Project 365 and Maple Ribs

CANDIED MAPLE SESAME RIBS

I like a nicely "set" supper table. I love cloth napkins...they are my absolute favorite. We use them 95% of the time.

It's interesting, one cloth napkin will do me, but if it's paper napkins, I go thru about 40 of them per meal. Okay, so that's a slight exaggeration, but you get what I mean. Right?


Cloth napkins, place mats, candles....and when my boys still lived at home, on Sunday evenings it was "Sinatra and Friends" on NPR radio....sometimes a flower clipping from the garden.


And then lively dinner discussion: politics, current events, sports.... (sigh), really... I had 3 teenage boys, and while ONE of them did grow up to like Sinatra and Friends, our dinner conversations were usually not about politics, current events and sports, but rather, why they wanted to bleach their hair blonde, (hey, that's fashion, right?), why they missed the football bus (couldn't listen to the coach's instructions ), and who ate the fart one of them just let (sigh...a story for another time, but any parent of boys, does know, or will eventually know what I'm talking about. If teenage girls saw what teenage boys were really like, they'd stay far, far away.....)

But I did have beautifully set tables! That's the point of this post.
So please, please when you look at these pictures, don't judge.


My granddaughter, Evalynn, set the table this night. For some reason, she gave everyone a cookbook at their plate,  (I have more than enough to go around.)  and if you look closely, you will see a small little votive candle by everyone's plate.


No placemats, no cloth napkins... .but cookbooks and small little disposable votive candles.  Ah yes.....tablescapes at their finest.
We didn't even had a "great" supper that night. The Ribs were good, but just bag-o-salad (Caesar) and steamed carrots. Evalynn served the salad to everyone.
Evalynn is 2 1/2.
Ya, gotta give her credit for trying.

A sippy cup full of milk, a plate, a fork, and....a cookbook and votive candle.

What presentation!

Here Dad....let me give you some salad.

Anyone else?

This night I made "Candied Maple Sesame Ribs", recipe courtesy of The Hungry Mouse.

Jessie, of the Hungry Mouse, states that, "These are a really interesting first course for a harvest-season dinner. Because they're sweet, I think they'd be overpowering as the main meal. "

Of course, I didn't read that first, and I made them as the main dish. They were really good, but yes, a tad bit on the sweet side. I guess if you are fond of sweet and sour dishes, it would be no different from that.
Sans the sour part.


I would suggest making them as an appetizer or for a Super-Bowl party! Did you know that it is illegal to advertise (for bars and casinos, etc) that they are having a "Super-Bowl" party?


Let's all take notice.... I think they will say, "The Big Game" "On Super Bowl Sunday" or some such thing.
I'm sure some get away with it, but if they catch you, you get fined, as "Super-Bowl" is a registered trademark.
I got off track---I think they would be a great addition to a Super Bowl Party and am going to make them AND the Pioneer Woman's Jalapeno Poppers.  Mmmmmmmmm.........


Here is the recipe so you can make them too.....
 

Candied Maple Sesame Ribs

 

beef spare ribs

kosher salt
garlic powder
grade-A maple syrup
freshly cracked black pepper
sesame seeds


Pre-heat your over to 350 degrees. Line a sheet pan with foil. If you're feeding a crowd, you might need two or more pans.
This is more technique, less recipe. There are really no measurements, but a lot of imprecise sprinkling and slathering.
Slather with syrup, sprinkle with seasonings, get the ribs into the oven. For about an hour.

For a full tutorial, go visit Jessie at the Hungry Mouse.

And then....enjoy dinner with your family.

***************

A recap of my "picture a day" for the Project 365

Sunday

Goldfinches at one of the feeders.

Monday

5:30 a.m.  It started to snow!

Tuesday

Waiting for the Handyman....I sit in a parking lot across from the Catholic Church

(he was in the city hall)

Wednesday

I have an old typewriter of my dad's.  He used to type his school assignments on it.  And I used to type letters way before I owned a computer.

Thursday

The ceiling of the courthouse

Friday

The birds didn't get everything in my backyard....

.....the snow begins to melt

Saturday

My coffee cup, my book, my glasses

a great start to a weekend

Project 365

I am having a blog crisis.... I think it's kind of like a mid-life crisis, but only in my blogging life.

Where am I going? What am I doing? Why did I begin this blog?
What direction am I going to go in?
I guess I'm questioning myself because I have a couple of posts that have nothing at all to do with cooking or food. Well........If truth be told, I guess everything in my life revolves around food. ~grins~

This post is a recap of my Project 365. As I said before...Don't expect great things from my photography. It's not very good. And it's funny....because while I do take my camera almost everywhere I go, when it comes to a "must" (as in I must take one picture a day), I find it hard to find anything to photograph.

I live in a small town.... in the middle of the Northern Nevada Desert. We have no great architecture, no great tourist sights..... I'm going to be in trouble now, because I work for the Chamber of Commerce and it's my job to tell people how great Winnemucca is... and IT IS, it's just that when you are accustom to it, it seems a little lackluster for this project.

Maybe I'll have fun finding different things to take pictures of.
Kind of like my mom telling me, when I was a kid, to look for the positive.
OR...like Marilyn Monore, who said she could find something sexy in EVERY man she ever met.
I, too, as we go forward, hope to  find greater and more interesting things to take pictures of!

My life, my world, Project 365.

Jan 10th thru Jan 17th.

 

Sunday.... at church

 

(sigh) okay 2 from Sunday...

what was waiting for me when I got home from church

A Bloody Mary!

(and a dusty candle holder...DON'T LOOK!)

Monday Morning sunrise

I sometimes think sunrises are prettier than sunsets.

But it was cold outside  (I was in my  jammies--I was in my own backyard)

Tuesday the hills behind our neighborhood were dusted with snow.

Wednesday

our slot machine in the garage

(I won't let the handyman have it inside the house. 

I'm bad)

Rich has wanted a slot machine for a long, long time.  We live in Nevada, so it seemed like an easy thing to do.  But we had to have a background check  by the state department of gaming and sign our lives away that we would not use it for "gambling".  Hmmmm......

Our 3 sons were home at Christmas time and this slot machine was the hit of the holiday, which seems weird to me....it's not as if they can actually hit the jack pot or anything.  One would never know that tho..

(oh and technically it's a video poker machine)

Thursday

An apple left on the tree from last fall.

The birds have been busy.

Friday

and the cat is on the lookout for the birds too!

She can't wait for spring.

Saturday

The birds are returning...

(actually, these Quail never really leave.)

I took this picture from my kitchen window.

Since I spend so much time in the kitchen, its fun for me to see what goes on, just outside my "Kitchen Window"

(hopefully the smudge was on my camera lens and not my kitchen window... I'll have to go check it out)

Sunday

Our dry cleaners.

You might be wondering why, I took this....

....I wanted you to see the proximety to the shoe store next to us.

on Friday, a man walked into the cleaners and asked Rich,  "do you know anywhere in town they sell leather slippers or mocasins or slip on's?"

Rich said..."maybe at the shoe store right next door"

It made me laugh.

For a view of some  other GREAT project 365 pictures, take a look at "Elle's New England Kitchen"
They are really, really good.
Shelby at  "Grumpy's Honeybunch" is doing the project too.  You can check our her website here.

Project 365 and another resolution

I'm going to do Project 365....but don't expect great things.

Project 365 is a "Picture a day" project, which many bloggers do. It's fun to see what people take pics of.

(my Friday Friends were SUPPOSED to do it with me last year, but they bailed on me... ) Check that out by clicking Friday Friends...

I already do many of the things it (project 365) suggests....

I take my camera everywhere...EVERYWHERE.

But I'm not so sure that my photography will get better by years end.

But I do love a good story.....so this should be fun.

Another "New Year's Resolution" that I'm going to work on this year, because of a suggestion by my daughter in law, Sadie, is to have people over and play a game a week from my game closet. YES, I probably have close to 50 games and can do one a week. But a lot of them are....not very good.

The idea is in addition to playing a game, the company and the Handyman get to vote on the game and decide if it is a "keeper" or not.
Take for instance, Planet Hollywood. Although, I love this game, no one else in my family does.

I have agreed to this...a deal is a deal, so poor "Planet Hollywood, the game" is out the door. Everyone voted it out!!

I am excited tho, about having friends over every Saturday, or at least 2x a month to eat and play board games. I will document our evenings here in my blog.

Who came

What we ate

What we drank

What game we played

On Southern Plate,

a blog I enjoy, Christy has a "hostess book" where she documents her dinners with company. Like a guest book....with guests writing their names down and She documents all food, and goings on for the evening.

It sounds like a good idea to me. I will need a pretty guest book/hostess book. For now, I have this school journal.

So far this year, 2010, we played:

1/2/10--We bought take and bake pizzas and breadsticks

Cheesecake and left over Christmas cookies for dessert

Apples to Apples--voted a keeper.

present: Rich, Debbie, Mark, Sadie AND our voting company, The Mavitys: Mike, Theresa, Macie, Makenna and Max.
**********

1/3/10--Subway sandwiches for Mark and Sadie, leftover breadsticks and marinara sauce for Rich and Debbie.

Phase 10 ---voted a keeper.

present: Rich, Debbie, Mark and Sadie were present. Sadie won.

Planet Hollywood --voted out by everyone but Debbie!

Team #1 Dustin and Sadie

Team #2 Rich, Debbie and Mark

**********

1/7/10--we had popcorn.

In a Pickle--voted out by everyone but Debbie (I find it hard to get rid of board games and cookbooks.  And some of the board games have won awards....not that that matters to my family. Maybe my friends will be more forgiving.)

Finish Lines--voted a keeper. We all love it.

And that's as far as we've gotten on our game cupboard resolution.

I will keep you updated on this.... we're going to come to some really old games during the year.

This isn't a very good start to Project 365 (or perhaps it is.....perhaps it's all about family and friends and enjoying each others company), but this post is going to be my first week's round-up (I got a late start...)

I will leave you with this.....

the marquee. Where I work, we rent the marquee for people to put up events and messages, etc.

I have the nicest man, who changes the sign for me, but he doesn't read English very well.... I am always sure to type it out for him, so he doesn't get confused by my handwriting.

But, sometimes he still gets confused.

Al? All?

We left the sign up as it was... we thought wishing Al Happy Holidays was a good thing!