Best ribs ever

Ahem.  Attention, please...today is a milestone.  This is my 100th post, holy CRAP!!  And it's a Friday, you can't really beat that!  Fitting that this is one of the best recipes/methods I've got up my sleeve, even if it's also one of the easiest....and that it was passed to me from my Aunt Lisa.

My Aunt Lisa makes the best ribs ever.  Hands down. No question.  Well, my friend Cynthia's dad and brother's ribs are literally unbeatable, but it's a secret recipe which means I can't have it.  Disappointing but totally understandable since they actually enter rib competitions with their recipe...soooo this is the next best thing.  Aunt Lisa made these for us when we visited her in Chicago a couple years ago and this is now the only way I will think about preparing them in our house...they literally fall off the bone!

The trick is to bake them beforehand, this cooks them evenly and keeps the moisture in the baking bags so they don't dry out on you.  I do 2 racks per bag, throw a dash of flour in the bags, along with a dash of water, the ribs seasoned with Lawry's, and onions on top for moisture as well.  Secure the bags closed and bake at 250 degrees for 2.5-3 hours.

When you remove them from the oven, slather them liberally on both sides with the BBQ sauce of your choice...I use Devil's Spit because we like heat and Justin doesn't care for sweet BBQ sauces...but you do what you want!

Throw them on the grill on low heat for 10-15 minutes per side, keeping a close eye on them in case the sauce drips between the grate and makes the flames rise up like mine did.  You don't want to burn these suckers after all the time you've put into them!

And this is the closest picture you'll get of them being done.  We literally couldnt wait to eat them and tore into it without even thinking of taking a picture.  These are finger-licking, fall off the bone, yumtastic to the nth degree.  I can't even give a good enough description to portray the flavor these throw in your mouth.  Just try it.  Then try to explain it to me...maybe you can do better.  Enjoy!

Tomato cucumber salad

This is my all time FAVORITE salad to make in the summer (#obsessed), I'm actually upset I didnt have many cucumbers till now so I can keep a container of it in the fridge at all times.  I have this thing about buying veggies from the store when I know I will have some coming up in the garden...can't do it.  So I wait.  And wait.  And wait.  But now the waiting is over and I won't be without my salad for a few weeks at least!

Mama K made this for me last summer when they came for the RAGBRAI reunion ride and we grilled at our place afterward.  I was in love. I am a vinegar freak, love the acidity of it especially when it cuts with the olive oil.  I do this a little different than the recipe calls for, I don't think its supposed to be literally doused in the dressing like I do it, but that's the joy of being the one who makes it...do it how you like it!  Here is the original recipe:

• 1/2 pound country bread, cut into 3/4-inch-thick slices
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 large beefsteak tomatoes, cut into 3/4-inch dice (about 4 cups)
• 1 cucumber, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch dice (about 2 cups)
• 1/4 cup loosely packed fresh basil, torn into bite-size pieces
• 1 tablespoon red-wine vinegar
• Salt and pepper

1. Heat grill to medium. Brush bread slices on both sides with 2 tablespoons oil. Grill until lightly charred on both sides, 3 to 4 minutes. Let cool slightly, then cut into large cubes.
2. In a large bowl, toss bread cubes with tomatoes, cucumber, and basil. Drizzle with vinegar and remaining 1/4 cup oil, and season with salt and pepper. Toss to combine, and serve.

Here's my recipe:

I don't grill the bread, and I just cut a hard baguette into bitesized pieces to throw into the salad. I use equal parts olive oil and red wine vinegar...more like 3/4-1 cup of each. I don't add the breadcrumbs to the salad until about 10 minutes before serving so they are soaked in all the goodness but not soggy and gucky. I used roma tomatoes this time because it's all I had.  I also added 3 minced garlic cloves to the mix before stirring it all together to mix. And it turned out greeeeaaat.  Like I would drink the oil and vinegar if it was socially acceptable. 

This is also one of those things that is better each day after it's been sitting so the veggies can marinate in the love for as long as possible.  Oh my, my mouth is watering heavily just looking at this picture! So colorful and sooooo vinegary!  Oh and some of the cucumbers have yellow skin, I'm not quite sure why this happens but I think it's the ones who overgrow (like I don't get them off the vine in time when they are ripe), but they taste the same and add even more color so whatev.

By the way, the zucchini flood of 2011 is over but we are now being overrun with cucumbers...anyone have any good recipes for cucumbers to share?  Besides pickles, I just canned 16 pints of pickles this weekend, that's more than enough for the year! OK, GO!

Corn and zucchini orzo salad

I know I've said this before but this is my LAST zucchini recipe for the summer...Im done with them.  I literally ripped the plants out of the ground.  Sort of sad, sort of a blessing in disguise.  I get squash borers each year and they ravage my zucchini plants to the point where they eat the fruit inside out and I get rotten squishy messes of zucchinis by the time they would be ripe to pick.  I will always continue to plant them, as I love zucchini in the summer...but by the time these borers have their way with my zucchini plants, Im already sick of it for the year anyway, so it's lucky I don't have to try to get rid of 20 lbs of crop per week.  Anyway, this was my last one...so I used it wisely! I have an abundance of fresh basil in my planter too so this recipe lept off the page at me...

Martha Stewart's Food came on Friday, I saw this and made it on Saturday since it looked like the perfect way to go out with my last zucchini of the year! I adapted it a little to fit what I had at the house so I didn't have to make a run to the store...

1 large zucchini, diced
2 cans mexicorn
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 box orzo
1 white onion, diced
2 fresh jalopenos, diced
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 cup fresh basil leaves torn up
4 oz feta cheese (I used reduced fat)

Cook the orzo according to directions.  I usually use chicken broth instead of water as it gives it more flavor but not much more fat. While the orzo is boiling (continue to stir randomly), mix zucchini, onion, garlic, and mexicorn up in a skillet with Pam to prevent sticking, and saute until they are tender.  Add to serving bowl along with all other ingredients, and mix well. Serve chilled as a pasta salad side dish...you can add or delete any of the ingredients, I added a 1/2 bag of broccoli since I had it in the fridge, and used 4 jalopenos instead of the 2 it called for in the recipe.  I also would add more feta next time as it was the star of the dish, but I didn't have enough on hand at the time.

Mini crab rangoons

The last of the asian inspired fakeouts are these crab rangoons.  These were not on the menu plan and I'm sure could be made better if I really thought about more ingredients but they tasted great, especially for a last minute throw together!  I had a box of the mini phyllo cups in the freezer to be used for something at a later date...not sure what I had in mind for those.  Thawed the crab and threw some green onions into the 8 oz container of fat free cream cheese, and we had our filling mixture. I forgot to take a picture before he used a lot of it up...

Spoon that into the mini phyllo cups, throw a dot of sriracha sauce on top, and bake at 425 degrees for 25 minutes.  Serve with sweet and sour sauce and remember you can have an extra one because they're baked and not fried :)

By the way....CURT made these!  Yep, you heard me.  He has actually become a pretty good help in the kitchen as long as I keep a beer in his hand and he's hungry enough to want to get to dinner quicker.  We were waiting for Justin to get home from work with Gary and Tony with Aly...so he dove right in and made the crab rangoon.  So seriously, if Curt can do this...don't be scared!

Buffalo chicken eggrolls

I may never buy Chinese takeout ever again.  No joke. All of the fakeout takeout food I made on Friday really hit the spot and was sooooo much better for us than eating fried and greased up food that we order in.  AND it was all super duper easy to boot. 

I was excited to make my own eggrolls with the leftover buffalo chicken sammies we had the day before.  I have never made egg rolls but it looks easy enough, right?  I don't really have measurements for all this, as I sort of made it up as I went...but it was super easy to wing it, way easier than I expected actually.

All you need is some cooked chicken with buffalo sauce (if you don't have leftovers like I did):

Some brocolli slaw covered in ranch dressing:

And some egg roll wrappers to roll them up in!

I'm no pro, but I just took the roll and tuck method and went with it...and it worked!  One trick I did learn was to brush some olive oil onto the lip of the roll before rolling it all the way up so it would stick to itself and stay shut. I ended up brushing the whole rig with olive oil so they would crisp up and not stick to the pan when baking (yes, these are baked and not FRIED).

I just rolled until I ran out of something...which ended up being the leftover chicken.  But I still had like 8 egg rolls so it was plenty for the amount of people we had eating.  Throw in the oven at 425 degrees on a baking sheet for about 25 minutes, flipping them over halfway through cooking time.

Final product.....nicely browned and crispy but not greasy and heavy like takeout egg rolls.  Serve with sweet and sour sauce, spicy mustard, or ranch...whatever floats your roll.  Egg roll wrappers are now on my list to always be stocked in the house, and I doubt the takeout place gets much business from us from here on out!

Seafood fried rice

What do you do when you have to make dinner for 6 people unexpectedly in an hour?  Fried rice.  I was soooo happy with how this turned out, was actually going to make this for dinner on Friday anyway, but it was very easy to add things to in order to make it a big enough meal for 6 rather than 2 people.

I had a half a bag each of leftover shrimp and scallops from the pasta the day before and thought it would be easy to make a seafood fried rice, since I wanted an asian meal to go with my buffalo chicken egg rolls that were really what I was excited to try! You could also do this with chicken, beef, or pork...depending on what you've got laying around.

So here's what you need:

1/2 lb shrimp
1/2 lb scallops
1/2 lb crab meat
3 cloves minced garlic
6 eggs
6 green onions
1/2 bag broccoli
*whatever other veggies you want to add, I went the easy way and used premade Teriyaki rice from Uncle Ben's so there were already a few peas in there but you could add peas or carrots or whatever you want to if you use normal rice. This is really a throw together whatever you've got dish...

Scramble the eggs with the diced onions and minced garlic...

Add your seafood and other veggies once the eggs are done, stir continuously so nothing gets torched on the bottom. The seafood shouldn't have too cook long, I would say 5-8 minutes on medium heat...

Cook your Uncle Ben's 90 second teriyaki rice in the microwave (for 6 people, I used 4 bags), and then add it to the skillet.  Mix together thouroughly and serve!

I added a bunch of soy sauce and sriracha sauce, because you all know I like my food to kick me in the mouth!  Mmmm, this was good and I had the minimal leftovers for brunch the next day!

Spicy scallop and shrimp rigatoni

I made a cream sauce from scratch!  I made a cream sauce from scratch! AND it wasn't even cream based so I wasn't guilt ridden after scarfing on it.  Sooooo proud of myself, as one of my goals is to improve on sauce and roux concocting.  This was a throw together meal...not very often do I come home and have no idea what I'm going to make for dinner.  I just wasn't craving anything in particular and nothing sounded that tempting...

So I went to the garden to check what had grown since the previous day....and came up with the last (thank goodness) zucchini, a single red chile pepper, and a handfull of cherry tomatoes that actually could've used another day on the vine, but whatev. They even arranged themselves in a nice little smiley face...

So I looked in the cupboard and found this...

Looked in the fridge to see pork chops, scallops, and shrimp thawed (you know I can't do a straight vegetarian meal).  Ditched the chops and stuck with the seafood delight...I diced up half of the zucchini and the whole pepper, threw in 3 diced green onions I had in the fridge, added 3 (yes, I said 3, I love me some garlic) minced garlic cloves, saw my herb planter and decided to add 4 ripped up basil leaves, threw in the tomatoes from the garden and sauted all of this in 2 T of olive oil for about 5 minutes on med-high heat, stirring constantly so as not to torch the garlic.  Can I tell you how great this smelled while cooking??  I was staaaaaarving!

I then added the shrimp and scallops for about 2 minutes (1/2 lb of each), continuing to stir.  But now I needed a sauce.  I had some chicken broth in the fridge so I added a cup and a half of that to the skillet, and allowed it to boil the scallops and shrimp.  The sauce needed thickening, so I added 1/2 to 3/4 cup reduced fat parmesan cheese, as well about a cup of shredded reduced fat mozzerella that I had a tiny hunk of in the fridge.  After mixing and allowing these cheeses and broth to meld, it came out to be a pretty substantial sauce...creamy but not super creamy where it feels heavy. 

I did add 1/2 T of crushed red pepper but could have gone without that, that one little pepper from the garden packed some heat!  Continue to boil this until the scallops are cooked through, which doesn't take long since you don't want to overdo them and have them rubberized.  The shrimp I used was precooked so I didn't want to overcook those either.  I threw the sauce over the wheat rigatoni (cooked al dente), and served with fresh basil leaves on top.  Mmmmmmmmm! Seriously one of my greater meals without having a plan to start with...usually I decide on things I would change next time but this was perfect and will be done again since it's all stuff I keep around the house on a regular basis.  All the flavors in the sauce melded together perfectly, the veggies were done to perfection, and who doesn't love a hearty seafood pasta with fresh veggies and some kick to it?  I'm glad there's leftovers :)