I scored at the grocery store!

Being price conscious when buying groceries, I found a real bargain the other day. I was looking for pork chops and spied the baby back ribs, then I saw the price, ouch! But then I saw these bags of "Riblets" It was just a big bag of pork! I asked the meat cutter what the difference was, he said it's the same thing as the "Riblet's" that they lay out all nice and pretty on the trays and charge twice as much for to cover the labor. SCORE! I bought a bag (only paid $1.68 a lb) and proudly dragged them home to show off to the hubby - I knew his mouth would water!!! Oh I did buy some thin sliced pork loin chops in the family pack, for about $8 I had enough meat for 2 meals for 4 people. I grabbed some boxed cornbread stuffing mix to go with, I've been craving pork chops and stuffing for a while - not really "hot" weather food, but oh so tasty.

All though I did pick up some BBQ sauce I knew I would also do a dry rub/marinade on these delicious looking little Riblets - after all I have been watching the BBQ competition shows! So off to the Spice cupboard I went! I made a mixture of about 1 1/4 Cups Dark Brown Sugar, 1 T Garlic Powder, 1/2 tsp Black Pepper, 1 T Cayenne Pepper (it was a bit spicy, so use less if you wish), 1 tsp ground Coriander, 1 tsp Celery Salt and 1/2 tsp of Sea Salt. Mixed these ingredients up well and sprinkled on both sides of the rinsed Riblets that been placed on a foil lined large baking sheet. I then covered the Riblets with more foil and placed then into the fridge to "marinate" for a few hours - can do this overnight as well.

After letting the Riblets marinate for about 4 hours and having the coals ready on the little red BBQ, the grilling was on! Hubby Mark is so funny, give him some meat to grill or smoke and he is one happy camper! Mark grilled the Riblets to perfection, he did some with just the dry rub on them and the others he added some bottled Sweet BBQ sauce - which combined with the spiciness of the Cayenne in the dry rub was perfect! Really had that Sweet/Hot combo going on.

 I think we needed a bigger grill for these! But hey you use what you got!

 Someone dumped this like-new little red grill off in our alley behind our house. The legs were messed up, so after cleaning it really good Mark is explaining to me how easily he fixed it. Just another one of his treasures!

 With some of our favorite bottle BBQ Sauce, nice and shiny - ooey & gooey! I can't wait to dig in.

This one is grilled with just the dry rub on it, still delish! - just not as messy!!!
 
While Mark was doing the grilling, I steamed up some cauliflower we had, made up some fresh cheese sauce and cut up a cantaloupe. Wasn't the prettiest plate - pretty much orange and brown, but the combination of flavors was fantastic! The Sweet/Hot of the Riblets was perfectly contrasted by the sweet cool melon and the cauliflower and cheese sauce just hit that "homey" spot of a good home cooked meal.  Other than the marinade time for the Riblets the whole meal only took about 30 minutes to cook, so really with a little pre-prep efforts this was a quick dinner to make on a hot day.

 To make the Cheese Sauce you will need: 2 T Butter or Margarine, 1/4 tsp Black Pepper, a slight 1/2 tsp Salt, 1/4 tsp garlic powder, 3 to 4 T flour, 1 1/2 Cups Milk and 1 C Shredded Cheese. I used a Cheddar/Jack mix because that's what I had, but use what you have, full cheddar give much more flavor and color.. Using Pepper Jack makes a great hot dip for chips!

 Melt the Butter or Marg in a sauce pan, add the flour and stir in well

 Continue stirring constantly to "cook" the raw taste out of the flour, if the mixture is to liquid add a little more flour. Add the remaining dry ingredient and stir in well.

 Once you have continued to stir and cook this flour/butter mixture for about 2 minutes add the milk about 1/2 at a time and stir well to blend out all lumps, add the remaining milk and stir well until all lumps are out. If mixture is to thick add a little more milk until the sauce is the desired consistency you like. I tend to make my sauces and gravies on the thicker side - just a personal preference thing.

 Once you have the sauce as you like it, add the shredded cheese and stir well. The melted cheese will tighten up the sauce a bit.

 The sauce is done and ready to be poured directly onto your vegetable or into a gravy boat or bowl for individual serving. If I'm making cheese sauce for Asparagus I like to add a a 1 to 2 tsps of Mustard, I just like the added flavor of the mustard with the Asparagus.

 Before adding the sauce to your veggies, make sure you have drained them well, even though I steam most of my vegetables, many like broccoli and cauliflower will hold a lot of water in them, so they really need to be drained well.

YUM, time for some good old home cooked comfort food!