Just-As-Good-As-Any-Other-BBQ-Sauce

Before we get started a quick story (you'll get the point later in the recipe).

When we were first married, my wife decided to surprise me with a new recipe that she found from some generic article in the Seattle Times.  

It was for Sweet and Sour Chicken.  It called out to use 1 cup of Heinz Chili Sauce which is very bland like ketchup. I took a bite at dinner and you can guess what happened.

Steam shot out my ears.  Sweat ran down my neck and forehead. She asked me if I thought maybe it was kind of hot?

So, being newly weds, I gently replied "Oh, I don't know." "How do you feel about this recipe?"

She replied, "Gee I think it's a bit warm!"

"Really?" "Oh I'm not so sure about that, what did you use?"

"Oh it said to use Heinz Chili Sauce, but we don't have any and you're always telling me to be creative when I cook so I just substituted a cup of this Thai Chili paste."

Point taken.

2 qts water

2cups brown sugar

6 tblsp yellow mustard

1 large onion chopped

5 cloves garlic

1/2 stick butter (ok to substitute olive oil for sauteing onions and garlic)

1/2 cup cider vinegar

1/2 tblsp cayanne

2 29 0z cans tomato sauce

1 12 oz can salsa casera or equivalent (remember the story above)

1/4 cup Durkees Louisiana Red Hot Sauce or equivalent (Remember the story above)

1/4 cup Trapper Mexi-Pep Hot Sauce or equivalent (remember the story above)

Saute onions and garlic (I've even added shredded carrots)

Glop everything into a large pot and cook, and cook, and cook sloooowly so it doesn't burn.

I would leave the lid off since we want to reduce the liquids somewhat.

Taste and adjust to suit your tastebuds. Remember, you may like more vinegar, or brown sugar, or mustard, or you may just want to use ketchup instead of tomato sauce!  Again it's up to you and how you want the sauce to taste - try it, experiment!

Try cooking several more times over the next couple of days and then package what you need to take up to Ross lake Resort!

Rub My Ribs Rub

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tblsp salt

2 tblsp fresh pepper

2 tblsp white pepper

2 tblsp thyme

2 tblsp rosemary

2 tblsp garlic powder

2 tblsp onion powder

2 tblsp cumin

4 tblsp paprika (ok this was a test,  4 tblsp = 1/4 cup)

cayenne pepper (if/as req'd)  Hey! If you are manly use more, if kids around omit, it's up to you.

mix all together and break up any lumpy pieces of brown sugar.  Taste and correct with more of individual ingrediants.

Rub all over the ribs before cooking.

Ross Lake Resort and Ribs

OK, its a given that most fishermen like ribs!

Especially if it's on a fishing trip and you have already had your fill of Ross Lake rainbow trout for the past couple of breakfasts, lunches and dinners.

These ribs are easy to make in advance or in your cabins oven or on the gas bbq. 

They're great to munch on sitting in front of the bunk house and cabins while reliving your fishing stories (I meant lies) again and again about the ones you've caught in the past or the ones you hooked here in '76 but they somehow shook off - yada yada yada!

So grab an ice cold one from the cooler, plop down on a bench or Adirondack chair, put you feet up - look up and watch that glacier creep down the north face of Colonial and in a couple of hours start munching on these ribs.

* Slabs of Ribs - you decide how many. Regular pork ribs, St. Louis style or baby back ribs!

* Aluminum Foil - don't forget to bring it with you!

* Rub My Ribs Rub  (recipe follows)

* Just-As-Good-As-Any-Other-BBQ-Sauce (recipe follows)

- If you have time rub the ribs down a day before and keep in refrigerator (wrapped in plastic wrap). Don't be overly obsessive, you can always rub the meat just before cooking.

- Remove plastic wrap and double wrap each slab in aluminum foil - it's okay to have a little excess room on top.

- Place on cookie sheet and bake in 300 degree oven for 2-2.5 hours.

- Test for tenderness at end of regular cooking time by lopping off a couple of those ribs and eating them!  Hey! You are the cook and if anyone complains - glare at them or stare them down! It's ok to cop an attitude because you are the creative genius behind this dinner!

- Order the whiners to get the cook a beer or margarita* from your friendly neighbors next door (*but only if they serve better ones than you make - like Cathy and Jeff).

- If done, drain the excess juices from foil, cut into serving sizes like 4 ribs to a piece(remember to repay the neighbors with ribs) and eat as is!

- But wait!  What if someone wants BBQ sauce? Well, serve it as a side or better yet slather it all over a slab or two and finish off on the grill of the gas bbq next to the cabin (sans foil so you get a few tasty blackened sauce spots).

Ross Lake Recipe - Caesar Salad

© Paul Anderson  After Dinner Conversation
I'm amazed, walking past the cabins in the early evening, of all the varieties and quality of scents that are drifting around from all the gourmet cooking that is going on!

Cathy and Jeff, our Ross Lake neighbors each year (and friends from the cabin next door), invite their friends every year, and each couple cooks one night.  And every year, each couple tries to out do the other.

And every year I am the beneficiary of their culinary skills and generosity.  "Eh Paulie! Ya gotta try this appetiser!" 

"Paul try this beef tenderloin with chocolate mole sauce!"

"Pablo another margarita!"

"Zwei margaritas Cathy & Jeff por favor - merci!"

Then on Saturday Jerry and Allyson backpack in with the boys and share fresh halibut, or salmon, or dungeness crab caught early that morning out in the Straits of Georgia.

Or I walk past some of the other cabins and Doug and his wife ask if I want a beer and some great goat cheese they just discovered down at the Pike Place Market in Seattle.

And I feel like a bigger mooch than Keena and Roland, the two resort supervisors, who get fed by everyone, and who always show up and sit politely at the doors of the best fed cabins.

But, I eventually make it back to our cabin - filled with the latest news from over the last year, and I with a slightly lopsided grin begin to prepare our dinner.

Caesar Salad:

2-3 cloves garlic (how close and how soon you sleep next to your significant other will help determine how much used)

2-3 anchovy slices or 6" bead of anchovy paste from tube (see comment for garlic)

1-2 tblsp worchestershire sauce

3-4 tblsps red wine vinegar

1 tblsp good mustard (hey use yellow if that's all you got)

mayo

olive oil about 1/4 cup to start

parmesan cheese - buy the good stuff and shred it yourself (try not to use the green cylinder "powdered" parmesan)

croutons

lemon

lettuce - normally romaine (but who really cares because eating the salad while sitting in front of your cabin will only enhance this salad) 

**********************

- Smear the garlic to a pulp

- add anchovy, worchestershire, red wine vinegar, mustard and moosh it all together

- add about 6 globs of regular mayo to begin, or use low fat, or fat free mayo.

- slowly drizzle in, while stirring, the olive oil.

- and then correct everything to your taste!  Add more mayo if too runny, more anchovies, more vinegar - it doesn't matter - it's your taste buds that have to be satisfied!

Oh and don't get too hung up on following the recipe exactly - example: use white wine vinegar or basalmic if that's all you got.  When you substitute or change this recipe the flavor will change somewhat, but it is still better than going without the salad.

If possible let the dressing meld (that's meld not mold - as in incorporating all the layers of flavor) together in the refrigerator for a while.

Wash and dry lettuce, add dressing to taste, add cheese, drizzle lemon juice on top, add croutons, mix and enjoy!

Wait!!!!  Don't forget cracked pepper when you plate - if/as required!

Believe it or not most rugrats love this salad - even the teenagers who sometimes ask "wot's a vegie table?"