Dressing and Dinner

I like making my own salad dressings, especially given that I cannot find a really good pre-made balsamic vinaigrette. So today I looked to Emeril Lagasse for help.

Emeril's recipe called for 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar (surprise!), 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, 1 tablespoon garlic, 2 tablespoons brown sugar and 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil.

Use a very good quality balsamic vinegar for a dish such as this.
And I even got to try out my new grater with the holder for small foods such as garlic cloves.

Add all the ingredients together except for the olive oil. While whisking the mixture, slowly stream in the olive oil until it is all incorporated.

Can I tell you how thick and rich and delicious this turned out to be? Thanks, Emeril. This recipe will remain in my repertoire.

And now, on to dinner...

I decided to make Barbecue Pork Ribs. I bought two packages of boneless pork country style ribs for this dish. I also pulled out a cup container of frozen homemade turkey stock, an onion and two garlic cloves. Salt and pepper will be added once the other ingredients are in place.

You can think of this dish as a hit and run. Just dump all the ingredients in the slow cooker and walk away. And don't worry about the frozen blob of turkey stock. It will melt and all will be well with the world.

About half way through cooking, I turn the meat and contemplate the sauce.

I've decided to use a goodly amount of my Whiskey Run BBQ Sauce, with a bit of the Apple Farms BBQ Sauce and some Asian BBQ Sauce to spice things up a bit.

After 9 hours of cooking low and slow, the barbecue pork ribs are perfection.

My dinner is plated. My dear daughter made her famous macaroni and cheese, but that is a blog entry for another time. It appears I annoyed her enough by documenting her Double Chocolate Mint Cookies earlier in the day.

All in all, it was a good dinner.