Rosie And Mr. Hawthorne Entertain And Are Entertained By Guests This Weekend.

This weekend was lovely. I was blessed with visits from the Xmaskaties, Glowria, and Ticky. Let's start with the food, shall we?

On Saturday, the Xmaskaties were in town. After immediately nixing the suggestion to go out to eat, (You remember what it was like last time?) Mr. Hawthorne made lunch for the Xmaskaties and Glowria. I must give credit where credit's due. Mr. Hawthorne prepared everything AND he cleaned up.

First, Mr. Hawthorne made a lovely salad, with Romaine and iceberg lettuces mixed greens, spinach, cucumbers, and Italian Mix Giardiniera - the pickled stuff. Mr. Hawthorne made a Homemade Ranch dressing: 1/2 cup mayo 1/2 cup sour cream 1 TB cider vinegar 1/2 tsp onion powder 1/2 tsp granulated garlic 1 tsp Lawry's Seasoned pepper 1 tsp Italian spice mix 1 tsp olive oil freshly ground salt and pepper Or better yet, make your own dressing and vary the above amounts to suit your tastes. I actually have no idea how much he put of what into his dressing. This would be my starting point, then I'd taste and tweak. I like to tweak. Tweak is good. I made a quick vinny-garette. I got out one of those Good Seasons Dressings Cruets, and filled 1/2 cider vinegar and 1/2 Balsamic vinegar up to the Water Line. 1 tsp soy sauce 1 tsp Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce 1 TB Gray Poupon Dijon mustard 1 tsp oregano 1 tsp Italian spice mix favorite olive oil to fill up to top (Not the Oil Line - The Top.)

Mr. Hawthorne sautes the mushrooms and onion.

Steaks and salads are getting plated.

My salad with croutons and both dressings, NY Strip steak (on sale for $4.99/lb.). baked potato with buttah, sauteed onions and mushrooms.

Now you must admit - you'd want to be at this table. Think about it. Friends. Food. Fellowship. Fine people. Fun. Thank you Xmaskaties and Glowria.

Fast forward to Sunday. I'm so excited. Ticky, of Reinventing A Boomer, is coming to visit.

I'm making barbecued ribs. Recipe for My BBQ Sauce: 1 6-ounce can tomato paste 6 ounces water to wash out the leftover tomato paste 2 TB light corn syrup 2 TB molasses 1/4 cup cider vinegar 1/4 cup white vinegar 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar 1 TB yellow mustard 1/4 tsp granulated garlic 1/4 tsp onion powder 5 tsps Stubb's Hickory liquid smoke cornstarch slurry - 1 TB cornstarch with 1 TB cold water freshly ground salt and pepper Mix everything except cornstarch slurry and heat over low until simmering. Add in cornstarch slurry, stirring until thickened. The ribs went into a 300 degree oven on an oiled (important) rack in a baking dish covered in foil with 1/2 inch water for 1 hour. After 1 hour, I turned the ribs and baked for another hour. After the second hour, I covered one side with my sauce, turned it up to 350 degrees, and cooked for 15 minutes, turned over, slathered the other side with sauce, and baked for 15 minutes. In the meantime, I made Southwest Egg Rolls. See here for detailed instructions.

All it is is black beans, a can of corn, a can of diced tomatoes and green chilies, some pepper jack cheese, and some mozzarella.

Pretty.

I grated the cheeses and added them to the corn, tomato, chili, bean mixture.

Set an egg roll on the diagonal, brush water around the outside, add mixture to the center, pull up the bottom, fold in the sides, and roll up. Fry, maybe three at a time. Do not crowd the pan.

I served these with Mr. Hawthorne's Homemade Salsa, some Creme Fraiche I'd made the day before, and some doctored cheese for a dip.

You remember these little crackers (Which didn't crack - I didn't cook long enough.) with the cheese filling? I made them from the Alinea Cookbook, and YES, I have apologized to Mr. Kokonas of Alinea for my craptastic re-creation of one of their dishes. Well, I toasted them little crackers in my toaster oven and they weren't any better. It was a simple recipe, so I must really suck. Anyways, Dixie FLOVED them. Well, for the doctored cheese dip I made for the Southwest Egg Rolls, I took the Cheese Filling I had leftover from the Cheese In Cracker Alinea recipe. I added a chunk of Velveeta and a chunk of cream cheese and some milk, added some cumin, coriander, and cayenne. It was delightful. Now, I know Mr. Kokonas has Google Alerts set up so he knows when ALINEA ALINEA ALINEA is mentioned and I think if he reads I just used VELVEETA in the cheese sauce, he might just go apoplectic. And if he mentioned it to WunderChef, Grant Achatz, Chef might just commit hari-kari.

Here are the ribs at the 2 hour mark. I just slathered on some of my BBQ sauce.

Ahhh. Thirty minutes later. Lovely BBQ'd ribs. Heh. Mr. H. thinks I can't do a rib or a cole slaw or a potato salad to match his. I CAN and DO quite frequently.

I'd made coleslaw earlier. Just sliced some cabbage, grated some carrot, chopped a little onion, added cider vinegar and sugar (equal amounts), some mayo, freshly ground salt and pepper. Good eats. Stay tuned for Ticky's And Rosie's Magnificent Adventure.