BBQ Ribs and Fruit Salsa

It's been a while since I've posted anything, but thankfully my mom brought home some tasty looking ribs and I promptly took over and made them my way! I had some help from my new cookbook I purchased with a gift card for Borders I discovered in my wallet, and headed over there to see what kind of treasure I could dig up, before they went out of business, so sad. But luckily, I ended up finding a classic....

I love this cookbook, it has everything in here, from how to properly set a table for any occasion to how to de-shell crab. It's an all-in-one resource for any kind of cook, beginner or advanced. So I found a rib and BBQ sauce recipe in my new cookbook and went to town! I made a rub and my own bbq sauce from the recipes found in my book. And then I made a fruit salsa/salad for a side, which is something my mom always made when we had pork in the summer.


I was pretty proud of my cooking after I sank my teeth into the tender, spicy ribs and we all sat in silence gnawing on our food. It was so tasty! My dad did help a little by grilling the ribs at the end for about half and hour, but I did everything else.

My rub mixture

Rib rub! Right before the beer went in and then they went in the oven for an hour and a half.

BBQ sauce simmering

Finished BBQ sauce, for the ribs to baste in.

Fruit salsa, nectarines, cucumber, plums and green onion with a tangy, sweet dressing.

Ribs right off the grill.

My plate about 15 minutes before it was all devoured!

Rub (makes 1 cup for 2-3 lbs. of ribs)
Mix together:
2 Tbsp. packed brown sugar
1/4 cup paprika
2 Tbsp. chili powder
1 Tbsp. cayenne pepper
1 Tbsp. ground cumin
2 Tbsp. salt
2 Tbsp. cracked black peppercorns


BBQ Sauce (makes 2 cups, for 2-3 lbs. of ribs)
Ingredients:
3/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup cider vinegar
2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 Tbsp. dry mustard
2 Tbsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1 garlic clove, minced
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
3 lemon slices


Directions:
Simmer, stirring often, for 5-8 minutes, until it thickens. Use to baste the ribs while they are grilling.


Ribs
Pat dry:
1 rack of baby back pork ribs (2-3 pounds)
Rub with:
Southern Barbecue Dry Rub, recipe above
Place in a roasting pan and pour in:
One 12-ounce bottle beer
Cover and marinade, refrigerated, 4-8 hours, or overnight:
Prepare:
BBQ sauce


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cover the ribs with foil and bake for 1 1/2 hours. To finish them on the grill, prepare a medium-hot grill fire. Baste the ribs with the sauce, then place meaty side up on the grill, close the lid, and grill until tender, 30 to 45 minutes, basting every 10 to 15 minutes. 


Fruit Salsa
Ingredients:
2 Nectarines, diced
2 Plums, diced
1/2 of an English Cucumber, diced
2 Green Onions, diced
2 Tbsp. of Rice Wine Vinegar
2 Tbsp. Canola Oil
2 Tbsp. of Sugar
Kosher salt


Directions:
Mix together the vinegar, oil and sugar in a large serving bowl. Once mixed, add the nectarines, plums, cucumber, and onions. Add a pinch of salt. Stir to combine and serve.

Mediterranean Dinner

I kind of went all out tonight, I made 3 dishes, a sauce and some muffins tonight. Started cooking around 2PM and dinner was ready at 6PM. It was fun, and delicious! I definitely added my own spin to this dinner, I think I changed at least one thing about every recipe. I got almost all of these recipes from the FoodNetwork show, 5 Ingredient fix, so naturally I added a few ingredients! We had many of the ingredients for these recipes, so if you don't have everything exactly, improvise! It will be just as good if you have to sub fresh herbs with dried, etc. Well, I mean it would be better with fresh herbs, but it won't taste disgusting without them! So without further ado...

Tzatziki Sauce for the Lamb Sandwiches 

Fresh Cucumber Salad

Toasted Israeli Couscous

Lamb Sandwich (they were basically gyros, just with lamb patties)

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Tzatziki Sauce

Here's the recipe adapted from Ina Garten.

Prep Time: 20 min | Difficulty: Easy | Serves: 8

Ingredients:

2 (7-ounce) Containers Greek Yogurt (Recommended: Fage Total)
1/2 English Cucumber
¼ cup Sour Cream
2 Tbsp Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice
1 Tbsp White Wine Vinegar
1 Tbsp Minced Fresh Dill (I used about a Tbsp of dried dill, mostly because I had decided to make this at the last minute, and thus had everything but the fresh dill)
1 ½ tsp Minced Garlic
2 tsp Kosher Salt
½ tsp Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Directions:

1. Place the yogurt in a medium bowl. Grate the cucumber on a box grater and squeeze the grated cucumber in a paper towel with your hand to remove some of the liquid. Add it to the yogurt along with the sour cream, lemon juice, vinegar, dill, garlic, salt and pepper and stir. Refrigerate until serving time.

Fresh Cucumber Salad

Here's the recipe adapted from Claire Robinson.

Prep Time: 15 min | Difficulty: Easy | Serves: 4

Ingredients:

1 English Cucumber, peeled and diced
1 cup (¼ whole) Honeydew, finely diced
Kosher Salt
1 cup Greek Yogurt
¼ Red Onion, thinly sliced
1 Jalapeno, seeded and finely minced

Directions:

1. Put the cucumbers and honeydew in a fine mesh sieve set over a bowl. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and allow it to sit for 5 minutes. Press out as much liquid as possible. Toss the cucumber and melon with the yogurt, onion and pepper in a serving bowl. Cover and chill in the refrigerator at least 1 hour or until ready to enjoy.

Toasted Israeli Couscous

Here's the recipe adapted from Claire Robinson.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cooking Time: 20 min | Difficulty: Easy | Serves: 4

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp Lemon-Flavored Olive Oil, plus more as needed
2 cups Israeli Couscous (Make sure it is Israeli couscous, it's slightly larger than regular couscous)
¼ cup Shelled Unsalted Roasted Pistachios,coarsely chopped
2 ¼ cups Hot Water
Kosher Salt And Freshly Cracked Black Pepper
6 Dried Turkish Apricots, chopped
1/8 cup of Golden Raisins

2 Scallions, sliced

Directions:

1. Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the couscous and pistachios and cook, stirring, until toasted and light golden brown, about 7 minutes. Add the water, season with salt and pepper, to taste, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover, and cook until the liquid is absorbed, about 10 minutes.

2. Remove the lid, stir in the apricots, raisins and scallions, taste, and adjust the seasoning. Transfer the couscous to a serving bowl and serve warm with a little more lemon oil drizzled over the top, if desired.

Lamb Sandwich

Here's the recipe adapted from Claire Robinson.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cooking Time: 20 min | Difficulty: Easy | Serves: 4

Ingredients:

1 ¼ pounds Ground Lamb
3 Garlic Cloves, minced
Kosher Salt And Freshly Cracked Black Pepper
4 Pita Or Flatbreads, preferably Greek style
Tzatziki sauce for topping

Red onion for topping

Tomatoes for topping

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, combine the ground lamb with the garlic and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Divide the lamb into 12 small balls and form them into patties. Cook the patties on a hot nonstick grill pan over medium heat for about 3 to 4 minutes per side. (The meat will release from the pan when ready.)

2. Put the 3 lamb patties in the middle of each flatbread and top with 2 tablespoons tzatziki sauce, red onion and tomatoes. Enjoy!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Here's the recipe adapted from Grace's Sweet Life blog.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cooking Time: 30 min | Difficulty: Easy | Yield: 12 muffins

Ingredients:

1½ cups Plain All-Purpose Flour
⅔ cups Caster (Super Fine Granules) Sugar (or plain sugar run through the food processor for a minute)
1 ½ tsp Baking Powder
½ tsp Baking Soda
¼ tsp Salt
8 ounces (1 cup) Mashed Ripe Bananas (About 2 Large)
1 large Egg
½ cup Unsalted Butter, melted
¼ cup Whole Milk
1 tsp Vanilla
¾ cup Semisweet Chocolate Chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 180° C (350° F). Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners.

2. In a large-sized bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

3. In a medium-sized bowl mix together the mashed bananas, egg, melted butter, milk and vanilla.

4. Add the banana mixture to the flour mixture and stir to just combine (do not over mix).

5. Add the chocolate chips and stir to just combine.

6. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups, filling three-quarters full.

7. Bake, rotating tin halfway through baking time, until tops are pale golden and a tester inserted in the centre of one muffin comes out with some melted chocolate attached but no crumbs, about 32 minutes.

8. Transfer baking tin to wire rack to cool for a five minutes. Turn muffins on their sides in their cups and cool completely.

Fried Macaroni and Cheese!

I told you I was thinking about frying the leftover mac and cheese I had, and I did. It was delicious! I've decided that if I ever open a restaurant, I'm putting this on the menu! I just need to come up with a tasty sauce for dipping. I did top mine with Sriracha, and that was tasty. I pan-fried mine instead of a full fry, just because I hate using a bunch of oil in a big pot. It's much easier to just use a little, and flip them halfway through. Just make sure your oil is hot enough, but not too hot! That way they have enough time to get warm in the middle and not burn on the outside and not get greasy.

Frying up

On my plate!

Look at the inside of these tasty morsels!

Here's the recipe adapted from Alton Brown.


Prep Time: 15 min | Cooking Time: 15 min | Difficulty: Easy | Serves: Depends on amount of mac and cheese leftovers


Ingredients:
Leftover Baked Macaroni And Cheese,refrigerated for at least overnight
1/2 cup All-Purpose Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Pepper
1 tsp Cayenne
1 Egg Beaten With 2 Ounces Water
1 cup Panko Bread Crumbs
Oil For Deep Frying, preheated to 375 degrees
Your favorite hot sauce to top


Directions:
1. Cut refrigerated macaroni and cheese into slices or bite size pieces.


2. Season the flour with salt, pepper and cayenne. Dredge each piece through the flour and gently tap off excess. Dip in the egg wash and then coat with the bread crumbs. Allow them to rest for 5 minutes so the crust can set. Very carefully drop into the oil and fry until golden brown, flip to fry other side. Remove to a baking sheet fitted with a rack and rest for 2 minutes before serving.


3. Top with hot sauce or other favorite topping. 

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

I was hungry last night, but didn't have anything planned for dinner, but I thought that we had the ingredients to this wonderful dish, and we did! I love making macaroni and cheese at home, because I tend to always have the ingredients on hand. I usually make my own stove top mac and cheese, but decided I had some time to whip up the baked version. It was delicious, and there are leftovers I'm thinking about pan frying! Yummy! I cut the dish down to 2 servings, but you can always make more and fit them in a larger casserole dish.

Here's the recipe adapted from Alton Brown.


Prep Time: 20 min | Cooking Time: 45 min | Difficulty: Easy | Serves: 2


Ingredients: Use your best guess for these measurements, closest you can get. Some are a weird amount
2.7 ounces Elbow Macaroni
1 Tbsp Butter
1 Tbsp Flour
1 tsp Powdered Mustard
1 cup Milk
2 ⅔ Tbsp Yellow Onion, finely diced
⅓ Bay Leaf
.167 tsp Paprika
⅓ large Egg
4 ounces Sharp Cheddar, shredded
⅓ tsp Kosher Salt
Fresh Black Pepper
Topping:
1 Tbsp Butter
⅓ cup Panko Bread Crumbs


Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.


2. In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta to al dente.


3. While the pasta is cooking, in a separate pot, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and mustard and keep it moving for about five minutes. Make sure it's free of lumps. Stir in the milk, onion, bay leaf, and paprika. Simmer for ten minutes and remove the bay leaf.


4. Temper in the egg. Stir in ¾ of the cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Fold the macaroni into the mix and pour into a 2-quart casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese.


5. Melt the butter in a saute pan and toss the bread crumbs to coat. Top the macaroni with the bread crumbs. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and rest for five minutes before serving.

Broiled Sockeye Salmon with Citrus Glaze and Veggie Salad

I had a chance to try out our new stainless steel kitchen appliances tonight, and they are amazing! The dishwasher is being run right now, and I can't even hear it! Anyways, we went to Costco today, and they had some great looking sockeye salmon, meaning I was in charge of dinner! I'm not a big seafood person, but I am warming up to it. I love smoked salmon, but I'm not too big of a fan of just grilled or cooked salmon. But, I loved this recipe! It was sweet and citrusy, and had kind of a crispy crust on it. So, here's what I made, and I threw together a simple vegetable salad on the side.

Salmon with glaze waiting for the broiler, it got kind of messy

Salmon just out of the oven

Veggie salad

Here's the recipe adapted from Alton Brown.


Prep Time: 55 min | Cooking Time: 10 min | Difficulty: Easy | Serves: 3


Ingredients:
Half of 1 Side, skin-on, sockeye salmon, 1 ½ to 2 pounds, pin bones removed 
1/6 cup Dark Brown Sugar
1 Tbsp Lemon Zest
3/4 tsp Kosher Salt
1/4 tsp Freshly Ground Black Pepper


Directions:
Position a rack in the oven 3-5 inches from the broiler. (I moved the salmon down a rack half way through because the sugar was starting to burn.) Line a half sheet pan with aluminum foil and place the salmon on the pan.
Place the sugar, zest, salt, and pepper into the bowl of a small food processor and process for 1 minute or until well combined. Evenly spread the mixture onto the salmon and allow to sit for 45 minutes, at room temperature.
Turn the oven on to the high broiler setting for 2 minutes. After 2 minutes, place the salmon into the oven and broil for 6 to 8 minutes or until the thickest part of the fish reaches an internal temperature of 131 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer. Remove the salmon from the oven and allow to rest, uncovered, for 8 to 10 minutes. Serve immediately.


The salad was just a mixture of cucumber, tomatoes, celery, feta cheese, lemon juice, salt and pepper. 

New Kitchen Appliances Have Arrived!

So my parents' new stainless steel kitchen appliances finally arrived and have been installed! I'm so excited to start using them with many more blog posts. I took some before and after photos for you to enjoy along with me!

Before

After

Before

After we got the old ones out, the microwave took all three of us to remove!

After!

Before

After

Freezer

Inside of the fridge

The fridge isn't exactly stainless steel, but a platinum finish. My mom decided on that since it doesn't show fingerprints as much as the steel, and it's magnetic so we can put all our clips and magnetics on there. The fridge was also quite the adventure to get into the kitchen. They took off the doors, and it still wouldn't fit through the kitchen opening! So the awesome delivery and installation guys from Lowe's lifted it up and over the counter! My mom was freaking out, thinking they were going to drop it or something, but everything worked out fine. 


We now have 2 ice makers, filtered water on the door which is nice since our last ice and water maker on the door didn't work. And with 2 ice makers, we can easily fill coolers as we do that quite often, so that will be nice. The dishwasher is soo much quieter than our old one, which will be a nice silence. 


I'm making some salmon tonight, so look out for that!

Caprese Salad

I made this the other night and I just wanted to share it because it's so pretty and colorful. No real recipe, you may have made a caprese salad before, so here it is.

I just used:
Heirloom tomatoes, and salted them
Fresh mozzarella slices
Basil leaves
Pepper
and a Drizzle of Balsamic Vinegar

Strings Italian Cafe

I have another restaurant post for you today! B and I went to Strings Italian Cafe when he was here, and here's what we ordered!

I got the Lasagna Pastry with all Alfredo sauce

B got the Pan Fried Ravioli

Here's the Strings website. We went to the Folsom location, because I had a coupon, but normally I go to the El Dorado Hills location. When you order an entree you get a choice of either a salad or soup and you also get bread (which is amazing!) I always get the house salad, which is topped with sweet raisins and sunflower seeds. B got the Caesar salad, which was also tasty. I love their bread because it's great on it's own, or sopping up the rest of your pasta sauce with. This is partially why I order my lasagna pastry sans meat sauce and all Alfredo sauce instead. I am not a big fan of their meat sauce, it's kind of bland, but their Alfredo sauce is amazing! Garlicky, creamy and great with the bread too. 

I've never tried what B ordered, but the sauce was also delicious with the bread. He scarfed all his raviolis before I even got a chance to ask for a bite, but I think it was also good. The sauce was a spicy tomato cream sauce, and I almost couldn't decide which sauce was better. My dish was basically a lasagna cooked inside an onion, garlic pastry. The lasagna I had at the Folsom location seemed a little undercooked on the inside, which was strange since every time I have ordered it at the El Dorado Hills location, it's been cooked to perfection.

I love the originality of some of the dishes at this restaurant, it's Italian food, with a twist. I also love that the entrees are not too large, but they give you endless bread. So you're full no matter what you order, and you can use all the bread to dip in your pasta sauce. It's usually pretty slow if you go during off times, which is most of the week. So, waitresses are attentive and refill your drinks and bread fairly quickly.

If you haven't been to a Strings restaurant near you, go there and order one of their amazing dishes!

Spaghetti, Meatballs and Garlic Bread

For this post, I didn't have a chance to take a bunch of photos during the cooking process. I was trying to multi-task, by cooking and playing video games at the same time, something I don't recommend. And I forgot to grab my camera before I dug in, so this photo is leftovers (which were still just as tasty!) Anyways, I made my own meatballs and tomato sauce for this, and made a few substitutions, based on what we had and what my mom bought even though I told her to buy something else. No matter, it worked out, and I note some substitutions that may have been better as the original ingredient. Making everything in these recipes was extremely time consuming, but turned out tasty and it makes enough for plenty of leftovers.

Here's the Spaghetti and Meatballs recipe adapted from Barefoot Contessa.

Prep Time: 40 min | Cooking Time: 1 hour 30 min | Difficulty: Medium | Serves: 6

Ingredients:

For The Meatballs:
½ pound Ground Lamb (recipe called for veal, but we had some lamb in the freezer, either will be fine)
½ pound Ground Pork (my mom bought Italian sausage, which seemed to give too many extraneously flavors to the meatballs. Go for the regular pork)
1 pound Ground Beef
1 cup Fresh White Bread Crumbs (4 Slices,crusts removed, stick in a blender or food processor to make it easier on yourself)
¼ cup Seasoned Dry Bread Crumbs (I used Italian seasoned bread crumbs)
2 Tbsp Chopped Fresh Flat-Leaf Parsley
½ cup Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese
2 tsp Kosher Salt
½ tsp Freshly Ground Black Pepper
¼ tsp Ground Nutmeg
1 Extra-Large Egg, beaten
Vegetable Oil
Olive Oil
For The Sauce:
1 Tbsp Good Olive Oil
1 cup Chopped Yellow Onion (1 Onion)
1 ½ tsp Minced Garlic
½ cup Good Red Wine, such as Chianti (I just used some Zinfandel we had around, and then drank some with the dish)
1 (28-ounce) Can Crushed Tomatoes, or plum tomatoes in puree, chopped
1 Tbsp Chopped Fresh Flat-Leaf Parsley
1 ½ tsp Kosher Salt
½ tsp Freshly Ground Black Pepper
For Serving:
1 ½ pounds Spaghetti, cooked according to package directions (I just made 1 pound, since there were only 3 of us, and will make more when I heat up the leftover meatballs)
Freshly Grated Parmesan

Directions:

1. Place the ground meats, both bread crumbs, parsley, Parmesan, salt, pepper, nutmeg, egg, and ¾ cup warm water in a bowl. Combine very lightly with a fork. Using your hands, lightly form the mixture into 2-inch meatballs. You will have 14 to 16 meatballs. (I ended up with more)

2. Pour equal amounts of vegetable oil and olive oil into a large (12-inch) skillet to a depth of ¼-inch. Heat the oil. Very carefully, in batches, place the meatballs in the oil and brown them well on all sides over medium-low heat, turning carefully with a spatula or a fork. This should take about 10 minutes for each batch. Don't crowd the meatballs. Remove the meatballs to a plate covered with paper towels. Discard the oil but don't clean the pan.

3. For the sauce, heat the olive oil in the same pan. Add the onion and saute over medium heat until translucent, 5 to 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add the wine and cook on high heat, scraping up all the brown bits in the pan, until almost all the liquid evaporates, about 3 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, parsley, salt, and pepper.

4. Return the meatballs to the sauce, cover, and simmer on the lowest heat for 25 to 30 minutes, until the meatballs are cooked through. Serve hot on cooked spaghetti and pass the grated Parmesan.

Here's the Garlic Bread recipe adapted from Barefoot Contessa.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cooking Time: 15 min | Difficulty: Easy | Serves: 4-6

Ingredients:

6 large Garlic Cloves, chopped
¼ cup Chopped Flat-Leaf Parsley
¼ cup Chopped Fresh Oregano Leaves
½ tsp Kosher Salt
Freshly Ground Black Pepper
½ cup Good Olive Oil
1 loaf Ciabatta Bread
2 Tbsp Unsalted Butter

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Place the garlic in the bowl of a food processor and process until minced. Add the parsley, oregano, salt and pepper and pulse twice.

3. Heat the olive oil in a medium saute pan and add the garlic mixture. Remove the pan from the heat.

4. Slice the ciabatta bread in half horizontally, and spread the butter on 1 half. Spread the garlic mixture on the other half of the bread, and put the halves together. Wrap the bread in aluminum foil.

5. Place the bread in the oven and bake for 5 minutes. Open the foil, and continue baking for an additional 5 minutes.