Food fight.

I wanted bbq ribs, so I made some with the easiest crock pot "recipe" ever.

"I'm Feeling Lazy BBQ Ribs" (6 quart pot)

~4 lbs pork spareribs
~1 (16 oz) bottle bbq sauce (I used Garland Jack's Secret Six Original Recipe this time.)

Place ribs in crock pot.
Pour bbq sauce on top.
Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

I served these with sautéed spinach from the CSA.

6 servings.

Barbecued ribs that fall off the bone. Yum. This is a nice "original" bbq sauce. Nothing fancy, but super yummy. And super easy. I can be down with that. The only thing that would've made it better is if my little helper ate ANY of it without a fight.

Fat man in a little coat.

I had a craving for some bbq ribs, so I made it happen. Luckily,

"Clean Out The Kitchen BBQ Ribs" (6 quart pot)

~3 lbs bone-in pork shortribs
~3/4 (16oz) bottle Bullseye's Hickory Smoke BBQ sauce
~3/4 (14 oz) can pineapple tidbits with juice
~1 onion, diced

Add all ingredients to crock pot and turn to coat.
Cover and cook non low for 8 hours.

(I served them with string beans from the CSA.)

4 servings.

The ribs I used were the "manager's special" and were fattier than I would have liked, but you can't really go wrong with bbq ribs. It hit the spot. Mmm...

Saweet!

Remember THIS? Well...Brad and Sandra shared the recipe AND another mason jar with us A LOOOONNNG time ago (Thanks, guys!) and I've been saving them for a rainy day. Let's call today a rainy day. (It was a smidge drizzly. Right? Right.) I was in a ribs mood, so I said, "Self? I bet Brad and Sandra's canned yumminess would be AWESOME over some ribs."

First, the sauce...

"Thai Hot and Sweet Sauce" (Yields 9 (8 oz) jars.)


~1/2 C finely chopped garlic
~1 T salt
~b c cider vinegar
~6c sugar
~1/2 c hot pepper flakes

Boil vinegar and dissolve in sugar.
Reduce heat and boil for 5 minutes.
Remove from heat; add garlic mixture and hot pepper flakes.


"Thai Hot and Sweet Ribs" (6 quart pot)

~3 lbs bone-in pork ribs
~8 oz Thai hot and sweet dipping sauce

Place ribs in crock pot.
Pour sauce on top.
Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

(I served them with a side salad from the CSA.)

"Self" was right. Delicious. Sweet, spicy, falling off the bone ribs. Mmm...

McRibs.

Tricia picked number 1. (Thanks Tricia!) The first card was...

"German-Style Short Ribs" (6 quart pot)

~3/4 c beef broth
~1/2 c mango chutney
~3 T quick-cooking tapioca
~1/4 c water
~3 T brown sugar
~3 T apple cider vinegar
~1 T Worcestershire sauce
~1/2 t salt
~1/2 t ground mustard
~1/2 t chili powder
~1/2 t pepper
~4 lbs bone-in beef short ribs
~2 onions, sliced
~hot cooked egg noodles

In crock pot, combine first 11 ingredients.
Add ribs and turn to coat.
Top with onions.
Cover and cook on low for 10 hours or until meat is tender.
Remove ribs from crock pot.
Skin fat from cooking juices; serve with ribs and noodles.

8 servings.

I haven't crocked ribs in awhile, so I was really excited for these. They did NOT disappoint. The beef was tender, the sauce was fabulous (I really enjoyed the mango bits.) Mmm...  Can anyone tell me what makes these "German-Style" though? Is it the noodles? I'm pretty sure it's not the mango chutney. Call it a hunch.

Mad skills.

How the heck are you? In the 30 seconds I wasn't working on my mad Santa skills today, I put this super simple crock together.

"Super Simple Orangey Cranberry Ribs" (6 quart pot)

~1.5 lbs boneless pork country style ribs
~1/2 bag fresh cranberries
~1 c orange marmalade (I didn't measure it, I just used all we had left.)

~1/4 c green onions, chopped (I didn't measure these, either. I grow my own-thank you Pinterest-and they were out of control, so I chopped some up.)

Place ribs in crock pot.
Dump cranberries on top.
Spoon marmalade on top.
Cover and cook on low for 7 hours.
Sprinkle green onions on top.

I served these with steamed brussels sprouts (from the CSA) because I wanted to break in the veggie steamer option on my shiny new rice cooker. It works! Woot!

3 servings.

Mmm... So easy. So good. Mmm... Ho. ho. ho.

Currant-ly.

It was a beautiful spring day today. AKA The perfect day to fire up the crock pot and crock some ribs. (And put the lights on our Christmas tree.)

"Currant Ribs" (6 quart pot)

~1 lb country style boneless pork ribs
~1 c onion, chopped (From the CSA.)
~2 garlic cloves, chopped (From the CSA.)
~1/2 c cooking sherry
~1/2 c dried currants

Add all ingredients to crock pot.
Cover and cook on low for 7 hours.

(I served this with some nuked CSA smashed potatoes and corn.)

3 servings.

Yum. Ribs will ALWAYS be one of my favorite things to crock. 

Blood suckers beware!

This was yesterday's crock. Tricia had donated another half (or so) of her CSA share and I found myself with a TON of garlic. It's a good thing we REALLY like garlic because I think we still have about 5 heads left.

"Garlicky Beef Ribs" (6 quart pot.)

~1 lb boneless beef country style ribs
~1 shallot, chopped
~1 head of garlic, chopped -My particular head had 9 cloves. (From the CSA.)
~1 T Worcestershire sauce
~1 T soy sauce

Add all ingredients to crock pot.
Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.*

2 servings.

*8 hours was too much. Try 6.

I served it over rice (and christened my shiny new rice cooker!) and added a side of sautéed spinach (from the CSA).

This was okay, but it could've been better. I think that if I'd crocked it for 5 or 6 hours and added a little bit of liquid of some sort, it would've been perfect. It was a bit overcooked and dry, but the garlicky flavor I'd been craving was there. I'd make it again with some adjustments.

Deez nutz.

My other half wanted to order out tonight, but I decided to crock instead. Even though most of the ingredients in today's crock were ours, I did manage to put a small dent into Brad's (stockpile of) nuts.

What fun things are in Brad's pantry? Day 23.

~2 lbs boneless country-style pork ribs (I bought these.)
~1 sweet potato, cut into bite sized-pieces (This, too.)
~1 (8 oz) jar rosemary pear spread (We received this as a gift last Christmas-or maybe the one before that. I forget.)
~1 c walnuts (Have I mentioned that Brad has a lot of nuts? Yes. This particular huge bag of unopened walnuts expired in 2008.)

4 servings.

I liked this quite a bit. My other half says that he thought it was going to be more flavorful than it was, but that he liked it, too. Looks like this is going in the win pile. (I'm starting to wonder if we'll ever be ordering wings from the local wing place!)

Juice.

I've been giving Brad a lot of crap for having RIDICULOUSLY old things in his pantry, but today's insanely old ingredient was special. Why? Because it wasn't his.

What fun things are in Brad's pantry? Day 19.

~2 lbs boneless pork country-style ribs (I bought these.)
~8 oz Trader Joe's pumpkin butter (This was ours. We'd had it FOREVER. Possibly before we moved into our old house -Which was in 2004. It might actually win for oldest thing found in anyone's pantry. Unfortunately, there was no expiration date to speak of, so you'll just have to take my word for it.)
~1 c pecan halves (The rest of the bag that expired in 2011.)
~rice, cooked (It wasn't in its original container, so I have no idea how old it is.)

Add ribs, pumpkin butter, and pecans to crock pot.
Mix well.
Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.
Serve over rice.
Spoon leftover juices over rice.
Take 2 crappy pictures before your camera batteries run out of juice. (Oops.)

4 servings.

This smelled AMAZING. It smelled like Thanksgiving in here. You know...but with pork instead of turkey. Or something. It was super yummy and now I'm kind of wishing I had more Stone Age pumpkin butter to play with.

P.S. Hey Brad: I dig your teeny tiny rice cooker. It might sprout legs and make a home in the trunk of my car next to your bowls and the lighting in your kitchen.

Nuts.

Brad has a lot of nuts. Possibly procreating nuts. There are nuts in the pantry. Nuts in the fridge. Nuts in the freezer. Nuts EVERYWHERE.

What fun things are in Brad's pantry? Day 13.

~2.5 lbs country style pork ribs (I bought these because I had a hankering for some ribs.)
~1 c pumpkin (I'm still working on the huge can from '08. It's ALMOST gone.)
~1/2 c pecan halves (Expired in '08)
~1/4 c maple syrup (All that was left in a bottle that expired in '09)
~1 t cinnamon
~1 t nutmeg

Add ribs to crock pot.
Mix remaining ingredients in a small bowl and dump mixture over ribs
Cover and cook on low for 7 hours.

3 servings.

I think I liked this more than my other half did. He says the pumpkin gave it a "weird texture". I say the pumpkin made it fall-tastic. It wasn't as sweet as I thought it was going to be (which is fine), but it was pretty darn good. I think I can make it better, so I'll try again someday with some adjustments.

I didn't take a picture of it, but I served the ribs with a side salad. The salad included a bunch of fresh veggies AND bacon pieces that expired in '06. '06!!! That's the oldest thing I've found so far!

Movin' on up!

Moving day is officially less than two weeks away and THAT means that I'm going to have to pack our kitchen at some point in the not so distant future. To make things slightly easier on myself, I'm going to do 2 weeks of clean out the kitchen meals. Since we're carnivores and we don't keep a lot of frozen meat in the house, I'll be perusing Safeway's clearance section for carnivorous goodies once a week. Everything else that goes in the crocks will be stuff that's already in the house. Oh, and I'm not following any recipes.

"Pork Ribs and Stuff" (6 quart pot)

~2.5 lbs boneless pork ribs
~1 c classic Catalina salad dressing
~1/4 c apricot preserves
~2 T McCucheon's Garlic and Herb hot sauce
~1/2 c crushed pineapple

Add ribs to greased crock pot.
Mix Catalina, preserves, and hot sauce in a small bowl.
Pour mixture over ribs.
Spoon pineapple on top.
Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

4 servings.

Pork is meant to be crocked. These were so tender. AND the random mixture I slathered all over it was super flavorful. It was kind of like a sweet bbq sauce. Yum.

Bonus: Our fridge is now -3 bottles. Not too shabby for my first day!

Slow and steady wins the race.

I picked this because crocked ribs are always delicious and this was an easy recipe. AND because it had to crock for 10 hours, so I could hit start at 9AM and not think about dinner all. day. long.

"Ehlers' Pork Ribs" (6 quart pot)

~3 lbs boneless pork ribs
~1 onion, sliced
~2 c bbq sauce (I used 1 c Bull's Eye Memphis Style and 1 c Safeway's Honey Smoke.)
~2 t lemon juice

Add all ingredients to crock pot and mix well.
Cover and cook on low for 10 hours.

6 servings.

Eating crocked ribs while watching the Olympic opening ceremonies with friends (Hi Brad and Sandra!) after a crazy day spent running around like a crazy person is full of awesome. If you like bbq ribs, you should try this. Yum.

Ka-pow!

I whipped this together yesterday. Barely. Have I mentioned that we've been remodeling our bathroom all week? (We're SO close to being done!)

"Kung Pao Ribs" (6 quart pot)

~4 lbs country-style pork ribs
~1 (15oz) bottle kung pao sauce
~1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and chopped
~1 c unsalted peanuts

Add ribs to crock pot.
Pour kung pao sauce on top.
Dump pepper and peanuts on top.
Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

4 servings.

Kung pao chicken is one of my go-to meal when we end up ordering Chinese food, so I may be biased when I say that this was REALLY good. Now, I really want some kung pao chicken.

Improvements.

I picked this because my other half wanted some ribs and I wanted something easy.

"Super Simple Cranberry Ribs" (6 quart pot)

The original recipe is HERE.

~3 lbs country-style pork ribs
~1 onion, diced
~2 T soy sauce
~1 (16 oz) can whole berry cranberry sauce

Add ribs to crock pot.
Mix onion and soy sauce in a small bowl.
Pour mixture over ribs.
Spoon cranberry sauce on top.

Cover and cook on high for 5 hours.
Get so crazy busy with home improvements that you HAVE to leave it on warm for 2 hours.*
*optional

(3 servings)

This was really good. Fruit makes anything better, right? It was a bit overcooked, but that could've been due to the fact that this was originally a roast recipe OR because I had to leave it sitting for a couple of hours. Either way, if you're looking for a recipe for ribs that is something other then your typical bbq recipe, you might want to try this one.

Can you dig it?

I picked this because we dig crocked ribs. A LOT.

"Greek Spiced Spareribs" (6 quart pot)

The original recipe is HERE.

~4 lbs pork spareribs
~1/2 c orange juice
~1/4 c brown sugar, packed
~1 T honey
~1 T salt
~1 T garlic powder
~1 t ground coriander
~1 t ground cumin
~1 t anise
~1 t ground mustard
~1 t cinnamon
~1/2 t fennel seeds
~1/2 t whole black peppercorns (intact)
 ~4 whole cloves (intact)
(I, once again, skipped the olives. We will never do olives. Ick.)

Place ribs in crock pot.
Dump your entire spice rack into a bowl and mix well.*
*Ok, not really. But it certainly seemed like that was what I did.  I strayed from what I was SUPPOSED to do because my little helper was being super SUPER helpful. I'm actually kind of surprised I remembered to hit start.
Mix remaining ingredients in a small bowl.
Pour mixture on top of ribs.
Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

4 servings.

Have I mentioned that we dig crocked ribs? Yes? These were awesome. They're super flavorful and the meat just falls off the bone as crocked ribs should. Mmm. If you're looking for a non-bbq rib recipe, you should try this one. Because I said so.

Your mom.

You can't really go wrong with wine and ribs. Right?

"Red Wine Short Ribs of Beef" (6 quart pot)

Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cook Book

~1 c red wine (I used Gnarly Head Old Vine Zinfindel.)
~2/3 c ketchup
~3 T soy sauce
~2 garlic cloves, crushed
~2 T brown sugar
~1/4 t pepper
~4 lbs short ribs (I could find only 2 lbs. I added 2 more pounds of baby back since we were having company.)
~2 yellow onions, chopped

Combine wine, ketchup, soy sauce, cloves, brown sugar, and pepper in crock pot.
Add ribs.
Top with onions.
Cover and cook on low for 8 hours

6 servings.

The short ribs were WAY better than the baby back ribs.  They had good flavor, but could've been better. I don't know if it was the baby back's fault, but the whole pot was incredibly greasy. Luckily, we had a LOT of beer on hand (Thanks, Baker!) to help us forget about that minor detail.

Weight for us.

While perusing the Weight Watchers website, I found a rib recipe that I pretty much had to make. So that's exactly what I did.

"BBQ Ribs" (6 quart pot)

The original recipe is HERE.

~3 lbs pork spareribs (Mine was 2.49 lbs)
~3/4 c tomato sauce
~1/2 c barbecue sauce (I used Bullseye's Memphis Style)
~2 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, finely chopped
~2 T cornstarch
~2 T cold water
~Shredded cole slaw mix

Preheat broiler.
Place ribs on the unheated rack of a broiler pan.
Broil 6 inches from the heat about 10 minutes or until brown, turning once.
Transfer ribs to crock pot.
In a medium bowl combine tomato sauce, barbecue sauce and chipotle chiles.
Pour mixture over ribs.
Cover and cook on low for 7 hours.
Transfer ribs to a serving platter, reserving cooking liquid.
Cover ribs to keep warm.
Skim fat from the cooking liquid.
Turn crock pot to high.
In a small bowl combine cornstarch and water.
Stir mixture into liquid in cooker.
Cover and cook uncovered about 15 minutes more or until thickened.
Serve ribs with sauce.
Serve ribs over coleslaw mix.

8 servings.

Is the smell of BBQ sauce an endorphin? The house smelled AMAZING all day long and it put me in a great mood. By dinnertime, my mouth had been watering for about 7 hours straight. It's a spicy BBQ sauce, so if you're not a fan of heat, you better stay away...or perhaps use only one chili. As you all know by now, we like it when our mouths are on fire.

Sweet!

Today, I needed to crock something that required little effort. Something that I could do with no brain. Something that I could (theoretically) handle if I, say, had contractors coming to work on the house in the morning, had to unexpectedly leave the house for an hour or two in the afternoon for a showing, AND had a VERY clingy/whiny/teething little helper to care for and otherwise entertain.

You know...the kind of meal crock pots are MADE FOR.

"Cook Like a Dad's Crock Pot Ribs" (6 quart pot)

The original is HERE.

~2.5 lbs pork baby back ribs
~16 oz light brown sugar
~2 liter bottle of Dr. Pepper

Shove ribs into crock pot. (I had to MAKE them fit.)
Pour sugar and soda over ribs.
Cover and cook on low for 6 hours.

3 servings.

These were REALLY good, but ridiculously sweet. (Imagine that.) Possibly even too sweet. (Did I just type those words? Who am I and what have I done with myself?) The original crocker suggested dipping them into bbq sauce. I, once again, missed that part. Oops. BBQ sauce probably would have helped. Ah well. If you like sweet ribs, you should make this. And then YOU can chase your sugar/caffeinated kids all over the house.

For the record, my little helper didn't have any and we were STILL chasing him around the house.

It's been THAT kind of day.

Don't forget to vote for my buffalo chicken mac and cheese today! Link is HERE. I'm WINNING! Let's keep it that way, shall we?

Orange-cha glad I didn't say chili?

It's been a LONG time since I've crocked ribs. Too long. So that's exactly what I did today.

"Orange-Glazed Pork Ribs" (6 quart pot)

~2 lbs country-style boneless pork ribs (The ones I used weren't boneless. Oops.)
~1 onion, sliced
~1 c orange marmalade
~1 green pepper
~1/4 c soy sauce
~1 t minced garlic
~1/2 t ground ginger
Place ribs in crock.
Lay onion slices on top.
Combine remaining ingredients in bowl.
Spread sauce over ribs.
Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

4 servings.

Mmm...ribs. How we've missed you so. I promise not to go so long without crocking you ever again.

"Well, first you've got to change the title."

Jung picked 37. (Thanks, Jung!) And the 37th recipe in the stack was:"Fall-Off-The-Bone-Ribs". Lauer's was out of baby back ribs and I didn't feel motivated enough to go hunt for some at another store so...I left with some boneless ribs. The meat "fell" off of the bones before I even crocked them. Ha!

"Fall-Off-The-(lack of) Bone-Ribs" (6 quart pot)

~1/4 c paprika
~1/4 c sugar
~1/8 c onion powder
~3/4 t salt
~3/4 t pepper
~1 1/2 lb boneless pork ribs
~1 (12 oz) bottle of beer (I used a pumpkin porter my other half brewed)
~1 bottle of barbecue sauce (I used Bulls Eye Texas Style)
~1/4 c honey
~sesame seeds
~sliced chives

Combine paprika, sugar, onion powder, salt, and pepper in a small bowl.
Generously season ribs with mixture.
Grill for 3 minutes on each side.
Place ribs in crock pot.
Pour beer on top of ribs.
Cover and cook on high for 2 hours.
Mix barbecue sauce and honey and add to crock pot.
Cover and cook on high for 1 1/2 hours.
Garnish with sesame seeds and chives.

4 servings.

If you "like" me on Facebook, you might've seen that I was a little worried about the 2 hour crocking time. Turns out I didn't read the recipe all the way. LUCKILY, I noticed this early enough in the day that the extra 1 1/2 hours I needed wasn't a big deal.

These were SO good. My other half said that he's putting these somewhere on his favorites list. (Dude is a sucker for barbecue!) Sadly, we ate all of them and there aren't any leftovers. I guess I'll just have to make them again! Maybe next time we can see if the meat falls off of the bones AFTER I crock them.