Ribs. Oh, Ribs!

Ribs are fantastic. They're great for families and parties... as long as you have a little sister  wet wipes handy!  I love them because there's very little hands-on time. If we make them during the winter, they make the apartment smell amazing! I make them during the summer too... we just stay in the air conditioned rooms while they're baking, and we finish them off on the grill instead of the broiler.

Proudly sharing the dry rub recipe that we use on both spare ribs and baby back ribs.

Spare Ribs (Broiler finished)

Spare Ribs (Broiler finished)

Spare Ribs (Grill finished)

Baby Back Ribs (Broiler finished)

Ribs... Oh, Ribs!

Makes 2 racks of ribs

Ingredients

Two racks of ribs (baby back or spare ribs)

1 Tablespoon Brown Sugar

1 Tablespoon Paprika

1 Tablespoon Coriander

1 Tablespoon Chili Powder (Not the chili mix, straight chili powder)

2 Tablespoons Kosher Salt

1 Teaspoon Freshly Ground Pepper

(Based on this proportion, I make large batches and keep the mix in an airtight container.)

Directions

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

1. Generously cover both sides of the ribs with the rub. 

2. Wrap each rack of ribs in foil. Place on a rimmed baking sheet (there's a good chance that the foil will rip and leak... but that's ok.)

3. Bake, fat side UP, for 4 hours. 

4. Remove from oven. Open foil and let cool for a few minutes.

5. When cool enough to handle, remove foil and gently place ribs on broiler rack.

6. Use whatever barbecue sauce or combination of sauces that you like, using your hands (or a brush, if you're fancy) rub both sides of the ribs with the BBQ sauce. Use just enough to cover. Don't over-sauce the ribs.

7. Set broiler on "Hi". Broil the rack of ribs, fat side up, for 3 minutes, just enough to caramelize the barbecue sauce. 

8. Cool, cut and serve!

Eat, Drink & Be Yummy!

Baked Vietnamese Pork Meatballs

Vietnamese food didn't truly enter my life until my mid/late 20's. Not counting Thai, I was late getting on the Southeast Asian bandwagon. I'm not a huge fan of spicy food and I was intimidated that the level of spice was heightened in Vietnamese cuisine. But oh, Pho... and oh Bahn Mi!!! On a recent lunch date with a wonderful friend at Mooncake Foods, we shared their Vietnamese Pork Meatball Hero. It inspired me to recreate it at home.

Baked Vietnamese Pork Meatball Sandwich with Pickled Daikon and Carrot Salad

Introducing Vietnamese flavors to the kids wasn't difficult because of their existing love of Thai food. For this recipe, you'll see that the kids did all of the measuring and mixing... Feel free to make half of the recipe or make smaller meatballs. This recipe is enough for our family to eat a meal and then have leftovers... and I love leftovers!

Trader Joe's Basil Cubes... a great shortcut when you don't have fresh basil!

Fish. Sauce.

Scallions!

::Sigh::
It looked so pretty, until the cornstarch was plopped into the bowl. 

Child labor laws don't apply here

Glossy and beautiful pork

15 of the 16 beautiful uncooked meatballs (thank you, ice cream scooper!)

15 of the 16 beautiful cooked meatballs (thank you, ice cream scooper!)

I really do have a thing for ground meat (uncooked)

             

Same shot (cooked)

Scoop out the baguette and toast it

Spread the Sweet Chili Mayo on the toasted baguette

Bring it all together... Vietnamese Pork Meatball sandwich

Baked Vietnamese Pork Meatballs

Makes 16 1/4 cup meatballs

Adapted from epicurious

Ingredients

Meatballs
2 pound ground pork

6 cubes Trader Joe's frozen basil, defrosted 

1 tablespoon dried basil (or 1/3 cup fresh, finely chopped basil)
5 garlic cloves, finely minced
8 scallions, finely chopped
2 tablespoons Trader Joe's Sweet Chili Sauce

2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
4 teaspoons cornstarch
2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoon coarse kosher salt

bunch of cilantro (when making sandwich)

Sweet Chili Mayo
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1 1/2 tablespoons Trader Joe's Sweet Chili Sauce
Mix together!

Pickled Daikon and Carrot Salad from White On Rice Couple. 

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Position rack in the middle of the oven.

Make the Meatballs
1. In a large bowl, combine all meatball ingredients.
2. Using a 1/4 cup ice cream scoop, scoop out 16 meatballs onto a rimmed baking sheet. 
3. Bake for 23-25 minutes.

Make the Hero Sandwich
4. Cut each baguette or baguette piece horizontally in half. Pull out enough bread from each bread half to leave 1/2-inch-thick shell. Toast.
5. Spread sweet chili mayo over each bread shell. 
6. Place two meatballs on bottom bread and top with drained Daikon and Carrot Salad and cilantro leaves. Close sandwich.

Eat, Drink & Be Yummy!

Sausage, Rice & Haricot Vert

Many of our meals are the product of leftovers. With three kids and frequent visitors, leftovers are not only inevitable, but many times, they're intentional.  I will make enough basmati rice for chili on Monday, to use as a plain side on Tuesday and then maybe make a paella on Wednesday. Having the premade rice in the refrigerator takes a step out of meal planning and also saves me time. 

Sausage & Rice

Today I'm posting two ways to use leftover rice. Savory in this post and Candied Ginger Baked Rice Pudding.

In this recipe, I used Trader Joe's Hofbrau Brats. My TJ's doesn't always stock these, but they're always available around Oktoberfest. I love them because they don't have fennel seeds (my personal dislike) and their flavor is not too strong. Feel free to use any sausage you like and whatever type of rice you like. And "haricot vert"? They're just skinnier and fancier string beans :) No haricot vert around? Substitute with any other freshly steamed vegetable!

Remove casing from sausage

Roughly chop the sausage

Dice an onion

Saute the onion in olive oil until they brown

Add chopped sausage and saute until you can't see any pink meat.

Add chicken stock and warm through

Add rice and toss to warm through

Plate with sausage and rice with haricot vert and watch out for quick little hands!

Sausage, Rice & Haricot Vert

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 Tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, diced

2 teaspoons Trader Joe's crushed garlic

1 pound Trader Joe's Hofbrau Brats, casing removed and chopped (or other sausage you like) 

1/2 cup chicken stock (or water)

2-3 cups pre-cooked basmati rice

Kosher Salt

Freshly Ground Pepper

1 package Trader Joe's fresh Haricot Vert, steamed and sprinkled with Kosher Salt

Directions

1. In a large skillet, heat olive oil.

2. Add onions and saute until lightly browned, about 7 minutes.

3. Add garlic and saute until just fragrant, about 1 minute.

4. Add sausage crumbles and saute until pink meat is no longer visible.

5. Add chicken stock and warm through.

6. Add rice and warm through.

7. Taste and add kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

8. Serve with freshly steamed haricot vert.

Eat, Drink & Be Yummy!

Any Herb Roasted Pork Loin

At this point, I've become very accustomed to not only feeding our family of five, but also hosting  family dinners.  Our family + my parents + my sisters family + my husbands parents, + my husbands brothers family = 18 people.  And that's just IMMEDIATE family members!

My love for cooking probably stems from my love for improvisation.  This recipe works well with whatever fresh or dry herbs I've substituted. Fresh rosemary and thyme? Yummy!  Dried rosemary and thyme?  Still Yummy!!!  Dried Italian seasoning? Yummy!  Dried Herbs DeProvence? Yummy!

As much as I love to cook and improvise, I love spending time with my family even more.  Roasting a loin of pork is a great entree that doesn't require much hands-on time.  I try to time the cooking of the loin so that it's done just as guests arrive.  While it's resting, we're having salads and appetizers and the pork is ready to cut into, just in time for dinner.

Herb Crusted Pork Loin

Ingredients

Base recipe
1 (4-pound) boneless pork loin, with fat left on
1 TBSP Kosher Salt
2 TBSP olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced (or 1/2 tsp of garlic powder)

Option 1

1 tsp dried basil or 2 tsp fresh basil leaves
1 tsp dried rosemary or 2 tsp minced fresh rosemary

1 tsp dried thyme or 2 tsp minced fresh thyme leaves

Option 2

1 TBSP dried Herbs De Provence

Option 3

1 TBSP dried Italian Seasoning

Directions

Preheat oven to 475 degrees F.

1. Place the pork loin on a rack in a roasting pan. 

2. Combine the remaining ingredients with either Option 1, 2 or 3 in a small bowl. 

3. Using your hands, coat the entire pork loin with the mixture. 

4. Insert thermometer probe into center of meat (connecting it to the external digital display) and put the loin into the oven.

5. Roast the pork for 30 minutes, then reduce the heat to 425 degrees F and roast for 45-60 minutes, until thermometer reads 155 degrees.

6. Remove from oven and allow to rest for about 20 minutes. The internal temperature of the loin will continue to rise while it's resting. 

Eat, Drink & Be Yummy!