Game Day Ribs

 I have been slacking major with the blog posts lately. Oops. I need to get better at this! 

 Nevertheless, we had a pretty great weekend despite our Mountaineers getting slaughtered by Texas Tech. We got up that morning and I played 'Horse' and 'Whale' with my two little neighbor boys (7 and 14). That was a lot of fun. I come from a pretty close knit family and being away from them is anything but easy. Which makes having neighbors that became our family away from home even more special to me. I love them. Garyn (7) always got to go first because he could spell horse and whale the best! ;)

 Then, Steve and I made a quick grocery store run to pick up ingredients to make the 'best ribs ever' (according to Steven) and stopped on the side of the road to buy some pumpkins for me to paint. I only got 1 rack (the recipe called for 3) and they were HOUSED within 30 minutes of being finished by just the 2 of us. I started them before the game started,  they were finished by half time and gone by the 4th quarter. Our game was so horrible that I went outside at the beginning of the 4th quarter and drowned my football sorrows with some pumpkin painting.

 Here is the rib recipe... Seriously, try them they are AMAZING!

Sweet-And-Spicy Baby Back Ribs

2 lb. rack baby back pork ribs

Juice of 1 lemon

1/2 c. beer (I used Leinenkugal Sunset Wheat)

4 tablespoons butter

8 cloves garlic, thinly sliced (I used 3 GIANT cloves)

1 tbsp. chile powder

1 c. thai sweet chili sauce

2 tbsp. backed brown sugar

1/3 c. rice vinegar (found with the Asian food- NOT with the other vinegar as one would expect)

 Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Put the rib meat-side down on a cutting board and remove the membrane with a knife (fortunately, my wonderful neighbor did this step for me because raw pork makes me gag). Rub the ribs with lemon juice and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place the ribs bone-side down in roasting pan, then add beer. Cover with foil and cook in oven until meat pulls away from the bone. Took an hour and 35 minutes.

 Meanwhile, melt the butter in a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and cook until golden (about 4 minutes). Add the chili powder and let cook for 1-2 minutes. Stir in chile sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, and 1 c. of water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to simmer and let the sauce thicken for about 40 minutes (stirring occasionally) (warning this makes your house smell super amazing!).

 Remove ribs from the oven and turn the temperature up to 400 degrees. Remove the foil and stir 1/4 c. of the liquid from the pan into the sauce then toss away the rest. Pour the sauce over the ribs making sure that it has a good coating all over. Save about 1/4-1/2 cup of the sauce. Return to the oven and cook for another 35 minutes. I kept opening the oven to spoon the sauce onto the top of the ribs (and burned myself pretty badly). 

 Cut the ribs then return to the roasting pan and pour the remaining sauce on them. Toss around and then serve. 

 I found this recipe in a food network magazine and I hope that I am not breaking any copyright laws by posting it in my blog! 

 Warning: these ribs are seriously delicious!  

 Like I previously said, after I stuffed myself with ribs I painted some pumpkins... I will post more step-by-step instructions on this process later (it is still an unfinished project) but here is a picture I took last night (in the dark) to curb your excitement until I get around to giving them their own post...

 On a final note- at the grocery store on Saturday they had coffee creamer on sale for 2/$4.00 and I went a little cray cray...

 This morning I had 2 cups of coffee and used the Smore's and the Cold Stone Sweet Cream one. They were DELISH. The smore's one was a little weird but it was still really good... I'll let you know about the other two tomorrow! Yuuuummmmm. #coffeeaddictproblems :)

 Hope that you had a great weekend! If you make the ribs or have any delicious rib recipes of your own share your recipes/experiences with me! I'd love to hear about it!