Slow-roasted, Rubbed Ribs!

What a crazy week!

We had our big Cousin Palooza reunion this weekend. Lawyer Boy and Finance Boy came home from New York City.

They looked great.

They let me feed them.

Lawyer Boy brought home a girl for us to meet.

****VERY EXCITING!!!!****

We really liked her! I'm already picking out linens and bath towels! :)

Seriously, it was great fun, and the best thing of all was the racks of ribs I made for Friday night....

Mouth watering. Fork tender. Deliciosa!!!!! I bought a huge pack of baby back ribs from Sam's Club... And by huge, I mean 3 full racks about 2 feet long. I cut them into 2-3 rib sections, then rubbed each section down with the rub recipe below... I used two roaster pans so I could lay them out, that way they brown better...

First, I made a rub and got the idea from here: Food.Com   I adjusted it for us by adding salt and left off the smoke. I'm not big on artificial smoke flavor

1 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Tablespoon Paprika
1 Tablespoon Granulated Garlic
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon Cajun

(This gave me the sweet/savory with just a little bite I was looking for.)

Rub each 2-3 rib section with rub, lay in roasting pan. Cover with foil. Cover with foil again, to double seal the ribs. You want the moisture to stay in the pan, so I tucked one big piece of heavy duty foil over the ribs, then another piece over the top of the pan. Seal tightly.

Bake at 350 ° for about two-to-three hours. Unseal and add water after first ninety minutes if necessary. I found it was, but my convection oven might pull moisture away with the fan. We want them roasted, not burned.

Serve with your favorite barbecue sauce on the side, or (and I did this) swab them down with barbecue sauce, recover, and let heat another ten minutes, just long enough to heat the sauce.

I used Sweet Baby Rays, but Famous Dave's Rich and Sassy would have been good, too!

I don't think I took one picture. It was just too crazy here to even think about pics. Beth is the family photographer, so she took a bunch, but we've been crazy around here, and had no internet for two days, so she couldn't just upload them and send them to me.

But we've got a few fun things to show you!!!

Graduation time at Ruthy's!!!! My five-year-olds are heading to Kindergarten and I'm heading toward semi-retirement! It's been the best five years of my life, loving, and rocking, and holding, and teaching and scolding these sweet babies! And now they're off on a new adventure in September...

And I'll cry, and then I'll have a cup of QUIET COFFEE!!! And I'll stop crying and write some more books!

Casey decorated the cake... Didn't she do a wonderful job???  And notice I didn't get the shelves behind them cleaned off before their party! EEEK! But they're five, and they don't care!

We had punch and cake and we marched in to Pomp and Circumstance and I GAVE A SPEECH!!! A very short speech, and I didn't blubber.... But I wanted to!

And then there's this, MacKenzie as "Mac-a-Doodle" the clown, with her other grandma "Freckles" the clown!!!

How stinkin' adorable are they??? Tonight Mac-a-Doodle and Freckles will be marching in our hometown parade!!! We get to cheer them on! Best life ever, life in a small town.

Try those ribs, they were the best I've ever had or made. True words. :)

And I am honestly thrilled to introduce my new historical novella series in this just-released collection! "The Pastor Takes a Wife" is the opening novella of my "Sewing Sister Society" series, set in the fictional town of Second Chance, South Dakota. When independent widow Hattie McGillicuddy decides to head west, her mission becomes an opportunity to help women start a new life-- a new hope-- and maybe a new love! With each story, Hattie brings another young woman out of the darkness of the East Coast cities and into the wide open prairies of opportunity! And that very first story is right here in...

With This Spark   (yes, it's a live link to take you to Amazon if you'd like to go there!)

Available for Kindles or devices with a Kindle app! I am over the top about this sweet bunch of novellas from me, Mary Connealy, Pam Hillman and Myra Johnson... and yes, we kept it priced low to tempt you in because we want you to get a taste of our work, our voice, our style!

Wishing you a lovely end of the week, and a busy, fun, family-filled weekend! God bless you!

Ruthy  (The Yank)

12 Bones and White Squirrels, A Weekend Vacation

School bells are ringing. Weather is changing. Folks run out of money after long trips. But don't despair the summer coming to an end. Make it last a little longer with weekend trips.  

Here in North Carolina there are plenty of weekends still ahead. Sometimes we head to the beach but this past weekend, we headed to the mountains to see my dad and his wife.

Nothing beats that first view of the mountains. Now, I know you western types are laughing. Those are mountains? Well, as my dad likes to say, yours are bigger but they're bald.  Ours have trees - and just wait until they turn!

The mountains of North Carolina around Asheville have plenty of great hiking trails. Asheville and the surrounding towns have great general stores, artist studios and antique shops. And there are always unexpected finds like this sage green dress from the 1870s. Several writer friends have already said they are claiming it for their heroine on their next book cover.

The restaurants range from home-cookin' to high-falutin'.  This visit we went to my favorite rib place of all time, 12 bones in Arden. The restaurant is in a rescued auto repair shop, stripped bare with papertowel rolls on the tables and plenty of seating. They need it. 12 Bones opens at 11am has a line out the door til 4pm.  Every day there is a selection of rib flavors. For your half rack (six bones) or full rack (12 bones), you can get nekked (my preference), brown sugar (ManO's fave), on up to exotic flavors like chipotle blueberry. All the sides are homemade from their collards to cole slaw to mashed sweet potatoes. And their baked beans, oh, their baked beans.  

Man's O's plate of brown sugar ribs. He got my cornbread.

Since my dad is recovering from heart surgery, we spent a lot of time just walking around the neighborhood and visiting, listening to family lore that stretches back to the Revolutionary War. I get my love of writing and storytelling from my dad. When you have Scottish rebels, Golden Knights, a dad who sang, with his church's kids' choir, to a hundred year old Confederate soldier, it's very entertaining.

And then there was dominoes. We always play dominoes when we go visit Dad and Selena.

The best excitement? The white squirrel arrived. He's a crafty thing who picks and chooses when he wants to show up but he did for our visit. These are not albino squirrels but a separate species and so plentiful the other side of the mountain, the town of Brevard has a fun White Squirrel Festival. I've been there and bought the tee-shirt, my grandkidlets' favorite.   

Before we knew it, the weekend was over and we headed back home. Full of memories and still money in our wallet.

So, what is your favorite weekend getaway in your neck of the woods? Do you have a favorite thing to do, restaurant or family tale to listen to when you're visiting? 

BBQ - Texas Style!

Mindy here. Last week was spring break here in Texas, so we spent the week at the ranch. And time at the ranch always means keeping the gang well fed. They work hard, play hard, and want to eat hardy. So I aim to please.

One thing my men can't seem to get enough of is barbecue. Now, growing up in Michigan, I thought barbecue was anything you cooked on the grill. Later, I thought it was anything drenched in bbq sauce. Then I moved to Texas and learned that barbecue--real barbecue--is smoked BEEF brisket, ribs, chicken, sausage.... Now I know there are some who think bbq should be pork. With all due respect, they're wrong. These Texans know what they're doing when it comes to meat. Especially beef.

By the way, this is one of those prepare-at-least-a-day-ahead dishes. So here we go.

First thing you need is a beef brisket. There's the big slab-o-meat that comes in the cryovac packaging, called "Packer trimmed" but they have a THICK layer of fat across the back. You do want a layer of fat, just not that much. Which means you have to trim and trim and trim.

Then I discovered the "market trimmed" version. Much better. And no trimming involved.

So you want to season up that meat real nice. Everyone has their favorite kind of "rub." Oh, and just for the record, I don't rub. I sprinkle and that's it. I don't "sop" either. I simply season my meat with a generous portion of kosher salt, garlic powder, pepper, and some of Emeril's Essence (does anyone else find that a strange name?) Remember, this is a thick cut of meat, so don't skimp on the seasoning. You want it to permeate the whole thing.

My fire in the smoker box is looking pretty good. I use both charcoal and wood. Sometimes I only use charcoal. I had some nice mesquite pieces on hand, so I added those. Just remember to keep your fire stoked. You don't want big flames, but enough to produce some heat in the cooking chamber.

Note:  At home I have a vertical, cylindrical-type smoker, so my fire goes in the bowl at the bottom. Still, I have to make sure the coals are ready before I add the meat to the top portion.

Place your brisket in the smoker box, fat side up.

Just look at that smoke swirling around. That's some good flavor there.

You're going to let that stay on the smoker a minimum of four hours. I recommend four to six, but you can go longer. This day, I think it stayed on for ten hours because I was so busy enjoying the beautiful weather.

I didn't want my ribs to cook quite that long, so I waited until the brisket had been on a couple of hours before I added them. Season 'em up the same way and slide those piggies beside the brisket. Yes, I use pork ribs.

After a few hours, the outside of both meats will get a nice, somewhat dry-looking, coating. And don't worry about them being cooked all the way through before you take them off. I'll get to that in a bit.

After they've had enough time to absorb some of that wonderful smoke flavor (don't forget to keep stoking your fire at least once every hour, hour and a half), remove them from the smoker and wrap in at least two layers of heavy duty aluminium foil. If it's not heavy duty foil, you'll want to use more layers. Then place the foil-wrapped meat in a 200 degree oven overnight.

Depending on when you plan to serve the meat, you can leave it in a warm oven or put it in the fridge or freezer, after it's cooled, that is.

Doesn't that look good? I was so busy drooling that I forgot to take a picture of the ribs. I also forgot to get one of the brisket all sliced up, but you'll want to slice it relatively thin.

I like my brisket au naturel, like my SIL on the left. However, some folks prefer a little sauce, like our buddy, Jim on the right. And, of course, no barbecue meal is complete without some pinto beans. But that's a recipe for another day.

Happy eating, y'all.