Caramel Pork Ribs and Scalloped Potatoes with Blue Cheese and Roasted Garlic

I made my husband very happy. He said, "this is the best meal we've had in a long time!" That's a compliment, not an insult to the other things I've been cooking. I knew what he meant :)

 

I received two cookbooks for Christmas. This recipe is from my boyfriend's, I mean David Lebovitz. He never fails me.

 

The recipes both take longer than average so it was perfect for one of my winter break days. Or maybe a lazy Sunday in the future. The caramel pork ribs start with a nice carmelized sugar, and then a quick douse in beer and bourbon. Mmmmmm. Throw in a few more ingredients and the ribs and then slow roasted for 2+ hours.

 

I was worried, even though the recipe said to expect this, when the sugar seized up and hardened with the addition of the beer. It ended up fine, of course, just like my boyfriend said. Our house smelled delicious. Who needs bottled BBQ sauce?!

The scalloped potatoes start with some roasted garlic, so that needed to smell up the house for 45 minutes. And then some cream, some mandolined potatoes, and all that layered with chives and crumbled blue cheese. Baked in the oven for a bit more than an hour, alongside the ribs.

 

 

 

 

 

P.S. to my friend Katy. I used Rush River beer. I didn't know which kind of beer DL meant in his recipe so I chose a beer that I wouldn't mind drinking after I used just 3/4 cup of a bottle :) IPA it was and I got to support my Bakko brewers!

 

Here's the top picture again but with no filters. I take the quickest pictures at our dinner table even though I know I should take pictures with better light. I hate to ruin the dinner mood and brighten up the whole joint. I also get embarassed that I take food pictures sometimes. I think Jim knows me by now though :)

 

 

 

We couldn't get over the sauces, on both foods. The sweet caramel with a hint of ginger. Mmmmmmm. And the blue cheese creamy goodness!

 

I think my little sis would say this entire dinner was "slap yo momma" good. I know I should have included a vegetable too but it was a busy day here with three 8 year olds running around (play date) and then with all the extra steps with two new recipes.

 

My little sis also provided the wine for this meal. I looked up BBQ ribs and wine and Google suggested a syrah. Yup, had that! Wine is good food. I felt so grown up today.

 

 

 

Click here for the stolen recipe for David Lebovitz's Caramel Pork Ribs. This blog has awesome pictures of the caramelized sugar, the beer addition, etc.

 

Click here for the stolen recipe for David Lebovitz's Scalloped Potatoes with Blue Cheese and Roasted Garlic.

 

 

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Crab Cakes with Ginger and Lime, with Triple Pork Fried Rice

The rice is from yesterday's meal but I was happy to have it to round out tonight's meal. My husband is crazy for anything ginger so I immediately bookmarked (or pinned) the crab cake recipe when I saw it.

Crab cakes are kind of indulgent for my summer budget and then I had to have a nice wine to with it, so this meal was an unexpected yayyyyyy! (Rosè wine not pictured.)

 

Yesterday I posted this pretty picture to Instagram and titled it "Bacon is pretty."

It was a lot of bacon but my husband digs it. He actually is drawn to the smell of bacon cooking...he comes into the kitchen to nibble it and I usually scold him.

The Triple Fried Rice called for bacon, ham, and chopped pork chops. I had canadian bacon so I called that close enough to ham.

The finished fried rice. Everything was cooked in small amounts of bacon grease. Yum.

 

I also posted this picture of the dirty dishes. I watched an interesting video yesterday about the lost art of cooking. So many Americans don't take the time to cook and instead rely on easy, processed foods. The average amount of cook time is 15-20 minutes, mainly to boil water or reheat proceeded food. That uses about a pot and very few other dishes, so the average time for dish washing is four minutes.

I'm kinda proud to tell you that my husband spends about 15 minutes doing the many dishes that I dirty- cutting boards, prep bowls, food processor parts, multiple pots and pans, etc.

Poor Jim!

 

I mixed the lump crab meat, cilantro, grated ginger, panko breadcrumbs, lime zest, green onions, mayo, and hot sauce about an hour before I wanted to sauté them.

 

I showed my son that these are made just like his beloved chicken sandwiches- dipping in flour, egg, and panko, but with crab. No go. He tried a bite and liked the crunch but not the crab. More for us?

One or two minutes per side in a bit of olive oil and butter and they were done!

We really enjoyed these. I could probably add a bit more ginger and hot sauce to kick these up a notch in flavor.

 

Click here for the stolen recipe for Crab Cakes with Ginger and Lime.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Triple Pork Fried Rice.

 

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Lighter Thai Inspired Wraps & Crunchy Asian Cabbage Salad (repeat)

I really love this picture. You can't get any more colorful than that!

 

This is a great combo! Some of the same ingredients are in each food, but it made it easier for chopping.

The peanut sauce in the wrap sandwich is awesome! I actually made a 1 1/2 recipe so we could enjoy it a bit more. (Good decision, Lisa. *pat on the back*) The sauce ingredients are all staples in our household, so even better. -lime juice, peanut butter, sesame oil, soy sauce, ground ginger-

I think we got all of our vitamins through vegetables in just this one meal! No complaints from the husband. He really did dig this meal.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Lighter Thai Inspired Wraps.

I've made the Crunchy salad before. This is the post where I wrote about it.

 

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Bacon and Brussel Sprout Salad

I KNOW Jim is sold on brussel sprouts now but I always try and include bacon when possible. I enjoy them that way too, so no harm done!

For this meal I made a roasted chicken, Thai style.

And the brussel sprout salad was plenty as a side. It was full of texture and tasty bits. Bacon, parmesan cheese, citrus, shredded sprouts, crunchy almonds, and a bit of olive oil.

 

It made a huge amount so I would scale this back a bit when I make it again. Or maybe not? I'm pretty sure we finished it all. The sprouts wilt a bit with the citrus and olive oil by the next day, but it was still good eating!

 

MUST MAKE THIS AGAIN SOON. My husband will kiss me to thank me, I'm sure!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Bacon and Brussel Sprout Salad.

 

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Bacon Ranch Potato Salad

I made this for the 4th of July. It is exactly what you think! Lots of green onion, chives, bacon, and potatoes in a creamy dressing. I did under-salt, as I tend to do, but that was easily remedied at the table.

How can you go wrong with bacon?

Click here for the stolen recipe for Bacon Ranch Potato Salad.

 

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Crispy Parmesan Asparagus Sticks

Yum!  Asparagus!  You gotta love Sam's Club because of their cheap, huge bundles of asparagus.  I've been quick-steaming (cheating) asparagus in the microwave for omelettes too, so the asparagus does NOT get wasted around here.

Anyway, these were great.  Slightly crispy.  I think maybe if I sprayed them with cooking spray too they'd be even more crispy.  Also, I think the crumb mixture could have used a bit of salt or some other spice.  But the idea is good!

We served these with the BBQ spareribs.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Crispy Parmesan Asparagus Sticks.

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!

Grilling- Asian inspired meal

Jim received a great grilling cookbook from my sister Ana for his birthday. It is called The Cook's Illustrated Guide to Grilling and Barbeque. The first page that I opened the book up to called our names.

We made Thai Grilled Chicken Breasts with Spicy, Sweet and Sour Dipping Sauce, Coconut Curried Fried Rice, and Sesame Lemon Cucumber Salad.

I almost think we had too many flavors on our plate. They were all VERY good. Everything smelled AMAZING too. I am nuts for coconut so the rice really, really appealed to me. It was also a bit spicy from the curry paste so that was great too.

I did prep everything- the brine, the chicken rub, the sides- but Jim gets lots of credit for the grilling because I don't know even know how to turn it on :) Without Jim this meal wouldn't have been possible.

Lots of spice in the rice. My rice cooker bowl is permanently stained yellow I think. Oh well. The rice cooked with coconut milk... mmmmm......

This dipping sauce was THE BOMB. So easy.

The rub was also pretty easy. I always thought rubs were dry ingredients, but this was one was really wet with lots of lime juice, oil, and spices. Jim said it flared up a bit in the grill but luckily enough of the rub was also placed under the chicken skin. It was really flavorful and MOIST (Ana!) because of the brining.

James stole his Daddy's seat at the table. Too bad he didn't try the grub.

The recipes for the Chicken and then the Cucumber Salad were both from the cookbook. I did find the recipes online and they are linked below. The rice recipe is from a trusty food blogger.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Thai Grilled Chicken Breasts with Spicy, Sweet, and Sour Dipping Sauce.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Sesame Lemon Cucumber Salad.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Coconut Curried Fried Rice.