Saturday, September 18, 2010

Dry-Rubbed Ribs and Fresh Pan Fried Fish



It was definitely unplanned, my little hiatus from blogdom, but I'm guessing blog block hits the lot of us eventually. With the heat of the last weeks of August, a few minor, but annoying medical procedures, and the stress of ordinary life, the blog just went by the wayside. Luckily, cool weather has blown into town and, while my next few weekends are busy, I'm pretty sure I can fit a few posts into the mix. Let's start with what I didn't share from this oh-so-short summer. We'll begin with 4th of July weekend.

We are lucky to live on a lake all year, but the best time to be on the lake is when we can share it with friends and family. This year, the 4th of July was especially nice, since we had several relatives come to visit with my mother-in-law, Alice. She had a great time. And we had wonderful food.

I wasn't sure if I wanted my ribs to have a dry rub, or a sauce...so I did both. The dry rub won the popular vote.



I found a great recipe for a dry rub from my friend DeeCook, You can find it here: Oven Baked Pork Ribs



Easy stuff. Just be sure to cut off that membrane on the back of the ribs first, then rub the spices all over and put it in a foil pan. Cover it up real tight, and bake it at 300 degrees for 2 hours. Then just finish it off on the grill. Superb.





For the saucy ribs, I just mixed some honey into original Open Pit Barbecue Sauce. Kind of old school, but my favorite sauce. Next time I'll share my homemade BBQ sauce.


Later, we sent our guests out to catch some fish. They actually caught quite a few right off of the dock, then cleaned them up and fried them. Quite the treat!






I'm happy to say that I had no part in the preparation of this fish...it's not often that someone cooks for me, so I was happy to just supply the drinks.






We set up a make-shift kitchen outside and kept the mess to a minimum.


Alice can't cook anymore, but she was still able to provide instruction on how to make the batter. Dip the fish fillets in flour first, then in the batter (simply beat together 2 eggs and blend in a can of beer). Finally, dip it in some seasoned cornmeal. We used some salt and cayenne pepper.





Keeping it on the grill meant no odor in the house. :)




Serve it up on a vintage McDonald's plate, add a few grilled potatoes, and you have a perfect meal!



Belle waits for some treats to drop to the ground.




And a good time was had by all....


Stay tuned for the final days of summer....the State Fair edition!
 

10 comments:

  1. Welcome back!! It's definitely good to take a break sometimes...everything looks great. =)

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  2. Cathy - Can you recommend a good bakery here in the cities that sells Dutch baked goods? Dutch letters, Speculaas, Butter cakes, etc?

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  3. Glad to see you, Cathy! Ha, Ha!!!! Do you have some of those ols MacDonald's plates too???!!!!We have 2, a winter scene and a fall scene. Our grand daughter eats on them!

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  4. Actually, I checked and you have the Fall one in the photo!!!!! We got them almost 20 years ago!

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  5. Great pix. Those ribs do look good!

    Now you are making me wish summer would last just a little longer! I am so ready for fall. That hot weather was just a bit more that I really like. I avoided baking when it was so hot too.

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  6. Thanks all!

    Heather, I'm voting for your blog on Foodbuzz--loved your entry!

    Ronna, we have literally used those McDonald plates everyday for 20 years. Some knucklehead (Pete, LOL) put them in the microwave, so a couple of them have bubbled a little, but they've held up pretty well.

    Judy, alas--I haven't seen or heard of a good Dutch bakery around here. I googled and found a Dutch club, but no bakery. There used to be a shop in Hopkins that carried some imported stuff, but I think that has closed as well. I want to try and make a few more Dutch things, but it's pretty much guesswork for me.

    Lee, I really don't miss the hot weather. But now that I can bake again I find myself needing to go on a major diet. :(

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  7. Welcome back!! All the food looks great!! Great family pictures too!!

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  8. Thanks Cathy and the pics are great. My mom is visiting saturay so i'll be posting the rib recipe this week for sure. Again you're the best, thanks.

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  9. We have missed you! Welcome back. I look forward to reading about your autumn baking adventures

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  10. Hi, I like the name of your blog so I'm visiting for the first time. You have some great stories, recipes and pictures here, thanks for sharing, Patty

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