Slow Smoked Spareribs with Sweet-and-Sour BBQ Sauce

My husband is loving his grill.  I am loving that he is liking to help with dinners!

He followed a recipe in his Weber's Way to Grill book but he used a different technique than slow smoking.  He followed the directions for "stacking" the ribs, which took about 2 hours less time.

Lots going on with these ribs.  There was a dry rub.  There was a "mop" (like a baste?)   There was a BBQ sauce.  Good work, Jimmy!

We found this recipe in one of our grilling cookbooks but the recipe is online too-

Click here for the stolen recipe for Slow-Smoked Spareribs with Sweet-and-Sour Sauce.

Chocolate Fountain

When I can I join some of my teacher friends at 12:30 for lunch. We decided today would be the day to break in my chocolate fountain. I received it from my M-O-M for my birthday. Can you believe it took me this long to find an occasion for it??

So everyone brought dippables- we had quite the spread of strawberries, bananas, graham crackers, brownie bites, angel food cake, Oreos, rice krispy bars, and marshmallows. Oh yes. We totally got into this!

This is my friend Ann's plate before all the dippables got to the staff lounge. We are not ashamed to admit that we helped ourselves to second plates (:

Everyone has asked so I'll mention that the chocolate needs to be melted beforehand with a bit of cooking oil so that it remains fluid. It then gets poured into the preheated fountain and then it cascades beautifully in a sinful display of chocolate. I followed the directions that came with the fountain.

Thanks friends for a great festive treat- what a great way to end 2nd trimester!

And yes I am still giggling over the one picture I took of the fountain in action! I think middle schoolers are rubbing off on me!

Gobble until you Wobble!

My Thanksgiving plate: Herb Roasted Turkey with Sage Gravy, Double Bread Stuffing with Brown Butter, Bacon and Sage, Squash, Green Bean Casserole, PW Mashed Potatoes, and Cranberry Sauce.

The Tauer family came over for Thanksgiving. To prep we made these cute Oreo turkeys the night before. James enjoyed putting the parts together :)

We put a turkey at each place setting. James helped! It was also a good way to prepare James for guests. He knew who was coming over and he was excited for them to see his turkeys.

We needed to break out a card table. I was determined that this wouldn't be a "kid's table" Kara (college student) isn't a kid! I knew I would be insulted to be called a kid at that age :)

Oh there's Kara, relaxing on the massage chair. I went downstairs to give the 10 minute warning for food and found lots of fun in the basement. Massage chair...

Video games...

Wild claw!

Pool.

I am SO THANKFUL for this little boy.

This ended up being the "Cool Table".

The turkey before (with lots of herbed butter)-

And after!

I tackled yeast again. Buttery Cloverleaf rolls.

THE BEST Green Bean Casserole. The mushroom sauce was killer. We think we might need to make some and just eat it as SOUP.

Double Bread Stuffing with Brown Butter, Bacon and Sage. You just can't go wrong with my favorite breads- cornbread and sourdough... Mmmmmmmm. And hello? BACON!

I didn't get a picture of Laura's squash. It's pictured on my plate above!

Simple cranberry sauce.

Roger and Linda brought Wild Rice Soup.

They also brought dessert- apple pie and pumpkin trifle (layered with gingerbread, pumpkin pudding, cool whip).

Again, I didn't get many pictures with family but here is James saying goodbye to Grandma Laura. He was pretty cranky towards the end so I'm glad she got a hug :)

We are thankful for so much! Thank you Familia :)

Click here for the stolen recipe for Thanksgiving Pioneer-Style Herb Roasted Turkey with Sage Gravy.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Pioneer Woman's Creamy Mashed Potatoes. I didn't end up baking the potatoes but while they were still hot I put them in the crockpot to keep warm.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Buttery Cloverleaf Rolls.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Double Bread Stuffing with Brown Butter, Bacon, and Sage.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Cook's Illustrated Green Bean Casserole.

We also served Ginger Tea Lemonade. Yum. Click here for the stolen recipe for Ginger Tea Lemonade. Jim is becoming the Master of GTL!

Soy Lime Pork Tenderloin

Easy easy meal. I followed this recipe and let our pork tenderloin marinate overnight. The marinade was just a matter of dumping a bunch of ingredients in a ziploc with the tenderloin. Done!

The rest of the meal was kid friendly. Our little boy has been under the weather and barely eating enough to keep a bird alive so I was pretty confident he'd eat his beloved macaroni shells and "little trees".

Anyway, back to the pork... It was extremely tender and delicious. I don't know if a lot of the flavors made it through the grilling but the blackened crust held on to a lot of the flavors and every so often a bite would be packed with lime or salty flavor. We agreed that we would make this again, with no changes.

Jim reported that the grilling was a breeze. 24 minutes total, turning the tenderloin a quarter turn every 6 minutes.

I did think about boiling the marinade left in the ziploc for a sauce. It's worth a try!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Soy Lime Pork Tenderloin.

Classic Patty Melts on Rye

I've really enjoyed Jim's grilling lately!

He's been inspired by his newest cookbook but for this recipe he turned to another book that he has- Weber's Way to Grill. This was a pretty easy recipe, for both Jim and ME. I only had to make the coleslaw :)

These were probably a pretty basic burger but the rye bread, caramelized onions, and Swiss cheese really, really added to it. Wow. I didn't even know I liked rye bread! Good job Jim, for picking out a great recipe :)

The money shot-

This recipe is from one of our cookbooks but I found the recipe online.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Classic Patty Melts on Rye.