Best Ribs Ever

This weekend was the perfect balance of lazy and productive.  Saturday morning I totally had a taste for Tony’s amazing eggs, only to realize that I only had hard boiled eggs on hand.  That was the first thing added to my grocery list and I went with plan B: 2 hard boiled eggs, cinnamon toast and 1/2 a banana.

I needed to get my eyebrows threaded, but when I got to Wal-mart, there were too many people in line already.  So I did a bit of shopping, and still no luck – I may have to run over there one night this week.

I ended up picking us up Wendy’s for lunch.  I can’t even remember the last time I was in a Wendy’s.  Now I know why – this chicken sandwich was so dry, it tasted as if it was made the day before.  It was barely warm by the time I brought it home.

As is customary, I made two loaves of my Artisan bread, although this time it rose for 3 hours and it almost poured out of the top of my bowl!

Have you tried making this yet?  I was nervous the first time I made it too because the dough is so light and . . . sticky.  I also make just two loaves of bread out of the recipe.

I could eat a whole loaf all to myself!   My nephew came by yesterday to pick up his Mom’s food for the week, and his first question is always “did you make me your bread?”  I am pretty sure he eats it all!

Saturday morning Tony and I were watching an Anthony Bordain show and he was in Italy and we watched a woman make pasta from scratch.  She only used a fork and a rolling pin so I decided to try my hand at making homemade pasta for dinner Saturday night.

I used one of the dough recipes from this book, what she calls a “yellow pasta dough.”

Pasta Dough

• 1 cup unbleached flour
• 2 large eggs

That’s it.  Really!  This is enough pasta for 3 standard portions for an entrée, or 3 portions for an appetizer portion.

Make a well in the center of your flour.  Add eggs and using a fork, mix until combined.  I actually made a double batch, so I still have half of the dough in the fridge.  I am curious to see how that turns out later in the week.

I am not going to lie, it got messy!

But I just kept brining the eggs to the middle and soon enough I had my pasta dough.

My flaw the last time I made pasta was not rolled out thin enough and my cuts were too big – I didn’t realize how much the dough would puff up when I boiled it.

I also used a lot of flour to keep the pasta from sticking to each other before I cooked it.  I let this sit on the counter for about 30 minutes before cooking – it doesn’t take long to cook at all, about 3-4 minutes.

Tony has not been a fan of red sauce lately, and alfredo sauce kind of gets old.  As I was flipping through that cookbook though, I saw a recipe for Gorgonzola sauce, and I asked Tony “would you eat that??”  He tasted the blue cheese I had and said if I went light on the blue cheese it would be fine.  I feel like Rhonda taking a picture of the recipe!

The only thing I did different was I only used about a tablespoon of the blue cheese and instead of 1/2 a cup of heavy whipping cream, I used 1/2 a cup of lowfat buttermilk.

This was delicious.  Tony and I both gave this two thumbs up.  The pasta was tender and the sauce was delicious and even Tony said next time I could add more blue cheese.  Be sure to salt your boiling water because that’s how the pasta gets seasoned.

Sunday morning we laid in bed and watched The Watch with Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn.  We watched nearly the whole thing and parts of it were pretty funny.  We each just had a piece of toast for breakfast before heading out to the grocery store.  After the store we stopped and got a lunch – I had a chicken Parm sandwich (which Tony doesn’t care for at all) and I got a Boddington’s on tap.

I can’t even believe I am about to say this, but it was too many tots!

The sandwich was delicious though – thin chicken breast with a spicy seasoning and melted mozzarella.  Just yum.

So there are many things that I can’t make, yet I try to make them over and over.  I have finally gotten good at making scalloped potatoes – I finally just ended up using cooked potatoes!  The other nemesis that’s been haunting me for years?  Ribs.  Doesn’t seem to matter how long I cook them in the oven, cooking them low and slow, high heat, etc.  They were never quite there.

I went looking for a dry rub recipe online yesterday and I saw that this guy cooked his ribs in his Dutch oven before finishing them off on the grill with sauce.  I never thought of that!  I’ve always wrapped them up in foil.  I ended up putting the ribs in the Dutch oven with 1 can of beer at 300 degrees for 2 1/2 hours.  Perfectly cooked!  Tender, nearly fall off the bone.

Dry Rub:

• 4 tablespoons paprika
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar

Mix well.  I used half of this rub on two slabs of ribs.

Here they are after cooking for 2 1/2 hours – ready for the grill!  Except I realized that all of my bbq sauces were spicy – so I ended up making a quick bbq sauce:

• 1 cup ketchup
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• salt and pepper

These are hands down the best ribs I’ve ever made – the Dutch oven was the key!  And the corn was pretty good too for April!

And now we are back to Monday – cannot believe that we only have a couple days left in April – that month sure did go by fast!

Since I can’t wear my pajamas to work, I guess I’ll have to get ready now – Happy Monday – make it a great day!