Oh Canada!

I’m a little late on posting this since Canada Day was July the first but hey, it’s summer and I have been busy eating and working on my new website (details as soon as I wrestle CSS to the ground). We decided to have a dinner for a family member who has been ill recently and left it to him to decide who else to invite since there is a lot of family locally and we didn’t want to overwhelm the poor guy. So the day before the BBQ we went from a BBQ for 3 to a BBQ for 14 - OK so one was under a year old but 13 is a bad number for a party. Now I am of the mind that the more the merrier - especially for a summer BBQ so off I went to the market, list in hand and mind spinning a thousand miles per hour with all my recipe ideas.

This was to be the first big gathering I would be hosting for my fiance’s family so of course I wanted to do a bang up job. They need to know I can take care of my honey the way they expect and I wanted them to all want to come back for the next event not dread my food! I have written before about the family’s German heritage and I knew I wanted to stay as far away from that sort of menu as I could since my flavors would not be what they were accustomed to.

Since I didn’t know all of the food preferences of my guests I opted for middle of the road dishes that most people would like. The menu looked something like this:

BBQ Spare Ribs	Honey Mustard Chicken Wings
Corn on the cob w/lime butter	Cole slaw
German Potato Salad	Grilled Garlic Naan

Of course I also had fresh salsa & chips, Spinach & artichoke dip, spiced almonds, onion dip and cucumber dip – all in large quantities. OK, so I am Italian and find it impossible to make just enough food. Sue me.

Now grilling and BBQing are typically the man of the house’s domain – or so we chicks let them think. This undertaking was no different. I used pork spare ribs – not back ribs – as they are meatier and more tender in my opinion. Start the morning of by removing the membrane on the bone side of the ribs. Next liberally add your rub. Everyone has a rub they swear by so I will just tell you what goes into mine, knowing full well that you will use your own faves. I use paprika, cumin, coriander, mustard powder, onion powder and garlic powder. See, there really is a reason to keep garlic powder on hand. You could also add brown sugar but since I am not smoking these and just grilling at the end, the sauce on the hot grill will add all the carmelization I am looking for.

Next wrap the ribs in foil and place on a large rimmed baking sheet and pop into a 250 degree oven for about 3 hours. No turning, basting, mopping or anything else is required. After 3 hours the internal temp ought to be about 160. At that point, I pour off the juices and add them to my favorite home brewed BBQ sauce, mop it on the ribs and give them a few turns on a hot grill until the sauce just starts to get a little crusty. This is the part where the guy manning the grill takes all the credit for these tender, juicy, fall-off-the-bone, spicy, tangy beauties. Enough adjectives? Actually, no. They are that good.

Top off the meal with some homemade vanilla ice cream and toppings so everyone can build their own sundae, some home baked chocolate chip cookies and your guests will think they died and went to the deep south!

So do most of the work in the kitchen, finish on the grill and you will have fabulous BBQ that your guy can’t mess up. Er, that he will proudly take credit for.