12th man ribs

Football season.  Best time of the year!   We do football in this house big time.  Football = food, family and fun!  But mostly food.

When the Seahawks played on Monday Night Football, we decided to do it up.  One of our favorite game foods is pork ribs, they're so easy and no matter what you do, they turn out amazing.  We tend to get a little buckwild when it comes to what we put on our ribs, or our "theme" for the night.  For MNF, we went with south of the border profile.  It turned out great!  I was a little nervous, I'm not the professional chef, and we had a dinner guest...but it ended up ok.  It almost always does when we worry, doesn't it?

I have no recipe of course, I was just winging it!  Here's how you can recreate it:

For the salad, I used a spring greens mix and very thinly sliced some red onion to mix in.  The dressing is honey, lime juice, salt and olive oil blended.  I didn't measure ingredients, just mixed and added until it tasted great.  Remember, always start small - you can always add more of any ingredient, but you can't take it away.  Go easy on the lime juice especially, it's difficult to fix too much acid in a salad dressing without getting all crazy.

And now, the meat.  MEAT.  

You need:
Ribs.  We used pork ribs, but you could use beef if you prefer.  Sauce.  I threw one bunch of cilantro, lime juice, salt, pepper, cumin, olive oil, garlic and chives into the nutribullet.  Bzzzzzz!  Done.  Slather that all over the meat.  Use your hands.  Get in there.  Once your meat is drenched in yummy sauce, bake them at 350 for about an hour.  (Always temp your meat.  Make sure it's done people.)  When they're done, the meat will be pulling away from the bones and calling your name, but don't heed the call just yet.  Let them rest.  Those juices need time to redistribute. 

Once you've let them rest, it's simple.  Slice, plate and devour.  We used a tomato and red onion vinaigrette to top them, but you don't need a sauce.  These things speak volumes for themselves.  Fingers were licked.  Seconds (and maybe thirds) were had.  You're welcome.