what a wekend

My husband and I had a surprise visit from old friends and their amazing sons yesterday! Well, actually they are old friends of my husband's from grad school, but I am happy to claim them as old friends, too. They have three boys ages 8, 7, and 5 and all three are smart, funny, cute, and just amazing. I was really feeling the desire for three smart, funny, cute and amazing sons yesterday. Sigh... I still have the beagles, right?!? They are at least funny, cute, and amazing.

We had a great weekend despite the terrific thunderstorms all day on Saturday. We both got some much needed rest, did some much needed housework and spent some much needed time in each others faces.

I bought some boneless, country style ribs recently at the grocery store. I was not too sure what to do with them, actually. I mean isn't a boneless pork rib really just loin meat? Anyway, I decided to braise them in beer and barbecue sauce along with some spices and tomato paste. Wow was that a winner! The beer lends richness and bitterness, the tomatoes have rich and sweet undertones and the meat was tender and very flavorful. I decided to make sandwiches on cheap, white hamburger buns since that is what I had in the house. I served the sandwiches with homemade steak fries and green beans with bacon. OK, so maybe not the healthiest meal but I never claimed to cook healthy food now did I?



I really should have used my green plates since these french fries are about the fall off the edge here but oh well.

Beer and barbecue pork ribs
2 lbs. of boneless, country style pork ribs, washed and dried well
1 bottle of beer (I used Harp ale)
1 cup of prepared barbecue sauce (I used Stubbs original)
1 large onion, sliced
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
1 tablespoon of yellow mustard
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
1 teaspoon on paprika
1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce
Kosher salt
1 teaspoon of olive oil

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees. Heat the olive oil in an oven safe pan large enough to hold all the ribs. Salt and pepper the ribs liberally and then add to the pan. Sear the ribs on every side until golden brown - about 8 minutes total. Remove the ribs, add all the other ingredients except onions to the pan and mix well and let it come to a full bubbling boil. Add the ribs back in and place the onions on top of the ribs. Cover and put in the oven. I cooked mine for 2.5 hours at which time they were falling apart and the liquid was reduced to a thick sauce. Check on it every 30 minutes or unsure that there is enough liquid. If it evaporates too quickly, add about 1/2 cup of water or stock to it.