Tag Archives: meat

Jay’s Baked Ribs Recipe

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I’m a Texas girl at heart. I love meat, and I love BBQs. That’s how you can win me over. Easy!

Now that I’m in the Bay Area, I reminisce those days I ate at Rudy’s, and Salt Lick, and Franklin’s. I definitely took it for granted when I lived in Austin because BBQ was so easy to come by. It’s just not the same here.

But when I crave those things, I usually make something at home to satisfy. For instance, this week, I’m having a dinner party for friends, and I know the perfect thing to cook. Ribs! Who doesn’t love lip-smacking, juicy, fall off the bone, BBQ ribs?

Close up of ribs

At Costco, you can purchase 3 racks of ribs for about $25 dollars. Perfect for a dinner part of 6-8 people! With a few sides, like a salad, cornbread, potatoes, and corn, that’s the perfect Southern meal.

Here’s my easy peasy rib recipe. I’m not lying when I say simple.

Jay’s Baked Rib Recipe (3 ingredients only)

Ingredients:

  • Dry pork rub (Find one at the grocery store. It need not be expensive)
  • Pork ribs
  • Your favorite BBQ sauce

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 300° F.
2. Peel off the membrane that covers the boney side of the ribs. The hardest part is finding an edge to start peeling, but once you do that, it should come off fairly easily. Look at corners for a piece to grip and peel. Otherwise, I like to cut the membrane with a knife between two bones and start to peel from the middle.
3. Now apply the rub on the front and back of the ribs. Be generous with the rub and coat evenly.
4. Lay the ribs on foil, meaty side down, and shiny foil out. Add another layer of foil on top and bottom and crimp the edges together.
5. Place the ribs onto a baking sheet and bake for 2-2.5 hours.
6. Remove from the oven, and put oven on broiler on high.
7. Cut ribs into serving sizes and brush on the BBQ sauce on every side of the ribs. Be super generous!
8. Place the ribs into the broiler, meaty side up and broil for 5 minutes, or until the ribs are charred to your liking.
9. Enjoy! And lick those fingers clean!

Membrane

Broiled

Done

Seriously so delicious! It really falls right off the bone.

Another option for this recipe is to grill the ribs instead of broiling. Gives it that yummy grilled taste. To keep things simple, because after smelling cooking ribs for 2.5 hours, I just use the broiler so it can get into my mouth quicker!

Craving ribs now? What are some of your favorite BBQ places to eat? Any recommendations for BBQ in the Bay Area?

I want my baby back, baby back…
Jay

Happy Love Day!

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It’s Valentine’s Day today! I hope you feel loved every day and but specifically more today. If you want to ask someone out on a date for this wonderful day of hearts, this dating advice is the ultimate answer for you.

I agree that 2/14 is a Hallmark holiday, consumerism at its finest. But it doesn’t have to be. It can simply be a day to remind you to love the people around you. In my own busy life, I forget to admire and appreciate the people around me. Be honest, does this happen to you too?

Valentine’s Day is just this. It’s just another day to remind myself to show people around me that I love them. People desire love. People want to be admired and acknowledged. Do it today!

One prime example is marriage. MG and I are coming up on 2 years in June (wow that was quick). He works all day, I work on projects, and then when work ends, we sit on the couch and watch TV and/or do personal things on our own tablets, phones, and laptops. Then we head to bed. It’s not like we don’t converse throughout the day, but we don’t have any serious conversations or emotionally invested talks. This is an easy cycle where couples grow apart, so it’s extremely important to have date nights.

I didn’t buy anything for MG, but I made him “date night” letters. I put together 13 envelopes for every month, leading up to next February. Each envelope contains a date night idea for each month. MG will have to open one envelope the beginning of the month, and we’ll set a day to go out.

I decided to make this gift because MG and I always talk about how date night should be built into our relationship, especially when we have kids. Life only gets busier with kids right? Or so I hear. Unfortunately, we haven’t started setting date nights yet, so I hope this gift will be a jumpstart for us because giving gifts is just one of the multitude of ways to tell a guy you like him.

Writing
These papers were from our wedding!

Gift
All wrapped up and ready for MG! (I used my DIY pom pom to top it off)

And lastly, I made him Valentine’s Day cards.

Meat Valentine

Adorable right? WARNING: this can only be given if you’re in the comfortable phase of your relationship. Don’t misuse this Valentine and don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Download the Meat Valentine here

And here’s my favorite one!

Anxious poops

Don’t even… I’m sure you get anxious poops too! If you know me at all, you know this is the PERFECT card. You can use this card too!

Download the Anxious Poops Valentine’s card here

What are your Valentine’s plans? What did you get your loved one this year? How will you be showing your love to people around you?

Now go and tell people you love them. Everyone!
Jay

The Legendary Steak

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Who doesn’t love a nice piece of meat?

Steak with butter

If you’ve ever been to our house, you might have been lucky enough to have MG’s fricken awesome steak. After having this for dinner, I honestly don’t care to go to steakhouses. We’ve been to a few restaurants for steak since, but I still compare it to the one we eat at home.

I’m finally willing to share the recipe with you! If you follow these steps, your steak will turn out amazing every time.

First off, get a nice piece of meat. I love bone-in ribeye – it has a good texture and enough fat for a flavorful steak. If you’re willing to splurge, get the Prime cut at Costco. If you’re really willing to put some money down, find a butcher for a dry-aged piece of meat. Whole Foods sells their dry-age ribeye for ~$22/lb. Five Dot Ranch has mind-blowing cuts of meat, you can find them at the Oxbow market in Napa Valley, ~$25/lb for dry-aged, but totally worth the cost.

Whole Foods - Steak^^^ This is at Whole Foods

Let’s get started! Preheat the oven to 500° F.

As you’re pre-heating the oven, sprinkle McCormick’s Grill Mates Montreal Steak seasoning onto the steak, not too much because you want to still taste the meat flavor. I also love Gibson’s Seasoning Salt (a steakhouse located in Chicago), but for this recipe, we’ll stick to McCormick’s.

Favorite Seasonings
^^^ My two favorite seasonings

Sprinkle

Once the oven hits 450° F, heat up your cast iron skillet on high. Get it as hot as you can (if this is a used skillet, the previous oil residue will start to steam, which is a good indicator that it’s hot).

Once the skillet is hot, hot, hot, add a slice of butter onto the pan. When the butter is melted, place the steak onto the skillet. Sear each side for only 30 seconds. Searing helps to keep all the juices in.

Melt the Butter

Sear the Steak

Other Side

The oven should be at 500° F at this point. Place the entire skillet into the oven. Bake the steak 2 minutes on each side (this is for 1 inch steaks only). If the steak is thicker than 1 inch, place the steak in the oven for 3 minutes on each side.

Baking

Last step, after taking the steak out of the oven, let it rest for 5 minutes. Basically this lets the steak soak up all the juice. And yes, a juicy steak is where it’s at! This is the hardest step since your house probably is filled with mouth-watering smells of steak.

SteakLook at that char!

Now savor every bite of steak because it’s probably amazing, and juicy, and flavorful, and all kinds of goodness. As I’m typing this, I feel like I can smell the deliciousness.

Delicious Steak

Dinner is served!

Dinner is served

Few tips:

  • A cast iron skillet is best because it allows you to sear the steak with some char, which adds some crispiness to the texture.
  • This is a little trick I learned from an outdoors man that I used to work with. Poke at your thumb nugget to gauge how well done the meat is.

Doneness of Steak

  • Wine? Pshhh… I love eating steak with milk. The milk is so sweet, and steak is the perfect match. Anyone else like to do this?
  • To clean your cast iron skillet, soak up the oil with a paper towel. Simply use hot/warm water and scrub off residue. Add some salt and scrub to get stubborn food remains. Do NOT use soap. You want your cast iron to become “well-seasoned” to prevent rust.

Washing the cast iron

What do you think? Is this something you will try?

Are you hungry now? Cause I am!
Jay
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I have the Le Creuset Cast Iron Skillet in Caribbean from Macy’s