The Yum Yum Factor

Holy crap, I have been so busy cooking for other people that I have not even had time to cook at home, apart from a grilled cheese here and there. I have a few down days before plunging back into the fire next week so, in an effort to practice what I preach, it's time to get into my own kitchen. I have some interesting recipes that are not quite ready for prime time that will be coming soon, but, in the meantime,  I am still going through some of my favourite crock pot recipes and adapting them to the Instant Pot  since it is supposedly almost mid November and should be feeling like winter by now. I know that most of you think of ribs as a summer BBQ dish but for me, it's always been more of a winter thing so  I have started eyeballing the pork ribs at the butcher. I used to either do them slow and low for hours and hours, wrapped in foil in a low oven or all day in the crockpot for days when I am going to be out too long for that. The problem with the crockp...

As the proud owner of a new FoodSaver vacuum sealer  (my review will be up soon), I have spent the last week playing around with it and sucking the air out of everything in my path. I had used the zip lock bags, the jar sealer, sealed up potato chip bags, and made a custom bag to marinate some flank steak in as well as using another one to freeze some soup. The only thing left to do with it was to take the quick marinator out for a spin and, as luck would have it, my door on my mini freezer in my basement was left ajar overnight and so a rack of pork side ribs was almost completely thawed out and I had to use them asap. That decision was made for me, ribs it would be. I was fancying some sort of miso flavoured meat so I whipped up this marinade, threw the meat and the marinade in the marinator container and let the machine work it's magic. I would usually leave these ribs in the fridge overnight but, to be honest, my fridge is almost always packed and I hate having to ...

I really love ribs and in the summer time we often make them in the smoker. It takes all day and it's truly a labour of love but well worth the effort if you have that kind of time. Unfortunately, we don't always have an entire day to babysit meat in the smoker and in the winter, even if we COULD smoke ribs all day out in the snow, we won't because we are not nuts and it's way too cold to spend the day outdoors cooking. I used to cook them slow and low for hours in the oven and then broil them but I always feel like I should be home when I have the oven on all afternoon - it's the paranoid old lady channeling my mother I guess. Next thing you know, I will refuse to drive on rainy days, on really sunny days, in rush hour or at night... oh wait, I already don't drive at night if it is raining. Never mind.