Never under estimate the kitchen staff that does all the prep work...

My parents were here for the weekend, actually the weekend and a day. Since my dad likes ribs I had the idea to fix the rest of the ribs that we have from our pigs. I didn't have any BBQ sauce and I thought "why buy some from the store when I can make my own?". 

That was my first mistake - faulty thinking.

So, I google "grilled rib recipe" and find some recipes that look quite yummy. There is a recipe from a well known, very cute TV chef with a cute accent. This recipe looks especially good, or maybe it is just the chef. Wait, I am not that shallow, I would never select a recipe just because the guy promoting it is cute and has an accent...would I???   Surely not.  I look at the recipe, looks like a lot of ingredients but not "too much prep...."    I even watched the video. This is going to be perfect, he just tosses some ingredients in a pot while the ribs are smoking (yes, I said "smoking") Then you just let the sauce simmer for an hour or so....how hard could it be???

(still thinking this should be easy...should have gotten in the car and gone to the store)

So, first I make the "dry rub" for the ribs. So far things are going well, this is pretty easy. Wait, 7 TBSP of Paprika???   Ok, we might have a problem since I don't have that much Paprika so I will start a trend of substituting ingredients, a trend that continues throughout the process.

(should have realized if I don't have the right ingredients it may be easier to go buy some sauce, still thinking I should make my own)

The dry rub is mixed and now I start rubbing it into the ribs, wow, this looks like a lot of ribs! Not to worry, most people eat at least a half rack or rack of ribs since there is not a lot of meat, this should be the right amount.

(running out of dry rub and have to spread it thin, should have realized maybe there were too many ribs but instead kept rubbing)

Finished with the dry rub now onto making the sauce. A little twinge of concern since the ingredient list is stretching to the 2nd page of my printout but I bravely press on. Remember, I watched the video and it only took him about 5 minutes to season the ribs, smoke them, make the sauce and cook the ribs.

One hour later....still making the sauce. Still chopping ingredients, still trying to figure out how to substitute for items I don't have.

About 3 hours later....the sauce is as complete as it is going to be, it is simmering away, should be thickening up by now, recipe says it only takes an hour to thicken....mine takes over 2 hours. May have something to do with missing ingredients and/or substitutions.

The sauce is doing it's thing and I am supposed to be smoking the ribs but due to lack of planning this idea is going out of the window. To be honest I wasn't sure exactly how to make a fire in the charcoal grill that would smolder for 1 hour but by this time it was almost dinner anyway so I decided to forgo the smoking step. I did however put the mesquite chips on the charcoal so there was some smoking going on while cooking. Enough so that my hair and clothes smelled like I had been smoked.

Once we started cooking the ribs it became apparent that if we cooked all of them we were going to be filling the grill up multiple times. We ended up cooked about half of the ribs that I had seasoned and we still had enough for dinner that night and lunch the next day. So no, I did not accurately estimate the correct amount of ribs needed for 4 adults. The ribs were pretty tasty but not fall off the bone tender, I think that was the necessary smoking step that I missed. On the positive side, the sauce was absolutely delicious. So much so that I am confident that one day in the future I will have the thought "should I run to the store and buy sauce or just make some.....hmmm....that last sauce I made was really tasty....I think I'll make some."

'til next time...