Sweet and Spicy Ribs

I found a nice recipe in Gourmet's Grilling magazine and can't wait to serve it to my family tonight. The total time from start to finish is 5 1/2 hours so start early unlike me today, so dinner will be a little later than normal!

Make a rub: 2 Tbsp. of packed dark brown sugar, 2 Tbsp of paprika (not hot), 1 1/2 tsp. chipotle chili powder, 1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin, 1 tsp. ground allspice, 2 2 lb. racks of baby back ribs and 3 cups of BBQ mop (which is a sauce).

Whisk together brown sugar, spices, 1 1/2 tsp. salt, and 1/2 tsp. of black pepper in a small bowl. Line an 18 by `3 by 1 inch heavy-duty baking sheet with a double layer of foil, then oil foil. Arrange ribs in pan and rub all over the spice mixture. Marinate, meaty sides up, covered and chilled, 2 1/2 hours. Bring ribs to room temperature, about 30 minutes. Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover pan tightly with boil and bake for 1 1/4 hours. Remove foil. Prepare grill for cooking over indirect heat with medium-hot charcoal (medium heat for gas).
Lightly oil grill rack, then transfer ribs to area of rack with no coals underneath (or shut off the burner), reserving pan juices, and cook, covered with lid, baste generously with pan juices and BBQ sauce turning over and rotating ribs every 10 minutes (over indirect heat), until tender and browned. Very yummy. There was a "mop sauce" to go with this, but I didn't dig it. Fulls Eye BBQ Sauce is nice to baste ribs in.

Peach Tart - Easy As Pie

OK - this is tooooo easy to make, impressive and delish. Trust me on this. Tonight I served a yummo easy dinner, gourmet hotdogs with carmelized onions, cheese, tapenade, bacon, peppers, the works, together with a red cabbage salad with a creamy ginger dressing. Alrighty then, on to the peach tart.

6-8 peeled and sliced peaches, puffed pastry, 1/3 cup of sugar, 1/2 tsp. of cinnamon and a few tiny dollops of butter, like 1/2 tsp. X 4.

That's it my friends. :)

So you toss the peeled sliced peaches in the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Roll out the puffed pastry into a circle and lift gently onto an ungreased baking sheet.

Put all the peaches in the centre of the rolled out round puff pastry and fold the pastry all around into the centre. It won't cover all the peaches and in fact there will be about 5 inches around of peaches exposed. You can sprinkle another 1 tbsp. of sugar over the exposed peaches and top with dollops of butter, brush the pastry with an egg wash (one egg white and a couple of tbsp. of milk) and bake for 1/2 hour at 400 degrees.

It's gorgeous, easy, and delicious. Impress perhaps your usually unimpressed inlaws with it this summer!

Easy and Gorgeous Preserved Lemons

Oh I'm too excited for these. In fact, they piqued huge interest at the market the other day when I bought 2 dozen lemons and a box of 1 litre canning jars. The cashier asked me, "what are you making?" "Preserved lemons" I said! "What for?" She asked. "It's Moroccan cooking," I replied "and preserved lemons are used in vinaigrettes, roast chicken, in pasta for lemon spaghetti, or how about bouillabaisse....endless....possibilities..." "Well tell me how they turn out and come back and give me the recipe." So my friends, I don't know how they'll turn out, but they are b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l in the jars and they're tucked up in my pantry awaiting their debut. I will have to look again, but these lemons should be in their jars for about 3-4 months which will bring us into fall/winter.

For the record, these lemons I'm preserving are being put into a brine, whereas many people just salt the lemons, put into the jars and do it that way, which I believe is the authentic Moroccan way.

24 lemons, 3 quarts of water in a pot with 2 1/2 cups of sea or Kosher Salt, and some nice spices like, 4 cinnamon sticks if you like with a couple of tablespoons of anise seed, and bay leaf, then 1/4 cup of olive oil.

First you want to sterilize your jars, I do mine in the dishwasher - not with the lids though - I just rinsed the lids.

Now put the water and salt with the spices into a pot and bring to a simmer and turn off. Meanwhile you are going to make a double slit on either end of each lemon about 1/2 an inch long so the salty brine will seep into the lemon and peel.

Start stuffing lemons into each jar, you will probably get six in each one (really press them in so they're tight).

Once one jar is complete, pour the brine into the jar, throw in a bay leaf or two, top with 1/4 cup of olive oil, twist the lid on and take a picture!

Continue until your four jars are all done.

They are so pretty let me tell you. Store them in a cool and dark place and open in about 4 months. Once opened, refrigerate and use up within two weeks. Imagine what perdy Christmas gifts these would make!

Easy Olive Tapenade Stuffed Bread

Since I was making a stuffed pulled pork sandwich, I thought I'd make an olive tapenade one while I waited for the pork and yes indeed, I thought I'd died and gone to Tuscany. Sooooo amazing.

Easy Version: Make bread dough in your bread machine or by already made and frozen bread dough at the market or deli.

Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out on a floured surface to about a 12 by 9 inch triangle.

Spread store bought olive tapenade over the dough and roll up the bread short or long side (the short end roll up will give your bread a swirly look when you cut into it and the the long end roll up with have just the solid stuffing with no design).

Put the stuffed bread dough into a prepared pan. Brush olive oil over top and sprinkle with a little sea salt if you like and some rosemary herb too! Cook for about 1 hour or until nice and toasty brown and the top of the bread is hollow sounding when you tap it.

****After note: My hubby loved the bread but thought the tapenade was a tiny bit salty, whereas I thought it was the perfect amount of salt. If you prefer less salty, tone it down by making a stuffing of sliced canned olives and tapenade and taste before you stuff the bread.

Guy Fieri's Inspired Bread Stuffed With Pulled Pork

OK everyone, this is just too amazing to behold and eat. I made two versions of this pulled pork stuffed sandwich (one was a simple version for my one son who doesn't love too many spices) and then I made one more spicy and they were both devoured over two days.

I do have a picture of this, which I will be happy to download, just need my hubby home to show me

Recipe:

You will need, one pork roast, either a blade or a butt, 6 cooked pieces of bacon, 1 cup of chopped and sauteed onion, 1/2 cup of chopped and sauteed red pepper, 1/4 cup of Havarti cheese, 2 tbsp. of unsalted butter.

If you'd like to make your own chipotle mayo here is Guy's recipe for that( I buy the chipotle mayo packs from Panago Pizza): 1/4 cup of Hellman's mayo, 2 tbsp. of chili sauce, 1 tbsp. of minced chipotle pepper in adobo, 1/2 cup of cilantro, mix it all together.

Slow Cooker: I used a slow cooker to cook my pork, but it's easy to also cook pulled pork in the oven.

Bread Dough: You can do one of three things. You can buy frozen bread dough for this recipe from the super market or deli, you can make it in your bread machine, or you can make it from scratch. I made a Parmesan Onion Bread Dough in my bread machine.



I seasoned up my pork with a variety of spices and put it into a slow cooker until it was done about 6 hours later.

Let it cool, get a plate, and begin "pulling" the pork apart and put the meat on the plate. I then tossed in about 4-5 tbsp. of "pulled pork sauce" I bought at the store, though I'm sure over time, I will try making the cider vinegar sauce from scratch.

"Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and using a rolling pin roll out the dough into a rectangle about 12 by 9 inches."

Spread generously with chipotle mayonnaise, top with the pulled pork, and sprinkle with onion, roasted pepper, bacon and cheese. Feel free to add pepper to it.

"From the short side gently roll up the dough "jelly roll" style, tucking in the ends as you go. Place the dough roll in a prepared loaf pan, brush with melted butter. Bake at 325 degrees for an hour to an hour and a half (all ovens are different). When done you will hear a slight hollow sound when you tap the bread.

It looks so impressive and it's easy to make!!!

Recipes and Technology...

It's soooooo not true, but every so once in a while I feel like a blogger that's all talk and no action. I've dreams of creating a million great recipes and if I could I would, cook and create and take photos all day long in my kitchen. For the past couple of months I've been joyfully busy as all moms are running my kids around and most of the time, just getting dinner or lunch on the table. I could possibly record every meal that I serve to my kids but most of them are all ready tried and true and in this blog....that's why I urge you to start from the beginning. I've five years of divine concoctions and I'm trying new ones all the time and too excited to share them with you.

But here's the other part...I'm techologically challenged and have of late taken so many beautiful pictures of a ton of recipes but still need to master my computer to download them.

I'm not going to wait any longer and just post the recipes even if they don't have pictures....at the moment. They are coming!

Ideas....

I made spaghetti sauce the other night for my family and added, 2 tbsp. of of olive tapenade! So delish. Try it, it adds a nice flavour to it

A List of Summer Must Recipes

I am putting together a little dream list of food I can't wait to make this summer:

Homemade ice cream and fancy popcycles
The best steak that ever lived...oooh, that didn't sound good
Five around the world updated potato salads - sorry paprika and mayo, you're out
Cherry Hand Pies like those hot burn your lips off pies McDonald's used to bake
The best ever shucked oyster dipping sauces
Two incredible summer cocktails
Rose and Raspberry-Infused Blancmange
An Heirloom Tomato Stack
Arugula Pesto
Moist Summer Berry Pudding
Summer Sugar Cookies
Appetizers, TBD.....

I'm dreaming....oh yah...more to come!

The Newbeats - Bread and Butter (1964)