.watermelon ribs.

Thursday was Jim's birthday so the girls and I decided to have a small party for him. One of his most favorite foods is bbq ribs. He loves them! I always make the same sauce and thought I would try something different this time.

In my cookbook "Top Secret Recipes", there's a recipe in there for Hard Rock Cafe's Watermelon Ribs. The recipe looked incomplete to me so I changed it up and made it my own. Here's what I did.

You're going to need 2 cups watermelon pulp, so cut the rind off of the watermelon, leaving a lot of the white you don't usually eat. Cube and put in a blender. Puree. It doesn't need to be completely smooth. In fact, if you leave it slightly chunky you'll have tiny sweet chunks caramelized to your ribs. Delicious! Set the pulp aside.

Mince 2 cloves garlic and 1/2 of a small onion. Heat a little olive oil in a large saucepan and saute the onion and garlic for a minute, until fragrant.

Dump in the watermelon pulp, 3/4 cup ketchup, 1/4 cup molasses, a couple shakes liquid smoke, 3 Tbsp white vinegar, 1 cup honey, and a shake or two of crushed red pepper flakes.

This is all you need for the bbq sauce! How easy is that? Now let this simmer on low for at least an hour. The sauce needs to reduce down and let some of that water evaporate out. You should be left with a nice rich and sweet bbq sauce after that time.

Now the sauce can be made days in advance if you need and kept in the fridge. You need to make it at *least* the day before because we're going to marinate the ribs in the fridge overnight.

Normally I use pork loin ribs that are practically boneless and super meaty. I decided to use racks of ribs. They came in this big pack so I cut the ribs into groups of 5 or 6 and put in large ziplocs. Pour in some of the bbq sauce (once cooled) and put in the fridge. Make sure you leave some bbq sauce for grilling!

To make: Heat an oven to 300*. Remove the ribs from the ziplocs and put in a baking dish. Cover the baking dish tightly with foil to lock in all the moisture. Bake for 2 hours.

Prepare your BBQ grill. To finish the ribs, throw them on the grill on medium heat (you don't want the coals too hot). Brush on some bbq sauce. Put the lid on the grill and let that bbq sauce caramelize on the skin of those ribs. Check periodically to turn them and glaze with more sauce. When they're nice and coated and have grill marks, pull from the bbq and serve.

To finish off Jim's birthday dinner I made smashed potatoes, corn on the cob, fresh slices of watermelon, and baked beans. Pun intended - he was HOG happy! LOL

These ribs were delicious. Sweet and tangy with a little kick from the pepper flakes. I'll be making these again!


Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZ-Z_fQXybIkZGcydmZqcW1fMTU3cG02M2hkaGI&hl=en

.it's pizza night.

We really enjoy making our own pizza. Everyone gets involved and I have found it's a great family bonding time.



One of my favorites to make is BBQ Chicken Pizza. It has a tangy sauce with a bit of a kick, chicken, cilantro, and sauteed red onion. Paige doesn't like this one very much so we make pepperoni too. Get creative and make it your way. Give your kids bits of dough to roll out and let them make their own creations. That's the best way to get them to eat!

Start with your pizza dough. If you know how to make bread of any sort, the pizza dough will be a cinch for you.


Start by proofing your yeast. Put 1 1/2 c. warm water, 1/2 tsp sugar, and 4 tsp yeast in a bowl. Let dissolve and get foamy for 10 minutes.











Add bread flour to your bowl, one cup at a time. After adding the 1st cup of flour, put in 1 tsp salt as well. This recipe only needs a few cups of flour so don't dump it all in like a crazy person. You can always add more flour. If you put too much in, you can't take it back out and your dough is going to be ruined because it will be too tight for it to rise. When the dough starts clinging to the dough hook and is no longer "sticky" on the bottom, it's ready. Drizzle a little olive oil along the edge of the bowl and turn the mixer on low to coat the sides of the dough. Remove dough hook and cover the bowl with a towel. Allow to rise in a warm spot in the kitchen for an hour or until double in size.

Right when you finish your dough, preheat your oven to 500* F. I know that seems really hot, but trust me. You want it hot because it will give your pizza crust a nice crisp bottom but still chewy in the center. Make sure you put your oven rack on the lowest setting and put your pizza stone in if you have one. It needs to heat with the oven.





This BBQ Sauce is a little different than the one I make for my ribs. It's more tangy and not as sweet.

First you want to heat a little olive oil in a saucepan. Add 2 cloves minced garlic and 1/4 cup finely minced onion. Saute in the oil with 1 bay leaf for a minute. Don't let the garlic burn or else you'll be left with a bitter taste.




Add 1 cup ketchup, 2 Tbsp worchestershire sauce, 2 Tbsp brown sugar, 2 Tbsp lemon juice, 1/2 tsp tabasco sauce, and a shake or two of celery seed. Allow this to cook on low for about an hour. Remove bay leaf at that time.







Cook up one chicken breast, seasoned with Seasoning Salt. Dice into cubes. Set aside.










Slice some red onion.











Saute in a saute pan until they become nice and soft.

Remove from pan. Set aside.








When your dough has doubled in size, punch it down and pull from the bowl. Knead on a floured surface for a minute or two.









Divide in half. Roll out one of the halves.



















Pull a little of the edge back over and pinch down to make the crust.








Lightly dust a pizza peel with some flour and corn meal. Transfer your rolled out crust onto it. Pizza peels can be found at any home/kitchen store. This is one I bought online at King Arthur Flour for the bakery. I actually own two. The wooden one I own I bought at Bed, Bath, and Beyond for $10.00. They are a must have for pizza making.





Spread out some of the bbq sauce on the crust, being careful not to get any on the edges.












Sprinkle some mozzerella cheese on top of the sauce.








Top with the sauteed red onion, diced chicken and a handful of chopped cilantro.










Carefully shimmy the pizza from the peel onto the hot stone. If you need, keep a spatula handy to help guide the pizza off the peel. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes. The outside crust will be a gorgeous brown and the top of your pizza will be nice and melted (the cheese). You don't want a burnt pizza so keep an eye on it!



Voila!

Now repeat the steps to make the other pizza. We made pepperoni, remember? I let Paige help me make this one since it's her favorite.


Use regular pizza sauce and spread out.

Top with cheese and lots of pepperoni. (we used the whole box! *gasp*)

Mmm.. perfection!

Carefully put on the hot stone in the oven and again.. bake this for about 10-15 minutes.

Here's our final creation!

Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_31c35nqtcs