Shrimp Ceviche cocktail

Been awhile since I tried something new that struck me with YUM, and that happened last night with a shrimp ceviche cocktail I had at a friend's BBQ. Ingredients where jotted down on my iPhone, with the obvious recognition that the quantities are not measured accurately. The surprise ingredient was Clamato! A quick Google shows lots of recipes, will be posting mine when I tweak it to my liking....

Fried cheese, an experiment

Some FoodTV dude showed making cheese crackers, which essentially was nothing but grated cheese toasted on the stove in a fry pan. I don't even recall what dish he was making, but toasted cheese sounds yummy, so I decided to experiment!! Not much method, kinda high heat, sprinkle the cheese evenly and be prepared to flip it like quick. Drain on paper towels on a plate.

Cheddar. Greasy and burns before it looks like it's burning. I'd say this one was a success, but really watch it close.

Parmesan: Major success!

Mozzarella: Sadly, a failure. Turned in to nothing but chewy.

And like I warned you, burns easily!

Blue Cheese: Major failure. Pretty much turned in to gum. Actually TASTED OK when it cooled and firmed up, but was weird and useless.

One important note, TEFLON! I at first tried it in a regular fry pan and it instantly stuck and made a huge mess. Teflon is a must! I think the lesson learned here is the less moisture in the cheese, the better it's going to turn out. If you're wondering what you can use this for, it's great on salads, creamy soups, and of course I think it makes a nice snack!

Yummy ribs, I must write down the recipe.....

I accidentally cooked some of the best ribs I've ever cooked this weekend. I say accidentally cause I didn't plan it, kinda half-assed monitored them, didn't use all my "tricks", tried a few things new and after it's all over.... I really should document what I do. Cause when you pull them off the grill and you get this remaining there, you know they're gonna be good:

Here they are plated. Those are onion rings from a home grown onion and our super special recipe. Nothing beats fresh deep fried!


Baby Back ribs, not country style or spare ribs. Baby backs are better meat, a more consistent row of meat, and tend to be more dark meat

Start them in the oven. Sure, you can do it on the grill, but you gotta be able to control the temperature. Low and slow. What I can't recall is 170 or 250 degrees.... Or how long. It was hours, was it 4? Or 6? I also blasted it on broil once with the bacon on top for more flavor.

Hold the sauce for now. Sauce has a lot of sugar in it, and sugar burns.

Get the grill ready, get it hot and let the temp drop to 250 or so.

I did dust them with a rub, something I made up a while back and think I wrote down somewhere. Lots of stuff in it.

I also swabbed it with apple sauce after a few hours of cooking.

After another hour or two, I laid a few strips of bacon on it, and one on either side to give it moisture and flavor.

When I put them on the grill, I throw some apple wood on the coals. In this case I used store bought, which is sadly like sawdust, but it smokes well. Other times I've soaked wood chunks.

By the time they're going on the grill, they're practically done, so keep the temperature down and take them off after an hour or so.

Wrapped up in aluminum foil and get the sides ready!

See why I need to write this down?