Making ribs always seemed a bit overwhelming to me.  Truth be told, I’ve only made them a few times and the first time was just about a year ago, at the age of 50!  Now that I’ve made them a few times, I wonder what I was so panicked about.  They are quite easy. Friday from noon to about 6:00 p.m. was going to be a busy one for me.  I was planning on making ribs, hard to do on a busy day, but I came up with a plan.  In the morning, I got my jelly roll pan ready and started the preparation of the ribs.  I placed my rack of ribs on tin foil that I had placed on the plan (enough to be able to tent it over the ribs during the cooking).  To both sides of the ribs I added the juice of 2 limes along with the zest of both those limes and 1/4 teaspoon of jarred, minced garlic.  On top of that I sprinkled kosher salt (about 1/2 tablespoon per side), black pepper (about 1 teaspoon per side), and a spice I get from a spice store in Milwaukee.  The store is called Penzy’s and you can order their spices on line.

I’m lucky because my Mom, who lives in Wisconsin, will periodically send me a gift box of their spices.  The one I used for the ribs is called Penzy’s 33rd and Galena Chicken and Pork Rub.   This spice is made up of Tellicherry black pepper, paprika, nutmeg, sage, cayenne, crushed red pepper and oleoresin of basil.  I sprinkled this seasoning very liberally over my ribs.  I added about 1/4-1/2 inch of water on the bottom of the tin foil before tenting.

I placed my ribs in a preheated 325 degree oven for 2-1/4 hours.

After the ribs were done, I pulled them out and let them cool a bit before placing them into the fridge.  When I came back later, I finished baking them with a barbeque sauce I prepared.  For the sauce, I mixed together one cup of regular barbeque sauce, whichever you like, and 1/2 cup of apricot preserves and a dash of crushed red pepper.  Just a hint.  I brushed this over the ribs and put them back into a preheated 375 degree oven for 30 minutes.  They were wonderful.

I served them with a simple basmati rice that I seasoned with salt and the zest of a lime. We had watermelon as well, which was refreshing with the ribs.

I love how you can see the little chunks from the apricot preserves in the sauce, yum!

Until next time, Kris