Ribs for Labor Day

Calendar Girl me never posted about Labor Day. I looked at my old blog where I did a lot of posts related to calendar days - the idea being that days have stories, mostly from history, some from our own family. Returning to these stories and memories on calendar days takes ordinary linear living into the EXTRAordinary cyclical, rhythmical living. Therefore bringing deeper meaning to our everydays. But Labor Day?

Labor Day is a day our country established as a time to remember that we labor, and it's a holiday from that labor. We tend to think of it as the ending of summer, school has started. We usually get our first frost soon after Labor Day and the hummingbirds leave right after Labor Day! It's typically a bar-b-q day.

We invited guests for Labor Day this year and grilled ribs, using my grandpa's barbecue sauce. I wanted to do ribs cuz I've not done them for a long time. Travis has taken over the traditional rib making for 4th of July at their place, and he makes a lot of this sauce. I usually have some of this sauce in my fridge. This recipe is in my cookbook, and I always quadruple it. I never buy barbecue sauce cuz this is the best!!!

SAUCE-PAINTED SPARERIBS

The Sauce:
1 C catsup
1/4 C lemon juice (fresh squeezed of course!)
2 Tb brown sugar
1 Tb soy sauce
1 Tb horseradish & mustard (half of each)
1 Tb grated onion
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp each: oregano, thyme (marjoram ...)
1 clove garlic, minced (more)
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Simmer this mixture for at least 10 minutes. I use organic catsup, and an already mixed mixture of horseradish and mustard. I cut back on the sugar this time. The soy sauce I use is Bragg All Natural Liquid Aminos - nutritious and way less sodium.

How many ribs per person? We get 1 pound per person. We often get a mixture of country style, spareribs, and some times babybacks. This time Monte had me write next to the recipe that he liked the spareribs best.

We roast them initially in an open pan at 400 degrees for an hour. Then put some sauce on, cover and cook at 325 till almost tender - maybe 2 hours. Then we grill a short time brushing on more sauce to carmelize the sauce, flavoring them better, and watching close so they don't burn. Most barbecue sauces are very sweet and the sugar burns easy! Then we put them back into the pan covered, and into the still warm oven till ready to eat.

The pictured plate is an older cooking of ribs meal when we'd had scalloped potatoes. This day's meal consisted of a large salad from my garden. And I made a chopped tomato and fresh basil mixture for putting on my homemade Italian bread: bruchetta appetizer. Then had rhubarb custard pie and homemade yogurt ice cream for dessert (all posted here).