2 pound rack of ribs, trimmed
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon black pepper
2 teaspoons garlic powder

1. Combine sugar, salt, pepper and garlic powder and rub over rack of ribs.
2. Preheat grill to medium and cover with tinfoil.
3. Place ribs on tinfoil and reduce heat to low, cooking about 15 minutes per side until no longer pink in center.

Makes 4 servings

4 small beets
4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Wrap beets in tinfoil and bake in the oven until tender, about 30 minutes.
3. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and season with salt and pepper to serve.

Makes 4 servings

1 cup green beans
1/2 small red pepper, sliced
1 tablespoon olive oil
water
salt

1. Bring water to a boil in a large pot over high heat.
2. Boil green beans until tender, then drain and set aside.
3. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat and add the red pepper and green beans.
4. Gently sauté the beans and pepper until the pepper is just tender, season with salt and pepper and serve.

Makes 1 serving

I found a discounted rack of ribs at the grocer, so tonight was my first attempt at making ribs. This was both exciting and frightening since I've never really cooked anything with indirect heat on the grill before. I went with a very simple rub and neglected to make any sauce, just so I could keep a watchful eye on what was going on. Since my apartment sized barbecue isn't set up very well for this sort of thing by default, I laid a couple of sheets of tinfoil over the grill and hoped that would work to catch the drippings. Bad idea. The fat from the Beef Ribs ended up dripping onto the coals and a huge fire erupted, burning through the tinfoil and lightly charring one side of the rack. I managed to extinguish the flames and finished the cooking process with the burners off and the heat from the coals cooking the meat.

The ribs were hardly anything to write home about. I was expecting several hours of slow cooking time and the whole process was over in about 25 minutes because of the flare up. I also didn't plan ahead for this, so I didn't have wood chips or anything to really infuse any sort of smoky flavor into the meat. The rub I used was a little salty (I actually rinsed one of the ribs under the tap) and the gristle that I couldn't distinguish before throwing them on the grill was quite chewy. Does that mean the ribs were bad? No, not really. I don't think I've ever truly had bad ribs. The meat was still fairly tender and it was a fun go.

I wasn't really sure what would go with ribs other than traditional fare, so I went with the cheapest things I could find in the produce section that I haven't already completely exploited; beets and green beans. I've been neglecting green beans because I'm not particularly fond of them, but I have no excuse for the beets. I made simple Roasted Beets with just a splash of balsamic vinegar and steamed, then fried up the Green Beans with Red Pepper. Nothing fancy going on here, just a nice vegetable accompaniment. Green beans must be in season because they were everywhere, really cheap and actually somewhat edible. I also had a portion of the Charred New Potatoes from Last Night with a dollop of sour cream.