Yesterday I was planning to prepare pasta with cheese and chicken tenders for my son's Halloween party, but not a single soul showed up. That's right. Twenty five kids were invited and twenty five kids didn't show. I'll share that story another time... Needless to say, I traded in the chicken breasts for baby back ribs.
So tonight, I prepared the ribs, coleslaw and the pasta. I was taken with the idea of rubbing the spice mixture on the ribs. I never thought to do that before, but more impressively, I never had the idea to place the ribs on wire racks over a foiled cookie tray. In doing so, I didn't have to turn the ribs over to cook on the other side. Of course it made perfect sense thereafter. The spice mixture gave the ribs a nice red, flavored coating equivalent to a fried tomato. Falling-off-the-bone pork ribs requires at least two hours. Setting a timer is a good idea for those like me, that are doing a million things at once. Be sure to leave a little extra spice mixture for when you're in the mood for barbecue chicken.
After the ribs are in the oven, I started on the coleslaw. This required cutting up the cabbage, grating the carrot, plus seeding and dicing up the tomato and cucumber. Truthfully, cutting always makes me feel chef-like. I'm not at the point where I'm chop chop chopping, but I'm getting there. I'm still amazed how different ingredients combined make awesome flavors and the same holds true for the yogurt, mayo, honey, vinegar and salt mixture. At first I was like, yogurt...not my thing, but sure enough, I didn't even taste it once everything else was added. Outside of prepping, this recipe took all of ten minutes to pull together.
Since I had grated cheese on hand from the Halloween party that never happened, I figured I'd make the pasta. Having seen Lucinda do this, I like the idea of feeding my son real mac and cheese, instead of that boxed or microwave junk. It was relative easy to make. I was pleasantly surprised.
Because we love bbq sauce in this house, once the ribs were done, I brushed some on and returned the tray back to the oven for another ten minutes so the sauce could caramelize. Yummy! The ribs were so delicious. The meat just melted in my mouth. With every bite I could taste the spice mixture soaked to the bone. The pasta with cheese was unlike any powder or creamy cheese sauce you get in the store. No siree bob. This is the real thing. It reminded me of Thanksgiving or Christmas eve dinner when I prepare baked mac and cheese, but only better. This recipe is light and creamy. Next up, the coleslaw. This dish certainly holds true to its title; tangy and sweet. As I mentioned, I couldn't understand how the yogurt would play a part in coleslaw with the sour taste it has, but it brings just the right amount of tangy to the mix. The honey, mayo and apple cider vinegar further compliments and completes it.
This combination of ribs, coleslaw and pasta is a good dish to prepare for a backyard summer bash, a Sunday night football party or just to feed your need for bbq.
If you're not ready to let the summer go, click (or copy and paste) these links below for the recipe.
http://blog.madhungry.com/2010/10/recipes-from-todays-show-indoor-bbq-recipes.html
http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/pasta-wheels-with-cheese
Happy Barbecuing!
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