Culinary Experiments

I did a little mad scientist routine in the kitchen today. Two things on tap: ribs and mint chocolate cookies.

I think I've stumbled upon a quick and easy rib method that I'll use from now on, with a few modifications here and there. Here's my rib technique: rinse the ribs, then pat them dry with paper towel. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper, and a dry rub of your choice. I used Penzey's Southwest Seasoning, which I think will become my standby rub.

Then it's easy: just throw 'em on a grill set on low, flip every 20 minutes or so, and cook them like that for at least an hour and a half. At that point, you can start basting every ten minutes or so with the BBQ sauce of your choice, being sure to flip them each time you baste. A store bought sauce works just fine, but today, I cooked up a quick and easy BBQ sauce, simply because I love making something up. This one was pretty tasty, so I want to remember what I put in it this time around. (This is one of those blog entries that's more for me than anything else.)

Ingredients for the sauce:

1/2 of a red onion, minced
minced garlic--about four cloves
Can of diced tomatoes
Ketchup--probably 1/3 of a cup or so
Gulden's mustard--probably two or three tablespoons
chipotle pepper--maybe 1 and 1/2 tsp
ancho chile pepper--probably 1/2 tsp
cumin--probably a teaspoon
smoked Spanish paprika--about 1/2 tsp
cherry wine vinegar
raspberry wine vinegar
(enough of both to give it a nice zing, though could've used red wine vinegar)
liquid smoke--probably 2 tsp or so
brown sugar--probably 1/4 cup, maybe less
maple syrup--probably a tablespoon
plenty of black pepper
juice of half a lemon

Method: saute onions and garlic, then mix in the rest. Let simmer for awhile, then season with salt. Blend it all together to form a thick sauce.

The second experiment was to create some Mint Chocolate Mint Chip Cookies.

I made up a tasty recipe, but decided to delete here, since I'm going to be entering a contest. Don't want anyone using Google to stumble upon the winning recipe! :-)


It was immensely satisfying for me to make these today. Experimenting in the kitchen could just be my favorite hobby.