awesome baby back ribs

Those of you friends with me elsewhere online know of our grill saga, that our last one died a rusty death. Our new grill has a little smoker box in it, where you can put soaked woodchips in and smoke while you grill. (I think you can buy one for any grill but its attached! so neat!). Anyways, we had to find something to smoke in the new grill, it was a requirement by my husband.

So we bought some hickory wood chips at Lowes when we bought the grill, so I had them taunting me from the kitchen counter until I found something. Then I found it on allrecipes.com, an easy baby back rib recipe. We'd never mastered ribs on the grill, so I always have to slice them apart beforehand and do them in the oven. Giant PITA. This recipe is great, just remove the membrane from the back, lightly dust and rub in the rub and then throw on the grill for an hour on a preheated grill. Prize Winning Baby Back Ribs.

My changes:
- Soak hickory woodchips in water for time recommended on package (think it was 30 min).
- Put in little woodchip holder in grill, let them heat up while preheating grill
- Add garlic pepper and kosher salt (sub for reg salt/pepper) to the rub, use rub sparingly, I think I still had at least 1/2 left from one slab. Want it to enhance the smoky and bbq flavors not overpower :)
- I used sweet baby ray's bbq sauce, but may try my old favorite recipe of bourbon whiskey BBQ sauce (using Gentleman Jack).

I have another slab in the fridge for this week :) may be dinner tuesday if the wind dies down. I could see us doing a couple slabs for a party sometime too. Chris ate about half the slab himself last time I made them ;)

ham sauce

This was my great grandmother's family's ham sauce recipe. It says great grandma Britton but I think her maiden name was dutch... it's my Dad's Dad's Mom's family recipe ;) with Easter coming up I figured some of you may be having ham.

GREAT GRANDMOTHER BRITTON’S HAM SAUCE

1/2 cup tomato soup
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup prepared mustard
1/2 cup vinegar (apple cider vinegar)
1/2 cup butter
3 egg yolks, beaten

In a medium-small saucepan over medium heat mix all ingredients except egg yolks. Whisk until butter melts and sugar is dissolved. Lower heat to simmer and incorporate egg yolks until sauce thickens, being careful not to scramble the eggs in the sauce. Remove from heat and let cool prior to refrigerating.

It's usually best if you let the eggs get to room temp so you have less of a chance of scrambling them when you add them to the sauce. It is good with ham or on sandwiches the day after with leftover ham or turkey. It's a mustard sauce with a kick from the vinegar.