Tasty Pork Ribs

On occasions when we have something like a small pot roast or meat loaf for a Sunday dinner, it's special. This falls into that category of a special meaty meal. It's from the February/March 2008 Taste of Home.

Tasty Pork Ribs

8 bone-in, country style pork ribs, 8 ounces each

1 cup ketchup

1 cup barbecue sauce

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon molasses

1 garlic clove, minced

2 tablespoons dried minced onion

1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning

1 teaspoon ground mustard

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions

Place ribs in a 5-qt. slow cooker. Combine the remaining ingredients; pour over ribs.

Cover and cook on low for 6-7 hours or until meat is tender. Yield: 8 servings.

Easy Peasy. I'm not usually comfortable cooking large hunks of meat, but it's always easy in the slow cooker. Brian really liked this, and I understand why: he's a meat and potatoes lover, and we aren't a big meat and potatoes family. I liked it just fine.

I specifically looked for 8 oz each, bone-in ribs to get for this. Are ribs really half a pound each? I ended up getting a little package of about 5 ribs that weighed 1.8 pounds. When we were eating them, I noticed that my bone-in ribs didn't have any bones. I doubled checked the package. Yep, they were boneless ribs packaged as bone-in. Brian prefers boneless meat, so he was happy.

Sausage Cheese Balls

I signed up to have the missionaries over tonight.  They didn't call yesterday like they normally do and I started to wonder if I had confused the month they were coming.  Or maybe they were just going to show up, because we have two new elders and who knows what they do that might be different.  So I got dinner ready, but didn't expect them to come.  And they didn't.  They called at 5:00 saying they wrote our day down wrong, so they couldn't come tonight.

Too bad.

They missed TWO Cupboard Project Recipes.  Why I planned on that in the first place, I don't know.  What if the recipes were nasty? At least I don't have to worry about that anymore.

First they missed these Sausage Cheese Balls.  They sounded pretty good, but were expensive, so I kept putting them off.

Source unknown

 

3 c bisquick (I made my own)
1 lb. uncooked pork sausage
4 c shredded cheddar cheese (1 lb.)
1/2 c parmesan
1/2 c milk
1/2 t dried rosemary
1/2 t parsley
Stir all together.  Shape into 1" balls.  Place on cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees 20-25 minutes.


These were more like tiny biscuits.  We both agreed they would be better with a higher pork to bisquick recipe.  With a few changes, I would gladly recommend these again.

Pork Chops in Orange Sauce

In my recipe pile there is a whole Taste of Home magazine. That alone will give me plenty of options for future posts. For dinner tonight I made Pork Chops with Orange Sauce from the April/May 2008 edition of Taste of Home, submitted by Billie Moss from Walnut Creek, CA.

Ingredients

1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon pepper
4 boneless pork loin chops (6 ounces each)
3/4 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons sugar
6 whole cloves
1/2 teaspoon grated orange peel
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cold water

Combine paprika and pepper; rub over both sides of pork chops. Brown chops in a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray. Combine the orange juice, sugar, cloves and orange peel; pour over pork. Cover and simmer for 4-5 minutes or until a thermometer reads 145°. Remove chops and keep warm. In a small bowl, combine flour and water until smooth; stir into cooking juices. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Discard cloves. Serve sauce with pork chops. Yield: 4 servings.

We all really liked this one. I searched for the recipe online so I didn't have to type it all in, and I was astonished that it only had 3 stars on the Taste of Home website. I give it five stars, and I'll definitely make it in the future. It calls for boneless pork loin chops, but they are way too expensive. I didn't see regular pork chops at the store I went to, but I did find some thin cut boneless pork chops that were marked down for quick sale since they were expiring soon. I'm sure they were not 6 ounces each, but it still turned out fine. I usually have a problem with pork chops getting tough from overcooking, but simmering them with a lid on helped that. And I thought the flavors went well together, despite what mlblake says.