I fully intended to give you a rundown of our July 4th menu today, complete with a couple of lovely side salads inspired by Mark Bittman’s picnics column from last week, but today’s fare was ribs and there’s just no way I can write about vegetables at a time like this.

Since I first posted about the grilled vegetable salad I found on The Kitchen Sink, it’s been a weekly fixture on our table, so I knew Kristin’s featured recipe for baby back ribs wouldn’t disappoint. As ever, through poor planning or simple willfulness, I adapted the recipe a bit, but can’t imagine them being any better even with the full complement of ingredients.

The adaptations were fairly minor, but worth pointing out. To start, as embarrassing as it is for a Southern girl to admit, I have no bourbon in the house. Lucky for me, there is a lot of Jack leftover from some party or other, so that went into the glaze instead.

Though I seem to have an extremely well-stocked spice rack (okay, well-stocked spice bins), my refrigerator is lacking in the saucy condiments department, so I went without the plum and hoisin sauces called for in the glaze. I thought the finished product would lack some depth because of these omissions, so I tinkered a bit on the front end, baking the ribs in a favorite marinade for flank steak — equal parts pineapple juice and soy sauce with a hefty dose of garlic — instead of the stand-alone pineapple juice in the recipe.

Gil and I ran out while the ribs were baking and we were treated to the most mouthwatering smell as we walked up to the front door two hours later. Poor Rufus was left alone with the baking ribs and was beside himself with pork lust by the time we got home; to reward his patience, I gave him a tiny piece of meat with a little fat attached, fresh from the oven.

And I’m not too proud to admit I rewarded myself, too. Mmmmmmm…

At this point, it was a simple thing to fire up the grill, brush the ribs generously with the glaze, and grill them until the crispy bits outnumbered the soft.

As Rufus would (and did) say, “NOM! NOM! NOM!”

recipe after the jump

(more…)

And I aim to please. With gorgeous weather predicted for this Memorial Day weekend, I knew I’d have to break out the smoker, and what better way to kick off the summer than with a 7 1/2-pound pork butt?

(more…)

Flexibility is the key to a happy marriage. Gil doesn’t complain about picking me up at the train station when I work late, and I don’t complain when he snores like a congested bulldog at night. Also, I suck it up when he changes our dinner plans on the fly by proposing to pick up BBQ from Bourbon BBQ, the new temple of smoked meats in Hawthorne, NJ.

Right. Like I’d ever turn that down.

Tonight, we ordered pulled pork and sausage along with beans and potato salad on the side, but was that good enough for me? Oh, no. Not when I can come up with some way to make things a little more difficult for myself.

I felt like Carolina pulled pork sandwiches, so I threw together a quick vinegar sauce (though I used only one teaspoon of salt instead of the full TWO TABLESPOONS –which must be a typo — called for in the recipe) and tossed it with with an even quicker slaw made of thinly sliced fennel and napa cabbage, sprinkled with brown mustard seeds. I was a little worried that the fennel wouldn’t be so good in the slaw, but it really was terrific and balanced the smoked pork nicely. We piled the pork and slaw on toasted baguette slices and made short work of the mini sandwiches.

Of course, I’m not sure we made much of a dent in the meat overall, so I hope it freezes well — we’re heading to Toronto in a couple of days and it’d probably be confiscated at the security checkpoint, if not sooner.