How To Make Yummy Baby Back Ribs

Hello friends and happy Monday, How are you how was your week? I know I have been a little inactive but my job right now is taking center stage in my life. More about that later.

Yesterday I was off and I did some cooking. I made pecan pancakes for breakfast and then I decided to make baby back ribs in the crock pot. I have made them in the crock pot several times. I love them this way. I bought a rack of baby back ribs at the grocery store.

This is the best way to make baby back ribs in my opinion. First of all I make a rub to put on the ribs. I use, 8 Tablespoons of Brown Sugar, 3 Tablespoons of kosher Salt, 1 tablespoon of Chili powder, 1 teaspoon of black pepper and 1 teaspoon of onion powder and 1 teaspoon of garlic powder. This is the amount of rub you use for a double rack of ribs. If you are only cooking a rack of ribs you will only use half of this. Put the other half back for next time or just use double on these and it will still be yummy.

This is a picture of the rub.

First of all I got a rack of baby back ribs. They are a little pricey but sometimes you can get them on sale. Splurge. It’s worth it!!

This is a rack of baby back ribs and it is plenty for me and Mark.

Next I make the rub. See the recipe from above.

I always cut the ribs in two so that I can place them in the crock pot easier.

Next you need to pull the membrane off of the ribs. It is not pleasant but you need to do it. I know that you don’t have to pull the membrane off but it does make them taste so much better. The rub really gets into the meat if you remove the membrane. There are several videos out there helping you to learn to do this. Google it.

Turn the ribs over so the rib part is showing. Take a butter knife and slip under the membrane make a pocket and slip your hand or the knife under the membrane and pull it off of the ribs. Some of the membrane comes off easily, if you are lucky, and some of them don’t. Yesterday I almost had a melt down because I couldn’t get the Fu/c8ing membrane off!!!!! I finally got most of it off.

The trick to cooking these ribs in the crock pot is that you must put them up on their sides so that they are not lying in their own juices because this tends to make them mushy. Don’t add anything to them at this point. Just let the meat cook and use it’s own juices.

Cook the ribs for about 6 hours in a crock pot on low. Check them after 6 hours and see if they are getting done. I think 6 hours is usually plenty of time. My recipe called for 8 hours but that is usually too long. I always check them after 6 hours.

After you take the ribs out of the crock pot place them on a pan and brush them with barbecue sauce and put them under the broiler in the oven for just a couple of minutes and they will taste yummy!!!!

So the ribs turned out pretty well. They were tasty. I have made better but these were good too.

Try them!!!

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

Sunday Morning Rain Is Falling

Happy Sunday friends it is Sunday morning and I am watching the rain out the window and feeling rather cozy in my cocoon . It sort of reminds me of the song by Maroon 5. (Sunday morning, rain is falling Steal some covers, share some skin. Clouds are shrouding us in moments unforgettable). Well, there is no skin being shared unless you count Scruffy and I snuggled in the chair watching Food Network HA HA!! I don’t know why I love this channel so much it makes me so hungry. It also makes me want to cook. I have a confession. I love to make pies but I never make my own pie crust. I buy the crust at Walmart in the frozen food section. It is just so easy. Mark has a friend, David, who makes his own pies and pie crust and the pies seem to taste so much better. I think I will have to try it. I will let you know how it turns out.

Can anyone else believe that it is almost July? That is crazy!!! I had to work six days straight this past week and it was very tiring. Not just physically but mentally as well. With all the COVID regulations and then hearing people complain about them it is so hard to know what to do or feel about it. Also, I had a friend coming over on Saturday so I had to clean my house. You know what I’m talking about. I got up early a couple of mornings and did some cleaning before work. As I was cleaning and mopping and dusting I was thinking I really should have people over more often, maybe I would keep my house cleaner. Anyway we had a great time we laughed and talked and talked and ate. I baked homemade bread, and a chocolate cake. I also made a dip called crack dip, it is called that because it is so addictive. I made a delicious pitcher of Ruby Relaxers, this is a very tasty light cocktail that is great for summer. We took a long walk with Scruffy and Molly and it was just a wonderful day.

Kitty Kitty has a new favorite sleeping spot. On my couch in the den on my afghan of course.

This one constantly needs attention!!!

Such beautiful flowers this time of the year. Vibrant colors are everywhere!!

I Pass this on my way to work every day. Of course I had to stop and get a pic.

Things are still a bit crazy in the world. Mark and I had planned a beach vacation later in August but I am not sure about it now. So many of the beaches are reporting record numbers of COVID and I am hearing that some beaches may close. I am not sure about going. We will see. I know we will have no problem social distancing. We rarely see a lot of people and we pretty much stay to ourselves. The beach we go to is very secluded. I will share it with you later this week. We have gone there for many years. It is our favorite beach.

This is my favorite beach. I am doing a post on it this week. I hope to be able to go later this year.

We have had such mild weather lately. This past week the temps have only been in the low 80’s and that has been wonderful. But I saw the forecast for the upcoming week and I think it is going to be really hot. As a matter of fact I just stepped outside and it is hot and humid. My glasses fogged up. Welcome to East Tennessee.

I hope you have a wonderful week.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

Weekends, Her Name Was Dora Lee

Happy Monday friends. How was your weekend?

On Friday I had a day off from work. I went to an estate sale in town. There is a local company that sells estate items in a shop in town, it used to be a flower shop and there are several rooms within the shop. A couple of times a month an estate sale at this shop takes place. An entire life of someone is sold. You can see their likes and hobbies and collections. I think I find this just as interesting as the purchase. Well almost anyway. It starts on Thursday with everything at full price. On Friday everything is 25% off and on Saturday everything is 50% off. On Sunday, if there is anything left, everything is 75% off. They have even gone into Monday if there is a lot of stuff left.

I went to the sale on Friday. There were lots of things left. I didn’t see any signs that showed anything 25% off. Everything was really really expensive. I know it sometimes starts out like that and then more people buy as the cost goes down. I collect crocks, you know like the old butter churn crocks. I have about 20 really large ones. I also have a few smaller ones. I saw a very small crock. I am not sure what it would have been used for. It didn’t have a price. I hate to ask for the price because sometimes it is priced really high if you ask and show interest. Anyway I carried the crock around for a few minutes and I decided to put it back and wait until Saturday and see what it would be at half off.

On Saturday I went back, early, when the sale first started. And yes everything was 50% off. I hurried through the door and went directly to the room where the crock was. You guessed it. It was gone!! When on when will I learn to get something at the time I really want it? I continued to look around. I gathered up a couple of things but I was really sad to have missed out on the crock. I went into the front room and there on an old ironing board was the crock!!!! I ran over and grabbed it up. I asked a woman who was working the sale how much, it still didn’t have a price on it. She took it to the front and came back and said it was $37.00 and that day it would be half off. YES!!! You would think I would have learned a lesson from this but no I almost did it again.

Look at this little crock. It is just precious. The smallest one I have.

Look at the size compared to one of my other crocks.

The lady of the estate, I later learned her name was Dora Lee, loved to sew. There were about six sewing machines for sale. Some were really old and then there were a couple of newer models. Also lots of baskets.

I kept eyeing an oil painting called “Adoration” It was beautiful. It was A painting of a woman in a long yellow dress. I kept going back to the painting. It was fairly small only an 11×14 maybe. It was painted in the year 2000. I kept looking at it and going back to it and circling it etc etc. But when I noticed that the woman in the yellow dress was looking at a kitty cat, and that was the meaning of “Adoration” I grabbed it up. I was sold.

Isn’t it beautiful. I think it looked like Dora Lee as a young girl.

This was Dora Lee at her High School graduation.

I learned from the liquidator of the estate that Dora was an only child from Harlan Kentucky. Her husband, Ralph, was from Yellow Creek North Carolina. They met and married and moved to Maryville Tennessee. Ralph passed away several years ago leaving Dora Lee who also recently passed away. They had no children and no nieces and nephews to claim the contents of the estate. I always find this a little sad. Dora Lee also collected bells and she loved jigsaw puzzles. It is sad that all of the things within the house are being picked over by total strangers. This is spoken by one of the strangers.

I feel like I came to know Dora Lee a little. I even bought her High School autograph book. Several of her classmates signed it. It looks like it was around 1931. I will share that with you at another time.

So how was your weekend? Did you enjoy Father’s Day? I hope you had a chance to check out my Father’s Day post about a favorite memory of my daddy. You can read it here if you missed it.

Have a wonderful week

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

Happy Father’s Day!! A Favorite Story About My Daddy

Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers and father figures out there. I hope you all have a wonderful day.

This story is about a wonderful memory I have of my daddy.

My mama and daddy at their 50th wedding anniversary celebration.

I am not sure how old they were here but I know they were very young.

My daddy was very strict with me and my brothers and sisters. There was seven of us. He worked hard to provide for all of us. It was sometimes hard to please him he had really high standards for all of his kids. I am glad now that he did because it has made me the person I am.

I never had any doubt that he loved me but he sometimes had a hard time putting it into words. It was easier for him to show us.

I was in the first grade. I didn’t go to Kindergarten. The small school that I attended didn’t even offer Kindergarten. So I went directly into first grade. My sisters were seniors in high school when I started first grade and I thought they were quite possibly the coolest people on earth. They would stack their school books up and place them on the table and have their purses nearby. Sometimes I would get their books and sling one of their purses over my shoulder and pretend I was in high school too.

Soooo when the time came to buy my school supplies my mama steered me to these ugly red and black plaid book satchels. I shook my head and said no way will I carry one of those. I am carrying my books in my arms with my purse on my shoulder just like Sandy and Pat do. After all I was in first grade I was no longer a baby. I didn’t need something to put my books in!!!

Somewhat grudgingly my mama finally gave in. We got my paper and pencils and erasers and a notebook. I was so excited. That night I gathered everything together and got my favorite purse. I did notice that it was a little hard to get all of those things put together and keep them from slipping out of my arms, and my purse kept slipping off of my shoulder, but that didn’t stop me. I was determined.

The next morning I was up bright and early ready to get on the school bus. My mama waved bye to me. I marched out the door with my purse slung over my shoulder and my notebook and pencils clasped proudly in my arms. Man I felt so grown up, I was just like my sisters.

I climbed the steps onto the bus and noticed my pencil bag had slipped out of my notebook. A kid behind me stepped on it!!! My beautiful new pencil bag!!! I bent down and grabbed it up and put it back with my notebook.

When I took my seat on the bus I noticed a girl about my age sitting across the isle from me. Beside her on the seat was one of those book satchels like my mama and I had seen at the store. When the bus got to school she very neatly grabbed the handle and marched off of the bus. I gathered my notebook and made sure my pencil bag was securely inside. I slung the purse over my shoulder and walked off the bus.

I couldn’t help but notice that many of the boys and girls going into my class had a book satchel. Heck almost all of them did. Most of them even had those red and black checked ones that my mama had wanted me to get.

When I got to my classroom all of the kids had book satchels. The teacher told them to get their notebooks out. Everyone had a place in the back for their satchel. I felt tears in my eyes. I suddenly, more than anything in the world, wished I had a book satchel too. I wanted one so bad.

That night after dinner I kept whining to my mama about a book satchel. She said well you will just have to wait until we go to the store again, I tried to get you one and you didn’t want it.

My daddy worked at a plant that manufactured stoves. He worked so hard every day. I don’t remember him ever taking a vacation and if he called in sick the world would stop because that never happened. Every night he went to bed really really early. My mama always shushed us so we wouldn’t wake him up.

I was desperate to find me something that resembled a book satchel. I thought I might use one of my sisters’ big purses. I was in the closet pulling out purses and trying to find something when my daddy woke up and said “what is wrong? what is she doing?” My mama told him I was looking for a book satchel or something that would suffice. He yelled in there and said ‘Lisa go to bed you can’t worry about it tonight.” So I did.

The next day I returned to first grade lugging my notebook and pencils. I left the big purse at home. When I got off of the school bus that afternoon I noticed that daddy’s car was in the driveway. That was odd because he never got home early. He was standing on the porch and there was a big brown bag beside him. He had the biggest smile on his face. He said “here open this”. I looked into the bag and there was the most beautiful red and black checked book satchel that you have ever seen. I grabbed it and immediately started putting my notebook and pencils inside. I was so happy that night I think I slept with it.

I didn’t realize at the time just what it meant for my daddy to do that. Times were different then. It was almost 50 years ago. There were no Walmarts to go to at the last minute. He rarely went into a store without my mama. For him to leave work and immediately drive to the store and pick me out this book satchel was something very special. My mama knew it because I don’t think he had ever done anything like that before. He usually didn’t believe in such nonsense. I was the sixth of his seven children and I think maybe by the time I came along he had mellowed a lot.

He has always been the person I hold my highest standards to. He never met a stranger, he would stop on the side of the road to help if someone had car trouble. After he retired he grew a garden probably an acre wide and gave most of the vegetables away to people who lived in town and didn’t have a garden. He was tough but he was such a wonderful man. It took me some years to appreciate just how wonderful and smart he was.