EdHart.meOne of our favorite Friday night family appetizers is Deep Fried Pickles. There are a ton of these recipes all over the internet, but the one that I keep going back to is based off of the recipe from Amy at SheWearsManyHats.com. I changed it slightly and modified the proportions to prepare one large jar of dill pickle chips.
This simple recipe is my go to for Greek style roasted potatoes. They are so good and so versatile to go with so many dishes. When shopping for red or new potatoes, I like to hand select small ones that can be cut in half or quarters to make bite sized pieces. I’ve found that when buying the bag, you tend to get some big ones mixed in that don’t look so great when cutting them up and I’m really all about the aesthetics & the plating, so I want my wedges to look good! I also use an old cake pan to roast mine. It’s the perfect size for dinner for 2 and I also like to try and keep at least 1 cut side down which will give the potatoes a slightly crispy texture on that side.
Combine all in a bowl. Remove the membrane from the back of the ribs (check out the videos below), then rub generously all over both sides of the slabs. This recipe makes enough rub for 2-3 slabs of spareribs.
I grill my ribs on a gas grill since I don’t have a smoker. I light one side of the grill on low heat and place the ribs on foil on the unlit side and cook (grill covered) for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. I’m being pretty generous with the time intervals because when I’m grilling for a long time like this, I’m usually also doing something else and not keeping precise track of time.
Next cover the ribs with another sheet of foil to seal them and cook for another 1 to 1 1/2 hours letting the steam from the ribs permeate the meat.
Last step is to remove the ribs from the foil and place directly on the grill for 30 minutes letting them dry on the outside. Keep them on the unlit side of the grill! At this point, they’ve likely shrunk enough to turn them perpendicular on the grill and
Here’s a couple videos on getting the membrane off the back of the spare ribs:
A delicious and spicy remoulade style dipping sauce. Perfect for fried anything, but pickles in particular! Super easy to make and keeps for about 4-5 days in the fridge.
Make this recipe ahead of time so that you have at least an hour to chill the dough in the fridge. The prep and mixing takes about 15 minutes.
I’ve been stuck in a bit of a rut with having my raspberries for Date Night desserts. Judging by the constant sale on them at the local Publix, you’d think they were in season all year long! But it’s time to force myself to start exploring something new for desserts. So for the most recent Date Night, I still stayed with the theme of roasted fruits & ice cream by having a roasted bosc pear with a red wine glaze. While I usually associate pears with a fall dessert, this one will probably make it’s way into my spring repertoire quite a few more times!
On a recent trip to Chicago, I had the chance to eat at Gibson’s which, if you haven’t been before, is a carnivore’s treat! I highly recommend! But to the point of this post, one of the sides we enjoyed was sauteéd mushrooms and spinach. It was so good that I had to try and make it at home.
One of my newest food obsessions this spring is cauliflower. On a recent visit to The Olive Branch, I had their roasted cauliflower for an appetizer and it could’ve easily been an entreé in and of itself! I’ve been looking for good meat substitutes that have enough density to make me feel like I’m eating something hearty and cauliflower, especially when roasted with some spices definitely makes the cut. It’s like a vegetable steak!
A few months ago, we ate out at J. Alexander’s. I honestly can’t remember anything about that dinner with the notable exception of the grilled artichokes we had as an appetizer. First time to ever have them grilled and I was totally sold. They were awesome! Since that dinner, I’ve tried a handful of different recipes, mixing and mashing techniques from the internet until I ran across Tori Avey’s method from toriavey.com. She nailed it!
Making a pan-seared tilapia is really easy. The hardest part is deciding what kind of seasoning or sauce you’d like to have on the fillets, but with fresh tilapia, they’re good even with just salt, pepper and freshly squeezed lemon juice. This recipe is really just to instruct on the cooking method for pan searing the fillets.