Satisfying Saturday

Saturday is supposed to be brutally cold here (for comparison: the low (18 F. or -7 C.) in Calgary, Canada - my personal idea of a "cold" place - is our high here in Detroit!!! Tonight's low here is supposed to be 1 F. (-17 C.) and our high on Sunday is only 8 F. or -13 C). So, I had an idea. What would be better than summer picnic food? Invited Jake and Carla to join me and they accepted.

So, after breakfast (scrambled eggs and English muffins) and coffee, I started cleaning the house. Swept, then vacuumed, and finally washed the downstairs' floor, trying to get rid of the sawdust. Than down, I went through the usual housecleaning routine throughout the upstairs.

Stopped at 10:30 to put a slab of baby back ribs in the oven. The ribs were cut in half, put in a deep baking pan and doused with a cup of bourbon, then a cup of apple juice. Next I rubbed with a mixture of red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, grill seasoning and minced garlic on the meat side. They went into a 250 degree F. oven for 3 � hours. I added diced sweet onions to a large can of Bush's original baked beans (the one seasoned with bacon and brown sugar) and that went on a back burner to simmer. I had some hardboiled eggs (well, I always have some hardboiled eggs, lol!) so I made them into shrimp-stuffed eggs (Carla loves them) and put them in the fridge to chill.

Back to cleaning! When I finally got it all done to my standards, I shaved and showered. Then I went downstairs and hung up the fluorescent light over the workbench. Took some photos and posted them this morning.

Jake and Carla showed up, after driving here in near-whiteout conditions. It's not snowing much (Thank God) but the wind is whipping it sideways. After they settled in, we snacked on the eggs and caught each other up.

When we decided it was time to eat, I pulled the ribs out and turned the oven to 450 degrees F. We cut up some large baking potatoes on the mandolin (Carla, who wanted to try it, first; then I finished them) into French fries. I am making oven-baked "fries" (supposed to be a healthier version) Toasted 6 minced gloves of garlic in two teaspoons of olive oil. Here's where I messed up. I added the oil and garlic, and some parsley flakes to the potatoes and put them in the oven on cookie sheets. I was supposed to "reserve" the garlic and just use the oil, adding the garlic after they were done baking so the garlic wouldn't burn. I didn't, and it did!

While the "fries" were baking, I put the ribs on the stove top grill pan and slathered them with a mixture of barbecue sauce and � cup of bourbon. I let them get nice and caramelized for 15 minutes, saucing and turning them as needed. Vent fan was on high, but toward the end, the smoke alarms went off, so we opened the kitchen window and closed the bedroom door.

Pulled the ribs and cut them, dished up the baked beans and fries and we dug in. Ribs were meaty and tasted spectacular, beans were a good side dish and the "fries," while the garlic was burned, still tasted good. I think we all ate too much!

Carla insisted on cleaning up (I drew the line at the stove top which had splattered barbecue sauced baked on - I'll get that later) and then we dug out the Scrabble game. Close, good game! Jake and Carla tied, but I was only like 7 points behind them.

We switched to cards, playing Chicago first (I won!) then Kings in the Corner, which they took turns winning. Somewhere in there, I put Jalape�o Poppers (breaded Jalape�o peppers that have been stuffed with cream cheese) and breaded Mozzarella sticks in the oven for an evening snack.

They left around 8:30 PM. I putzed around a bit and then went to watch some TV. I fell asleep, but woke up around 1:00 AM, shut off the lights, etc. and went to sleep for real. It had been a very nice, satisfying day!