We have been so hungry for ribs lately! I blame a certain Triple D episode we watched last week along with some super cold weather keeping us indoors and away from the smoker and grill! So, while I was busy launching my blog today, I slow cooked a couple of slabs of ribs. In the oven! Amazing! I guarantee it! Along with some garlic butter broccoli…Wow!

I remember being afraid to cook ribs. And kind of afraid to eat them.  Chewing meat off of the bone? Sloppy barbecue sauce? Not very ladylike! Definitely not food to eat in front of your boyfriend! Turns out, my boyfriend/husband loves ribs! And, as it turns out, ribs don’t have to be so messy and hard to eat. And they are definitely not hard to cook.  I promise! I’ll let you in on a few secrets.

One of the things you need to understand about cooking meat is that as it cooks, meat releases a lot of liquid. My favorite mushroom recipe says, “cook mushrooms until they release their water.”  I always crack up at that, but it’s true! And not just for mushrooms!  If you cook meat on a grill, the  liquid drips away through the rack.  If you cook it in a pan, the liquid builds up in a pan and the meat ends up boiling in it’s own liquid.  Trust me, no one wants to eat boiled ribs!

So, I start off with a lean slab of ribs.  Pork Baby Back Ribs from Tyson are my favorite!  My local WalMart carries them! So I can almost always find them, except for that one time, on Father’s Day, at the last minute! Ugg! Then, I use a dry rub.  Again, WalMart has a large variety of barbecue seasonings, and a generous sprinkling of that (on the meaty side, not the bony side), is all you need to get started.  For real! Let’s keep it simple, right?