Thai BBQ Ribs

When we moved in here a year ago, everything from the old freezers got just thrown into the new freezers.  I couldn't find anything.  I knew I had some flat meals as Connie calls pre-made dinners.  But, they weren't anywhere easy to find.  It was a mell of a hess.  So, Sunday morning we got up kind of early and headed out to do our shopping.  I knew we were taking dishes to a family get together on Memorial Day, having guests over Tuesday evening for heavy appetizers and wine, having the quarterly neighborhood dinner on Thursday and going back to John and Pam's on Saturday after the service for Donald.  It was going to be a week of cooking and I needed a bunch of things.  Plus, I'd snagged a couple of new cookbooks on clearance at Half Price Books and there were a few recipes calling my name.  I carefully made out all the menus and grocery lists.  Sunday evening was to be salmon on the grill with roasted beets and pine nuts plus roasted radishes with anchovy sauce.  Except that we couldn't find salmon.  I'd gotten ribs to make Friday so those would have to substitute.  And, I'm so glad they did!!!

We got home from our shopping and I started unloading freezers.  Now, all the stock is together.  An entire shelf of homemade stock. 

I see a LOT of risotto in our future.  And, I've found the frozen spaghetti sauce and frozen stroganoff.  And, flat meals have been taken to the office.  Connie's happy to have a stash of chicken Caesar lasagna and chicken green bean casserole.  Vegetables are together.  As are fruits.  And, pestos (mushroom truffle and basil are two of the kinds...)  Meats are organized.  I now know where the ground lamb patties are.  YAY!  All of the shrimp shells and lobster shells for stock are organized. 

I am one happy camper. 

While the freezer was getting cleaned out, I started the ribs.  The recipe called for putting them in the slow cooker.  I knew that putting them on a half sheet, covering them with heavy duty foil and low and slow cooking them in the oven would have the same effect.   And, it meant not having to wash the slow cooker...  I made the initial sauce and slathered it on.  Quite frankly, it looked gross.  Four hours later when I took the ribs out of the oven I wished I'd used a deeper pan.  A TON of fat had cooked out.  It made a mell of a hess in the oven and on the floor.  So, that's the bad news.  The good news is that once I got the ribs on the grill and the bbq sauce on they looked amazing.  And, they tasted amazing. 

Alongside I made goat cheese mashed sweet potatoes and mojito watermelon.  The mashed sweets are super easy.  Peel and cube the potatoes.  Cook them in salted water until they're very soft.  Drain them and toss in a knob of butter.  Mash until that melts.  Add a chunk of goat cheese - maybe an ounce for two small sweet potatoes - and finish mashing.  Devour.

These ribs are right up there with the best we've ever made. 

Thai BBQ Ribs

Ingredients:

juice from one lime (about 1T)
1 T brown sugar
1/2 t cracked peppercorns
1/4 t ground ginger
2/3 c fresh cilantro, divided in half
2 Thai red chiles, divided (I used crushed red pepper - about 1/2 t)
4 lb pork baby back or spare ribs
1/3 c sweet chili garlic sauce
1/4 c BBQ sauce (I used Sweet Baby Rays

Directions:

In the bowl of a blender put the lime juice, brown sugar, peppercorns, ginger, half the cilantro and one of the chiles.  Blend until smooth.  Put the ribs on a the bottom half of a roasting pan or another pan with relatively deep sides and slather them with the sauce. 

Cover with foil and bake in a very low oven (250F) for a couple of hours.  Heat your grill.  Mix the sweet chili garlic sauce and the BBQ sauce.  Brush the ribs with the BBQ sauce and grill them until the sauce has caramelized and you've got good grill marks.  Serve sprinkled with the remaining cilantro and pepper slices (if you used the real things...)

adapted from Kraft Food and Family

Black Diamond BBQ

Indy just hit a new record!  For the snowiest winter on record :-(  We are all SO very tired of the snow.  Late last week I looked at our calendar and realized that the next opportunity for grocery shopping MIGHT be Sunday.  And, there wasn't time in between for much cooking.  But, we did want to eat - LOL.  So, I suggested to Connie that we stop at Black Diamond Barbecue on the way home.  It's our favorite and it's on the way home.  Super double bonus. 

We picked up beef brisket, pulled pork, mac and cheese, greens and green beans.  Wednesday was a feast.  Thursday and Friday weren't bad at all.

Thursday I headed south to my Columbus office.  My first appointment was at 10 and my second wasn't until 1:00.  So, I took goodies for lunch.  Then, as I was talking with Daryl and Dot during my 10 appointment, they found out that I'd never been to Shorty's.  Off to Shorty's we went.  It seems that Shorty is long gone and the place is now owned by the ladies who run the kitchen.  They specialize in pork tenderloins.  Not the platter-sized, pre-formed mell of a hesses you get all too often.  These are nice sized pieces of pork that fit on the bun.  Novel concept.  I bought an extra tenderloin to take back to Connie.  My thought was a pork-a-licious sandwich for dinner. 

We had some leftover onion buns to go with all that fabulous pulled pork.  I fried a bit of bacon with garlic and pepper sprinkled on it, toasted the buns and put together some really fun sandwiches.

Friday we had tickets to see Steel Magnolias at Civic Theatre.  It's a mere 9 miles from our home.  But, you see, the 1-2" of snow predicted was turning out to be 5".  Indy streets were a mell of a hess.  And, to top things off, it was Valentines Day.  So, we knew there'd be no running in and ordering fast at any restaurant!  Leftovers it was.  This time, I made savory French toast with some cayenne and grated Gruyere in the batter.  Then, I sautéed a diced portabella mushroom and mixed it in with some of the leftover mac and cheese.  We made open faced sandwiches like this:

Good thing we left the office a bit early and didn't make a huge production out of dinner because our short drive took 54 minutes!  The other good thing is that Civic realized a lot of folks were in the same situation we were in and held the start for about 10 minutes.  That meant we didn't miss a minute of this fabulous play.  The casting was about as perfect as you can get.  The set was just amazing.  And, the acting was great.  We absolutely loved it!!

Saturday was a long day at the office.  I had LOTS of appointments the next week to prepare for.  And, I had loads to do to finish up from last week's appointments.  We had tickets to see I Love Lucy at a venue downtown.  Needless to say our first thought was to go to our dear friend, Chef Joseph's restaurant.  Then, we parked by the Murat and started hiking.  The sidewalks were barely cleared.  We were done walking.  The closest place would have to do.  It was Shiraz Wine Bar and Art Café.  Ok, so I'm going to be critical here.  Really critical.  I don't expect this place to be around long.  Initially we were the only two patrons.  The waiter said he was a friend of the owner's and was helping out so please excuse him if he was a bit rusty.  Rusty?  Both James the waiter and Patty the owner had NO clue about the wine menu.  I asked if the Pommery Pink Bubbles was sweet.  That led to a lost cause of a search.  No, they didn't have any.  Some tv show had featured it and it was way overpriced but folks wanted it...  Enough already.  I never did find out how sweet it was...  How about your Pinot Noirs?  Well, in addition to those on the menu we have this one.  We were handed a bottle plus a written explanation.  Nothing verbal.  Ok, so you really don't know what you're selling here.  We'd asked when we walked in if they had food.  Yes, tonight we actually have entrees.  Great.  So, we've got lasagna and chicken scampi.  How much are they?  I don't know, I'll have to ask the owner.  We finally found a little board with the menu.  $15 including salads.  The menu also listed a charcuterie board and olives.  By this time Patty had shown up.  So I asked her about the charcuterie board.  Well, it's whatever cheese she wants to put on it plus ham and salami and olives.  The olives sounded good.  We ordered olives and two entrees.  Pretty soon we had a bowl of olives.  Green olives.  No pimentos.  Cold green olives.  Ugh.  The breadsticks were great.  Tasted like Olive Garden's.  Oh, and what I didn't mention was that we ordered a bottle of the Pinot Noir that wasn't on the menu.  I actually got a great shot of the taste. 

Then, James poured the glasses.  And, poured.   And poured.  About twice the appropriate amount.  The kind of pour you'd like when you order a glass of wine and WANT TO GET AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.  But, not the amount you want when you've ordered a bottle of wine and want to enjoy every bit of it.  Our salads appeared.  With snow peas.  Enough snow peas for Connie and Kate and a dozen of our friends.  And, maybe their families.  It tasted like soggy salad with snow peas added in.  Before we'd even gotten through half of our salads, our entrees appeared.  The chicken scampi pasta had angel hair and rotini.  Interesting mix.  The lasagna was good.  Cold, but good.  James came back by and offered to top off our wines.  Connie said thanks but he'd handle it.  By that time I was debating how tacky it would be to tell Patty exactly what we thought.  She walked by, I opened my mouth and offered some constructive criticism.  Turns out she wants to have a wine bar but not do the food.  But, she says, Hoosiers want food.  Well, and I can tell you that having a nice appetizer menu will help sell wine.  The salad was indeed soggy salad with snow peas added in.  And, yes the breadsticks tasted like Olive Garden's.  That's where she'd gotten them.  Totally frustrating.  It was a great space with a nice wine list.  Something that Mass Ave needs.  But, what it really needs is a proprietor who wants to offer the public what they want...  Otherwise, she's out of business! 

Monday it was back to normal.  More snow.  Ice too.  Connie skipped bridge.  I had to scramble a bit for dinner.  There was still some mac and cheese.  And a serving each of collards and green beans.  I had a palmful of pulled pork.  And, ground beef to make glop for Tuesday evening.  That's when I'm teaching my Social Security class so we're at the office til about 9pm.  I figured I could use a little bag of cooked ground beef from the freezer and mix it with half of the newly browned ground beef.  That'd leave quarter pound burgers.  Ah, but they'd be a third of a pound if I added in the little bit of leftover pulled pork.  Sold.  Then, I looked at the mac and cheese and wondered about adding some blue cheese.  And, a tablespoon of browned pancetta.  That'd work. And, it did.  Connie gave the mac and cheese a five.  Me too.  And, unfortunately, thanks to a crazy afternoon I was focused on getting dinner on the table and not taking photos...  But, suffice to say - toss a bit of blue cheese in your mac and cheese.  Your taste buds will thank you.

Carolina Smashed Potato Pig Butt Bake and Reuben Quiche

After being home for almost a week we finally had the opportunity to head to Sam's Club and the grocery.  Our fridge was about as empty as it could be.  We'd been existing on carry out and canned or frozen food.  UGH!  I sat down with the Union Square Café and the Kansas City Barbecue Society cookbooks and made out our menu.  Actually, I could probably just cook my way through the Union Square Café cookbook.  Everything in there sounded good!  Then, at Sam's I bought the Gooseberry Patch Game Day cookbook.  Started reading that on the trip from there to the grocery.  Page 9.  Reuben Quiche.  Does that sound good or what?  Connie was particularly intrigued because it has Dijon mustard instead of the typical thousand island dressing.  Well then, we'd make something fun Sunday morning while we finished decorating for Christmas. 

After the trek to Sam's we dug into the rotisserie chicken.  Connie'd been craving mustard.  Something about that whole box of mustard that arrived from the Mustard Museum...  I used up some of a bottle making a fabulous mustard cream sauce.  It was super easy to make.  I sautéed some garlic and shallot in a bit of olive oil.  Then, I added Dijon mustard and white wine.  Once those were warmed through, I added some capers and cream.  Served over sliced chicken with a big salad on the side, it was perfect for a quick meal. 

So, over the weekend the weather conspired against us.  We were supposed to go south and meet our friends Sonja and Al for dinner Saturday evening.  Icy roads and Connie wasn't amused about driving.  Fine we'd stay home and make the Carolina Potato Smashed Pig Butt Bake from the Kansas City BBQ Society cookbook.  We debated and debated.  The recipe called for cottage cheese.  Connie'd never had cooked cottage cheese.  I had.  Mom used to make a skillet lasagna when we were kids.  It had cottage cheese in it and it worked just fine.  We'd bought ricotta just in case.  Then we did a taste test.  The cottage cheese won.  The ricotta was just too sweet.  Particularly given the fact there was BBQ sauce in the recipe.  Amazing.  Leftovers for lunch were just as good.  This is a reason to head to a bbq place and get some pulled pork!

Sunday morning we made the reuben quiche.  Total winner.  Making the crust out of "bread crumbs" was brilliant.  That allowed the filling to shine but gave it flavor.  Now, I can't wait to try variations on this recipe!  Best part is that we had leftovers for lunch. 

Sunday found us stopping by our friend Lou's house after the Colts win.  Ah, yes, this week they did not embarrass themselves!  We thoroughly enjoyed the game and Lou's hospitality.  Monday night I didn't have a menu item because I thought Connie had a bridge game.  Wrong-o.  So I moved a meal up the line and we were happy campers with asparagus and red pepper pasta from the Union Square Café cookbook and pear salad from the new Sunrise cookbook.  It was perfect with a bottle of Francis Ford Coppola Sante Chardonnay.  Did I remember to take photos of the finished dishes????  Of course not!  Hopefully next time I make them I'll do better :-) 

Carolina Smashed Potato Pig Butt Bake

Ingredients:

8 small (B size) red potatoes
1/2 c apple cider vinegar
1/2 t red pepper flakes
1 T black peppercorns
1 t salt
3 T corn bread crumbs
1/2 lb chopped pulled pork tossed with barbecue sauce
1 16 oz container cottage cheese
2 c shredded sharp cheddar (about 8 oz)
1/2 lb smoked bacon, fried crispy and crumbled (or, if you don't like it crispy like me, dice it then fry it...)

Directions:

 Put the potatoes in a medium saucepan and pour in water to cover.  Add the vnegar, red pepper, black peppercorns and salt.  Cook on medium heat for about 15 minutes or until the potatoes are done. 

The original recipe said 10-15 minutes.  At 10, the potatoes were not done enough by a long shot.  Once the potatoes are cooked, drain and let them cool slightly.  Take a glass or the palm of your hand and smash each potato to no more than 1/4" thick.  Sprinkle half of the corn bread crumbs in the bottom of a small baking dish. 

Lay half of the potatoes on top of the crumbs.  Cover the potatoes with half of the pulled pork.  Top that with another layer of corn bread crumbs.  Then top that with another layer of potatoes followed by a layer of cottage cheese

then one of pulled pork. Then, top the whole thing with the shredded cheese and the bacon. 

Bake at 300 for 30 minutes.

adapted from the Kansas City BBQ Society cookbook


Reuben Quiche

Ingredients:

5 slices rye bread, toasted and crumbled
4 T butter, melted and divided
4 green onions, chopped
1 1/2 c shredded Swiss cheese, divided
1/4 lb deli corned beef, chopped
1/2 c sauerkraut, well drained
4 eggs
1 c half and half
1 T flour
1 T Dijon mustard
optional:  dill pickle slices
 
Directions:

Mix the crumbled bread crumbs with 3 T of the butter.  Put into a 9" pie plate and pat into a crust.  Bake for 5-7 minutes at 375F.  The crust will be slightly golden. 

Sprinkle half a cup of the Swiss cheese into the crust.  Top that with the corned beef and sauerkraut,

followed by the rest of the Swiss cheese.  Lightly beat the eggs and add the half and half, flour and Dijon.  Pour that over the quiche and bake for 25-30 minutes at 375 F. 

adapted from Game Day by Gooseberry Patch