July 4th Meal

I decided I was going to be All-American and make a patriotic meal of ribs for the 4th. My husband was pretty psyched - and then he saw what I had made for him. :) It's not my fault that I just can't seem to make food the way it should be. I mean, I don't really grill, and we don't have a smoker. I'm not really sure what he expected me to do. I know now that when I recipe says to bake spare ribs for 1 hour or less, run away. Far, far away. The good news is that the marinade and basting sauce for the ribs was fantastic! I just should have known that I should have baked (or slow cooked) the ribs for several hours.

When my parents were in town visiting I was showing them my pantry and all the "new-to-me" things I had bought. As soon as I showed my dad that hoisin and oyster sauce, he told me he had a great Chinese barbecue sauce recipe for ribs that he'd send me when they got home. Thirty some odd years ago my dad took a Chinese cooking class and has the old school recipe booklet to show for it, along with some pretty fantastic recipes inside. I always looked forward to the special occasions growing up when he would make sweet and sour pork from that little booklet. More recently, I hear he makes a mean Pepper Steak from the same class. I knew I would love the marinade.