November 15th, 2009 by leigha

Today is my birthday!  Not only is it my birthday, but I get to watch my Alma Mater play football from the comfort of my couch and eat a good meal.  Jason decided he’d give me a break tonight and cook dinner so I didn’t have to–so tonight’s birthday dinner is BBQ ribs with the spicy corn Jason likes and my favorite Smashed Garlic Potatoes.

The secret to Jason’s ribs is more about the technique than the ingredients, but he said he didn’t mind me sharing his secret, so I get to share it!  The corn is something that I’ve been playing with for a while now.  One night I wanted to have corn, but didn’t have corn on the cob so I thought I’d play around with the can we had.  And the Smashed Potatoes are something that I’ve adapted from a cookbook I have.  I LOVE garlic, so I thought I’d add garlic to them and think they turned out well.  I think I might add a bit of salt to them next time since they seem a little flat, but they’re still good.

Jason’s BBQ Ribs

Flip Out Factor: 0 (I didn’t have to do it!)

1 Rack of Ribs

Store bought Spice Rub (Jason uses “Anything Goes” from the FreshMarket)

Store bought BBQ Sauce (Jason uses the Hickory & Brown Sugar from Sweet Baby Rays)

Preheat your oven to 275.  While the oven is heating, coat both sides of the ribs with the spice rub–really rub it on.  Put the ribs on a broiling pan and put them in the oven for 2 1/2 hours on each side (a total of 5 hours).  Once they’re done in the oven, pull them out and put them on the grill.  Put BBQ sauce on both sides, turning and recoating at least twice.

Spicy Corn

Flip Out Factor: 1

1 can of Corn Kernels

1 tsp Red Pepper Flakes

1 tbsp Butter

pinch of salt

Black pepper

Melt butter in a medium saute pan on medium heat.  Drain liquid from corn and put corn in pan.  As corn cooks through add red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.  This recipe is really forgiving, so you can adjust the spices as you need.  I’ve also added garlic to this before and it was really good too.

Smashed Garlic Potatoes

Flip Out Factor: 1

This recipe I adapted from one I found in Rachel Ray’s 365: No Repeats–A Year of Deliciously Different Dinners. It’s her “Fancy Pants Bangers & Mash.”  I didn’t care for the bangers, but I kept the mash.

2lbs red potatoes cut into quarters (leave the skins on)

1/2 c. milk

2 tbsp cream cheese

2 cloves of garlic minced (her recipe calls for chives, but I didn’t have any, so I used garlic.  Was just as good in my opinion)

2 tbsp butter.

Boil potatoes until tender, drain, return to pot.  Add other ingredients, mash & done!

It’s much more a guy’s meal than a girlie birthday dinner, but it’s what Jason does well, and he wanted to help out, so by all means please do!  I wonder if he’ll do the dishes too…