Ribs, Jack Daniel's Sauce, and Coleslaw

Last night, I tried Richard Nikoley's technique for cooking baby back ribs. Instead of The Salt Lick dry rub (which is reportedly hot), my wife put on Emeril's Essence and some Italian seasonings. They turned out wonderful, but they were falling apart when I took them out of the oven. We cooked them for 4:15, which was much too long. I didn't get to cook them on the grill the way Richard did. Instead, I put foil on my charcoal grill, and put the motley assemblage of parts on the foil. Not ideal, but they did get some smoky flavor (mesquite infused charcoal briquettes). Next time, I'll take them out of the oven after 3 hours or so.

I wanted to try the Son of Grok's BBQ sauce, but my wife was anxious to try a recipe for Jack Daniel's BBQ sauce. She substituted some organic natural cane sugar for the brown sugar. She only had 1 1/4 cups of ketchup left, so she added in some tomato sauce. She used 3/4 cup whiskey. I can't recall ever having a better BBQ sauce. Still, it's way too much sugar to be healthy.

For sides, she baked some frozen sweet potato fries (a handful for each of us), and made a coleslaw. Her recipe for the coleslaw was a modification of a cranberry coleslaw from a cook book:

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup mayonnaise dressing
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 heaping tablespoon honey
• 1 cup red seedless grapes, halved
• 5 cups coleslaw mix with carrots

Directions

1. For dressing, in a small bowl, stir together mayonnaise, honey and vinegar. Stir in grapes.
2. In a large bowl pour dressing over cabbage; toss to combine. Cover and chill up to 45 minutes.

It was a wonderful meal, despite the difficulties with the ribs being too soft.

My dogs loved licking the foil clean and munching on the cartilage.

Sausage and Cabbage Stir Fry

Based upon this recipe by Richard Nikoley:

• 1/2 head green cabbage
• 1/2 head purple cabbage
• 1/2 red onion
  
• large link of Polish sausage (Richard recommended uncured sausage, if you can find it)
• 1 tsp coconut oil

Heat oil in wok on high. Add onions. Stir for 30 seconds. Add cabbage and sausage. Stir fry for 5 minutes or until vegetables are desired crunchiness.

As you can see, I added too much coconut oil (it was my first attempt at cooking with it). Also, the color from the purple cabbage bled into everything else. The same thing happened when I used the remaining half to cook with potatoes and carrots—when I fixed a corned beef dinner. The purple potatoes freaked out my son. I don't know if there is a way to prevent that, such as blanching it first. I'll have to experiment with it.

Incidentally, my wife thinks my wok is aluminum, and worries her that cooking with it could increase the risk of Alzheimer's. I think it's carbonized steel, but there is no imprint on it. If anyone knows how to tell the difference, let me know.