Since returning to Bloomington for law school and work, Clint and I have tried to make Sundays our sacred "family time." At first this meant sharing a large dinner with my parents and my "Aunt Janet" at my parents' home in the woods. Then, when Cecelia came along the party moved to our humble abode. The larger dinners would wax and wane with my parents' snowbird tour to Florida and back. Then, when my parents split up last August the dinners became far more intimate, just Clint and Cecelia and me. It was hard at first but now I think we relish that it is just us. Clint and I plan our menu together and, with the summer grilling season, Clint takes on the yeoman's share of the cooking. Clint's grilling skills are something he takes a large amount of pride in and it is good for me to yield control over my kitchen, even for a little while. Our afternoons are leisurely, reflecting the "low and slow" cooking method of Clint's Big Green Egg. It took me a while to acquiesce to the tempo but in truth its a perfect way to begin my week.
Garden salad, Barbeque Ribs, Corn on the Cob, Cornbread, Koelsch Homebrewed Beer, Lemon-Buttermilk Cookies.
Most of this dinner was pretty run of the mill stuff so I'm on going to give comments and recipes for the Ribs and the Cookies. Actually I'm only going to talk about the cookies. Crintor will make an appearance to discuss the meat of the matter.
I was still looking for ways to use the remaining 1/2 cup of buttermilk sitting in my fridge this morning. So, I looked up a buttermilk cookie recipe. The base recipe looked a bit bland for my taste, so I added elements of lemon and spice to kick the flavor up a notch or two. Then, I also added a quick lemon-sugar glaze for the top. The cookies ended up soft in texture with a nice hint of lemon. By the way, I had to make the glaze twice as my daughter was "helping" me stir the mixture and upended the whole bowl onto our floor. It was OK because the glaze turned out better the second time.
Lemon-Buttermilk Cookies
Ingredients:
My coworker and pork-advocate loaned me a couple of copies of Saveur magazine. I took this recipe out of the BBQ issue of June/July. Here it is verbatim, which is pretty much what I did:
Tuffy Stone's Competition Ribs
Ingredients:
For the rub--
I made the rub and put it on the racks of ribs, making sure to remove the layer of membrane from the back of the ribs. I let it sit for an hour.
The sauce cooked up for half an hour or so -- ketchup, sugar, vinegar, molasses, Worcestershire, chili powder, paprika, onion and garlic powders, cayenne, pepper and 3/4 cup water. I took a cup of the sauce into a bowl and added 1/4 cup of honey and the apple cider vinegar. The rest I put away (there was a TON left).
I got the BGE up to about 300 degrees. Love the BGE. It can maintain pinpoint temperature for hours. I put the raiser in and put a grill pan in the lower section. This keeps the meat farther from the coals and the pan sets up for indirect cooking. A few soaked maple chips and I was set to go. I put the ribs on, meat side up, for 3 hours at 250. Should have done it at 225, it turns out.
After 3 hours, spritzing with apple juice every half hour, I put them into tin foil and spread on a mixture of butter, brown sugar, and honey. After 2 hours in the foil, I removed them and put them back on the grill meat side up. They were done already, though (hence the 225 determination), so I cut the final hour down to about 30 minutes and mopped the ribs with some of the sauce.
They were very, very good. We ate one rack tonight and will heat up the other one for dinner tomorrow.
I was still looking for ways to use the remaining 1/2 cup of buttermilk sitting in my fridge this morning. So, I looked up a buttermilk cookie recipe. The base recipe looked a bit bland for my taste, so I added elements of lemon and spice to kick the flavor up a notch or two. Then, I also added a quick lemon-sugar glaze for the top. The cookies ended up soft in texture with a nice hint of lemon. By the way, I had to make the glaze twice as my daughter was "helping" me stir the mixture and upended the whole bowl onto our floor. It was OK because the glaze turned out better the second time.
Lemon-Buttermilk Cookies
Ingredients:
- 1/2 C Shortening
- 1 C Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 2 C Flour
- 2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1/2 C Buttermilk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- juice and zest of 1 lemon, divided
- 1/2 C Powdered sugar
- 2 Tbl 1/2 and 1/2
- Preheat oven to 425. Grease cooking sheets
- Combine Flour,baking powder, baking sugar and salt and set aside
- Cream together shortening and sugar using a hand mixer
- Add eggs one at a time, then add vanilla
- Add dry ingredients to sugar, and alternate with adding the buttermilk
- Add zest and juice of 1 lemon
- Drop onto greased cooking sheets using a small ice-cream scoop with a lever (or rounded teaspoon)
- Bake 6-8 minutes
- Remove to wire cooling rack
- Let cool completely
- Combine powdered sugar with juice and zest of the renaming 1/2 lemon
- add 1/2 and 1/2
- Drizzle over cookies
- Top with a dusting of more powdered sugar
My coworker and pork-advocate loaned me a couple of copies of Saveur magazine. I took this recipe out of the BBQ issue of June/July. Here it is verbatim, which is pretty much what I did:
Tuffy Stone's Competition Ribs
Ingredients:
For the rub--
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup paprika
- 1 tbsp chili powder
- 1 tbsp onion powder
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp cayenne
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 tbsp peper
- 1/4 cup canola oil (whoops. Forgot that part)
- 2 racks St. Louis-cut pork spareribs
- 3 cups ketchup
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 3/4 cup white vinegar
- 2 tbsp molasses
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tbsp chili powder
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp cayenne
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/2 cup honey
- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup apple juice
- 8 tbsp butter, melted
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
I made the rub and put it on the racks of ribs, making sure to remove the layer of membrane from the back of the ribs. I let it sit for an hour.
The sauce cooked up for half an hour or so -- ketchup, sugar, vinegar, molasses, Worcestershire, chili powder, paprika, onion and garlic powders, cayenne, pepper and 3/4 cup water. I took a cup of the sauce into a bowl and added 1/4 cup of honey and the apple cider vinegar. The rest I put away (there was a TON left).
I got the BGE up to about 300 degrees. Love the BGE. It can maintain pinpoint temperature for hours. I put the raiser in and put a grill pan in the lower section. This keeps the meat farther from the coals and the pan sets up for indirect cooking. A few soaked maple chips and I was set to go. I put the ribs on, meat side up, for 3 hours at 250. Should have done it at 225, it turns out.
After 3 hours, spritzing with apple juice every half hour, I put them into tin foil and spread on a mixture of butter, brown sugar, and honey. After 2 hours in the foil, I removed them and put them back on the grill meat side up. They were done already, though (hence the 225 determination), so I cut the final hour down to about 30 minutes and mopped the ribs with some of the sauce.
They were very, very good. We ate one rack tonight and will heat up the other one for dinner tomorrow.
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