stock.  Cook for about 5 minutes and then add tomato sauce and tomatoes.  Add spaghetti noodles to sauce and toss to combine.  Pour spaghetti in a shallow dish and then sprinkle with cheese, scallions and bacon.

Crispy Orange Chicken

 

I love orange marmalade.  Not on toast or anything….that would be gross!  I’ve learned that there are several good uses for the stuff from sauces to desserts.  Here is a recipe for some asian chicken that has a spicy orange sauce.  I served this over some fluffy brown rice and small salad on the side.  The family seemed to enjoy it.

Spicy Orange Sauce Ingredients:

1c orange juice

1/2 c light brown sugar

4 T orange marmalade

2 T gluten-free soy sauce

3 T vegetable oil (divided)

1/2 tsp minced flat leaf parsley

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

1 small clove minced garlic

1/8 tsp dried thyme

1 T rice vinegar

3 chicken breasts cut into 1 inch chunks

1/4 c cornstarch

salt and freshly ground pepper

4 oz baby bella mushrooms chopped

1/2 red bell pepper chopped

1/2 yellow bell pepper chopped

Comine 1 T veg oil, orange juice, marmalade, soy sauce, parsley, red pepper flakes, garlic, thyme and brown sugar in small saucepan and simmer over medium-low heat for 15 minutes or until thick.  Remove from heat and add rice vinegar.  Put cornstarch in a small paper bag or ziploc bag and season with salt and pepper.  Add cornstarch and shake chicken to coat.  Heat large wok or skillet with 2
T veg oil over medium-high heat.  Add chicken pieces and cook until browned on all sides.  Remove from pan and drain on paper towels.  Add vegies to wok or skillet and season with salt and pepper.  Cook 3-5 minutes until softened (add more oil to your pan if needed).  Pour chicken back into wok or skillet and add your sauce to pan.  Cook 1-2 minutes until heated through.

My Caramel Calamity

I don’t know about you, but I seem to always try to do too much during the holidays when it comes to food.  I want to make everything from scratch, try things I’ve never done before and drive my family crazy in the process.  I decided to tackle making homemade caramel this weekend to do create amazing caramel apples.  I had this vision in my head of these perfect apples wearing a thick coating of my delicious homemade caramel and then I would drizzle them with milk chocolate and coat the bottom in some chopped nuts.  Wrong!  Not only did I create some of the ugliest caramel apples you’ve ever seen I gave up on the chocolate and nuts after making three different batches of caramel and each one was an epic failure.

I didn’t do any research on making caramel specifically for apples so my first batch of caramel was a caramel sauce I’ve made several times before which consists of just granulated sugar, butter and heavy cream.  My sauce was beautiful and delicious and I felt I was well on my way to perfection.

I let the sauce cool a bit (maybe this was mistake number one) and then I applied it to the apples.  The sauce did not adhere and began sliding off making a large caramel puddle.  I began my second batch of caramel without the cream thinking this was causing the issue.  My result was a caramel rock candy (mistake number two).

This is when the cursing began #$%&@!

I calmed myself and went to my computer to retrieve a recipe specifically for caramel apples which called for brown sugar, condensed milk, butter, etc.  It was supposed to cook for 30 minutes, but my batch started to slightly burn (mistake number three) so I stopped this process short and tried again to coat my apples.  I then burned my right index finger in the coating process (mistake number four).  It was at this point that I vowed never to attempt this project again, but I will probably forget about that promise next year.

In the interest of full disclosure let me introduce you to my fugly apples:

Pretty darn hideous, huh?  Has anyone had success at making homemade caramel apples or should I just be satisfied with unwrapping 50 pieces of caramel like we used to do when I was a kid?

Green Goddess

I’m really enjoying trying a lot of the 5 Ingredient Fix recipes.  They are so simple to do.  Of course, as with anything, you may see something on t.v. that looks amazing and then when you make it you are left disappointed.  It’s like a blind date with food.  He sounds really nice and your friend says he is really hot, but when you meet him for the first time you want to run for the door.  While my experience with one of  Claire Robinson recipes over the weekend called Green Goddess Rice was not THAT bad I WASN’T giving him my number. 

I didn’t have any basmati rice on hand so I used long grain rice.  I thought the Green Goddess sauce tasted amazing by itself, but I wasn’t a big fan once I mixed it with the rice.  It was like the guys body was smokin hot, but his face was not attractive.  The green sauce was fresh, creamy and had a strong pop from the basil.  I just think I would prefer the sauce over some chicken or mixed with vegetables next time.

Ingredients for the sauce:

1 haas avocado – pealed, pitted and chopped

1 package fresh basil leaves

3T extra virgin olive oil

kosher salt

1/4 c water

freshly ground black pepper

1 lemon juiced

Put avocado, basil, lemon juice, oil and water in a blender and puree. Season generously with salt and pepper.  Add more water if necessary (the sauce should be the consistency of sour cream).