Crock Pot Babyback Ribs - WTF and WOW Recipe Wednesday

 Happy Halloween!!

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Crock Pot Babyback Ribs

Ingredients

1 rack babyribs

3 cups pineapple juice

1 ½ cup brown sugar

1 ½ tsp mustard powder

1/3 cup ketchup

1/3 cup red wine vinegar

1 ½ tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp soy sauce

½ tsp ground cloves

2 tsp ground ginger

4 cloves garlic, minced      

½ tsp cayenne pepper

Your favorite barbecue sauce

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Preparation

Using a sharp knife or a pair of kitchen shears, cut each rack into about 4 portions (3-4 rib bones each).  Place in crockpot.  Mix pineapple juice, brown sugar, mustard powder, ketchup, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, soy sauce, cloves, ginger, garlic and cayenne pepper.  Pour over ribs and cover.  This step can be done the night before.  Set to low for 6-7 hours.  You can poke them occasionally to make sure they all get exposed to the braising liquid and that they’re not getting too tender.

Remove ribs from liquid and heat grill to medium.  Place ribs on the grill, brush on side with barbeque sauce, and close the lid for 3-4 minutes.  Carefully turn the ribs, brush other side with sauce, close the lid and wait another 3-4 minutes.  Repeat.  Serve!

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Gross Halloween Candy and a Swamp Cocktail

When I worked full-time, I always had a candy bowl in my office.  The weird thing about it is I never really ate much of the candy in the bowl.  I can truly resist candy…until it is in a bowl in my house waiting for Halloween.  I’m not sure why I test this theory every year, but I do and the results are always the same.  Candy wrappers are all over my house and the bowl has to be refilled prior to Halloween night.  Sometimes, the bowl even has to be re-filled twice.

When I was growing up, my mom had me so worried about razor blades in our candy that it was barely enjoyable to eat the candy.  Every piece had to be inspected except for those gross candies that came in the red and black wrappers…those we could eat, but who wanted to actually eat those?  Does anyone even remember what those things were called??  Yuck.  That is one throw back from the seventies that I do not want to revisit.  I remember one year, as the candy was being thoroughly inspected by my mom and probably eaten by my dad, I watched an episode of Saturday Night Live.  I remember staring at those horrible orange and black wrapper piece-of-shit candies and then looking up to see Gilda Radner (has there ever been another person named Gilda?) playing a kid getting a story read to her.  John Belushi played her dad.  She was scared of monsters in the closet and a weird creature kept coming out of the closet (not in the gay sense, but in the actually walking out of a closet sense) trying to get her.  She’d scream, the monster would disappear and John Belushi would come in and get mad at her.  It was pretty funny and clearly funny enough that I remember it over 30 years later.

On another note, this is a pretty cool and tasty Halloween cocktail.

Swamp Water Halloween Cocktail

Ingredients

1 ½ oz spiced rum

10-12 fresh mint leaves

1 tbsp brown sugar

½ of lime, juice of

2 oz club soda

Splash of cola

10-15 fresh blueberries

Preparation

In a cocktail glass, combine the brown sugar, lime juice and mint.  Pound together to break up the mint and bring out its flavor.  Fill the glass up about ¾ of the way with crushed ice.  Pour the rum over.  Add club and a splash of cola to give it a swampy color.  Throw in some blueberries and serve.

Cocktail Source

Flaming Pumpkins

Check out these two very important videos from You Tube.  These seem vital for Halloween.  They involve fire, booze and pumpkins.  Do you really need anything else?

Freaky Friday Favorites

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Highway Chase for Photo Glory

Sometimes you just feel like you’ve hit the jackpot without having to sit in a smoky casino putting quarters in a slot machine for 8 hours.  I had a "hitting the jackpot" moment yesterday as I drove down the highway.  I passed the most glorious truck with a truly unbelievable company name.  After the initial shock of seeing such a gem passed, I changed lanes to slow down and photo capture the glory.  The truck was moving really slow and I was physically unable to make myself drive under 60 miles per hours on the highway.  So I took an exit as slow as possible to let the truck pass…this was my first photo attempt.

Next, I got back on the highway and moved quickly to the passing lane.  The chase was on and I felt like Bandit in Smokey and the Bandit…only without the cowboy hat, mustache and odd laugh.  I finally caught up to my prize and got this photo.

Overnight French Toast Soufflé - WTF and WOW Recipe Wednesday

That's me on Saturday afternoon after football, appetizers and beer.
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Must be the Mahna Mahna Subway Line.
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Overnight French Toast Soufflé   

             

Ingredients

1 loaf cinnamon bread

1 (8 oz) block cream cheese

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup butter

2 tbsp light karo syrup

6 eggs

2 cups heavy cream

2 tbsp cinnamon

Preparation

Melt butter, brown sugar and karo syrup in sauce pan over medium heat until sugar is melted.  Pour in the bottom of 9x13 pan.  Cut bread into 1 inch squares.  Cut cream cheese into small squares.  Layer half of bread squares over brown sugar mixture in the 9x13 pan.  Next sprinkle a layer of cream cheese squares.  Top with remaining bread squares. 

Whisk eggs, cream and cinnamon in a bowl until beaten thoroughly.  Pour over bread making sure to cover all the bread.  Press bread down if necessary.  Cover and store in fridge overnight.  Cook uncovered at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes or until brown and set.  Sprinkle with a little powdered sugar if desired and honestly why would you not desire that?

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Saying Stupid Stuff

I know I’m not the only one that has said some really stupid stuff…stuff that is so stupid you are still made fun of for it more than 10 years after it was first uttered.  Mine happened when Tiffany and I were unpacking our stuff after buying our first house together.  The house had a sunroom with large bookshelves off the master bedroom.  I was unpacking books and some glass trinkets.  I can’t even tell you what those trinkets were anymore…probably just stuff that would now be classified under the “why’d we ever buy that stupid shit” category.  At any rate, I had put some of the “why’d we ever buy that stupid shit” trinkets on top of one of the boxes so I could put books in first and then trinkets.  Tiffany was busily unpacking at close proximity to the box with the trinkets on top.  I looked at her and said, “Be careful of those glass breakables.”  Naturally, she stopped what she was doing and said, “Glass breakables?  Really?”  Tiffany actually invented the use of the word “really” to denote something stupid.  I believe she also invented the dramatic eye roll.  We still laugh about the redundant glass breakables phrase and anytime the word glass or the word breakable is used, Tiffany will jump at the chance to remind me to be careful of glass breakables.

Sometimes it is just a good idea to relive past blog entries.  Many of you may not realize that Joan of Arc has a passion for smoking meats.  CLICK HERE to read this entry from July, 2011 to learn more!

Oak Hill Cemetery Annual History Tour

Tiffany and I had a great day yesterday.  We went to the Dixie Reptile Show (got a toad and tortoise), had lunch at Rogue Tavern, went to the Oak Hill Cemetery Annual History Tour put on by the Oak Hill Memorial Association and then watched Alabama and Oklahoma win their football games.

Oak Hill Cemetery is the original cemetery for Birmingham.  It truly is beautiful.  I imagine you could spend hours just looking at all the headstones and imagining what life was like for the people buried beneath them.  I’m so glad my friend wrote about and volunteered at the tour (thanks, Rebecca!).  We had a great time.  Check it out.