Recipe Rescue: Spare the Rib, Spoil the Appetite!

So maybe spare ribs are a Sunday meal, a meal for when you have the time to baby sit them on the grill. But I say phooey to that... we can have spare ribs anytime during the week. A bit of planning is needed for a weeknight rib fest, but if we put our heads together, we can do this. If you get home at 4 and dinner is at 7, this is in the bag, if not don't write this recipe off yet, I have an idea. Here's my plan... rub the ribs down while cooking dinner tonight, put them in the fridge and go about making tonight's hamburger surprise. After dinner, light the grill and put the ribs on for about 20 minutes, ten minutes on each side on a medium flame. Remove from the grill, let cool to room temperature and put in fridge. When you get home from work the following day preheat the oven to 300, put your ribs in a 9 x 13 baking dish or roaster, pour in one can of vegetable broth and cover with foil. Bake the ribs for 1 and a half hours or longer, longer is not necessary they should be plenty tender enough in an hour and a half.

What You'll Need:

couple of racks of ribs
brown sugar, enough to coat
2 tsp onion powder
2 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp salt
2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
adjust quantities to cover ribs
also if you like your ribs with
a greater kick add more cayenne

Putting It All Together:

Now most often you will see
recipes start ribs in the oven
and finish them off on the grill
I like to start them there as they
get the grill flavor. By finishing
them in the oven I am more free to do
the things we need to do when we get
home from work. I throw them in the ove
and head off to laundry, the Eliptical or
Paula Dean. :)
sometime before dinner I will make a quick
mac and cheese or throw a few potatoes in
the microwave. about half an hour before
dinner I will baste the ribs with my favorite
bbq sauce, either bottled or homemade. and as
always, with the bottled sauces watch the
sodium content. I will most times choose this
time to remove the foil till dinner. Your ribs
should cook at least one and a half hours.
They are done when the move freely when you
jiggle the bone or a more scientific way to
tell is with a meat thermometer, it should
read about 165.

***Another way to enjoy ribs during the week is to put them in the oven when you go to bed at 200, put in fridge in the morning and finish them off on the grill with a little bbq sauce when you get home from work or errands.