use real butter

looking from the other side
I lived in Southern California for a total of ten years. My friends in States With Real Winter used to send me hate email in January for posting pictures on my blog of things like barbecue parties on our patio with fat, juicy oranges dangling off of the verdant trees in the background. I love California winter. Winter in California is what I think summer should be. Of course, the moment March rolled around I wilted until November. But now I live where I get many good months of winter and the summers are tolerable (it can still get hot at 8500 feet). We mountain folk are smug little bastards. When I talk to Boulderites I refer to their town as “the flats” and I like to remind them that they don’t even know cold, snow, and especially wind. When I regard them from my home, I literally look down at them. Okay, but where the hell is this going?

Cindy posted about some beautiful baking she did this weekend, and it is indeed beautiful. Then I notice these flowers that adorn the cake and cupcakes and I’m thinking those are awfully pretty - I wonder where she got… And she writes that she traipsed outside to her yard and plucked these flowers and I’m imagining Bambi and friends gathered about and waving hi and little bluebirds singing while they do her hair. WTF? People think I’m joking when I say our growing season is on the order of a few weeks. California has two lettuce seasons. TWO. Let’s see here, if I go outside in my yard I find these:

d.e.d.: dead

I’m not putting that on a cake.

I do love winter, but the monotone colors of snow and dirt can get old around now and we still have 3 more months until mud season. Living ten minutes from a ski hill ain’t bad, except when you get a nice dump of powder and the winds are blowing it straight into bleeping Kansas. Days like that - days like today, I stay indoors and get my cardio burn going. I rowed and rode for 2 hours. Kaweah sleeps the entire time, until I do my ab work. Lying on the floor is an open invitation to play.

she attacks my abs with the giant plush ball

it’s never clear what she’s thinking after I chuck the ball across the room

a little spice in your life
There’s nothing quite like Mexican food with a kick for a wintry day. Seeing as we are in Colorado, you can’t find serious Mexican food anywhere. You have to go south to New Mexico to get it - or you can make it yourself. In my home state of Virginia, Mexican food was relegated to the likes of Chi Chi’s or Taco Hell Bell. [I still have a soft spot for Taco Bell… cheaper than dog food.] Living in So Cal exposed me to some excellent Mexican food, including a favorite dive in East LA where we ran the risk of being gun fodder in random drive-by shootings every time we ate there. It was so worth it. But the real education was living with Jeremy, a native son of New Mexico. Despite the fact that he’s a white boy, he has discerning tastes when it comes to New Mexican fare. He taught me to make enchiladas, stacked enchiladas.

just corn tortillas, meat, cheddar, enchilada sauce

I know, we have friggin’ orange cheese in the photo. When we grocery shop, it’s a search and destroy mission. I take the items that require assessment of freshness or banter with the butcher. Jeremy is assigned the items that couldn’t possibly get screwed up. In and out and nobody gets hurt, see? Except this time I just said, “cheddar”. I forgot to add, “organic and not friggin’ orange”. My bad. We sometimes make stacked chicken enchiladas with shredded chicken, but this time I wanted something with spank. I used shredded carne adovada. Pork rules.

top the the small puddle of sauce with a layer of corn tortillas

After the initial spoonful of sauce at the bottom of the baking dish, start stacking tortillas, meat, cheese, and drizzle sauce. Repeat about three or four more times. I like lots of layers, just like my cakes.

layer the shredded meat

drizzle sauce over the cheese layer

You should end with a layer of tortillas, some cheese, and enough sauce to cover them. The top layer tends to dry out during baking, so I typically bake it uncovered for half of the cook time and pop a lid or foil over it for the remaining half. If you try to serve this straight out of the oven, it tends to ooze into a pile that looks suspiciously like vomit. I like to let it set up for an hour or overnight and reheat the servings.

a hearty slice of stacked enchiladas

Enchiladas, Stacked - Not Rolled

12 corn tortillas
12 oz chicken or carne adovada, shredded
12 oz cheddar cheese, shredded
20 oz enchilada sauce

In an 8×8 baking dish, put two or three spoonfuls of enchilada sauce in the bottom and spread evenly. Layer with three overlapping tortillas. Sprinkle 1/3 of the chicken meat evenly on the corn tortillas. Sprinkle 1/4 of the shredded cheese. Spoon 1/4 of enchilada sauce. Repeat for two more layers. When you top with the last three tortillas, sprinkle remaining cheese and pour remaining sauce. Bake at 400 for 40 minutes. You may want to cover the dish for the last 20 minutes if the top starts to dry out.

Typically, fast food is shunned in our household. Typically. Unless we are driving down I-70 after a big day of free-heeling pow (translates into: telemarking deep, fluffy snow) and are desperate to stoke up on grease, sodium, sugar, and more grease. When it comes to fast food, my personal favorite is the Chick-fil-A sandwich - a chicken sandwich I grew up eating in southern Virginia. It lived in every mall in the South.

Last year, I toured Sydney for four days while Jeremy dorked out with an international team of astronomers - a group that makes even geologists look fashionable - in Alice Springs. I can’t say I have ever experienced a more incredible eating tour of any city, thanks to my dear Kell. We ate some seriously fancy shmancy food. I also had my token spud meatpie at Harry’s Cafe de Wheels in Woolloomooloo. I love saying Woolloomooloo as much as I love typing it. Woolloomooloo, Woolloomooloo, Woolloomooloo. As part of my inaugural effort to eat all of Sydney, Kell and Jerad took me to Oporto to experience what they claim is Australia’s best fast food sandwich: a chicken filet sandwich with a chili ginger sauce (piri piri). Instant love, I tell you.

Imagine my surprise and elation when a package arrived for me a few weeks ago postmarked from Australia. I love my Kell, because she randomly purchases everyday delights from her lovely (and hot - did I tell you how bloody hot it is in Oz?) island continent nation, pops them into a bubble-padded envelope, and ships them to my post office box in the hills. That and she has a wicked hilarious sense of humor. Anyway, this package contained the precious of precious sauces:

oporto’s piri piri sauce

There were instructions scribbled on a note for me. Kell said to take some chicken breast and “burger” it to enjoy with the sauce. I like her verbage. Burger it. So I did!

dredge the chicken

I butterflied a couple of chicken breasts so they were of even thickness and cut pieces that were burger-sized. First I dipped the chicken in frothy egg white and then dredged each piece in a mixture of flour, garlic powder, ground pepper, salt, and bread crumbs. Next I fried them up in oil - a process that makes every southern girl salivate, even in polite company.

i have dreams about frying chicken

Once the burgered chicken filets are ready, slap them on some soft bread (toasted or no - we go for both teams in this house) with shredded lettuce, a swipe of mayo, and most of all the Oporto sauce. What is in the sauce? I haven’t tried replicating it myself, but the ingredients listed on the packet are as follows: chilli purée, vegetable oil, water, ginger, lemon, garlic, salt, thickener, vegetable gum, preservative. I don’t have vegetable gum or preservative in my kitchen, but I dare say I might give it a go.

oh my, yes please

Damn good sandwich, I tell you. Gives my Chick-fil-A a run for her money. Love the spicy. This comes close to fast food lust.

Some of you may wonder if I cook as often as I post (well, lately I haven’t posted as frequently and there is a good reason for that). Um… yes and no. My cooking and baking tend to cluster in that I will make 3-5 recipes in one sitting and shoot them all to blog about eventually. It’s an OCD dream come true really - keeping all of that straight in your head. I suppose it’s very good practice for those times I entertain guests for dinner. In any case, I have days where I whip something up and the little voice (me) in the back of my head says, “Oh, you oughta shoot this” and the other voice (me) in the front of my head says, “Yeah - you can go shoot it…” and those are the days I don’t record what I make.

I have recipes in queue for times when I feel unmotivated or times like tomorrow, when I’ll be out of commission for a day or more and unable to cook or bake anything. I just find it funny that I decided to post about barbecue pork ribs on a day when we finally, we finally got a decent dump of snow here. I’ve been waiting for it all season and of course, leave it to the storm track to arrive right before I can’t take advantage. Ah well…

spice things up with a nice rub

You can use whatever rack of ribs you like. I prefer pork and I like the cut that my local butcher refers to as Saint Louis cut. It has the spare ribs and the flank of extra cartilage and meat below that. I personally don’t dig on baby back ribs. Not as much bang for the buck in my opinion.

it’s called a rub because you rub it in and all over

When you make these ribs, you need to plan ahead. I know - for OCDs and people who are generally on top of things, this is a no brainer. Right. But for those whose idea of a plan is not to plan, give yourself a day and half for this recipe. After getting rubbed, the ribs sit in the refrigerator for 24 hours. I know the recipe says 4-24 hours, but 24 will do ya right.

see ya tomorrow

Don’t get too excited when it’s time to take the ribs out of the fridge, because they go into a slow oven for 8 more hours. Patience, young padawan.

into the oven she goes

That low and slow oven renders the ribs to the falling-off-the-bone stage. I swear I love me my barbecue pork, but this is most certainly my favorite of them all. Something really appealing about how cleanly it comes off the bone. That is also the tricky part.

careful not to eat them out of the oven - there’s one more step

Because the rack is now falling-off-the-bone tender, you need to exercise some care when transferring it to the grill. Yes, there is one more step, but it’s definitely worth it. I usually have two large spatulas, two sets of tongs, and my ever-faithful companion, Jeremy, to help me move the rack onto the grill without having it fall apart. I am sure that one day we’ll be grilling for guests and the whole thing will fall on the deck and then the dog will come running…

brush on some good barbecue sauce

Flipping the rack is just as nerve-racking (get it?). Try to keep the entire slab in one rotating plane - that is, no torquing or other application of differential stress on the slab unless you want the above nightmare scenario to play out (and my dog will most certainly come running to your house to eat the fallen ribs - her nose is *that* good). It’s not so bad once you get the hang of obeying those basic principles of mechanics. And when it’s all said and done, you will definitely feel it was worth it. I always do.

you’ll be left with nothing but a plate of clean bones

Slow Barbecue Ribs

4-5 lb. rack of ribs (I suggest St. Louis style, pork ribs)
1 cup dry rub
2/3 cup Mutha sauce
2/3 cup random store-brand BBQ sauce like Masterpiece or Bullseye (something with molasses in it - a sweeter type)

dry rub
1/4 cup cumin
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup paprika
1/4 cup chili powder
1 tbsp cayenne powder
1/4 cup salt
1/4 cup black pepper, ground
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic

Mix together.

Mutha Sauce
from Dinosaur Bar-B-Cue: An American Roadhouse

1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 onion, puréed
2 tbsp garlic, minced
salt to taste
pepper to taste
28 oz. tomato sauce
2 cups ketchup
1 cup water
3/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup cayenne pepper sauce (yiha!)
1/4 cup spicy brown mustard
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp chili powder
2 tsp ground pepper
1/2 tsp allspice, ground

Mutha Sauce: Sauté onions and garlic in oil. Season with salt and pepper. Add remaining ingredients and bring to boil. Reduce to simmer for ten minutes and let the sauce cool. This makes a ridiculous amount of sauce - something like 10-12 cups.

Dry off the rack of ribs. Rub spices over all of the rack. Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 24 hours, but at least 4 hours. Preheat oven to 225F. Place the rack in a large roasting pan (I line mine with foil for ease of clean up) and cover with foil. Bake the ribs for 8 hours. Remove from oven and set the ribs on a rack to let the excess fat drip off (to reduce the grease fire on the grill). Mix the Mutha sauce and random store sauce together. Heat the grill on high for ten minutes, then reduce heat to medium. Place the ribs on the grill for 5 minutes, covered. Flip the ribs and grill for another 5 minutes. Flip again and brush the top side of the ribs with barbecue sauce and allow grilling for 5 minutes. Flip one last time and brush the top side with more sauce. Serve.