St. Patricks 2014: Irish Indoor Ribs

Somehow it's already been a year since we did the fabulous pork apple sirloin with homemade gouda bread for St. Patrick's 2013!

As the snows continue to fall in Montana we've been wishing it were grilling season already, so we decided to take a traditional grilling meat - pork ribs - and do an indoor oven version. There's two twists here though. First is that we're trying out rib tips for the first time ever, and second is a little Irish spin in honor the holiday. The full meal will be Rib tips marinated in Killians beer, with a side of colcannon (a traditional Irish potato dish).

Rib tips are different from standard ribs in that they have several small scale shaped bones at regular intervals, rather than large continuous bones, so they are actually easier to pull meat off or eat with a fork than to pick it straight up and go to town.

For the Irish Rib Tips you'll need:

• Half rack of pork rib tips (if you are feeding more than 2 or 3, do a full rack instead)
• Kosher salt
• Cracked black pepper
• about 3 tbsp. Honey
• ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
• ½ – ¾ bottle your preferred beer (for the Irish theme, we went with Killians Red. If you want a thicker, more dark flavor, use Guiness instead. For a fruity kick, go with )
• ¼ cup savory barbecue sauce (just enough to brush on the ribs)

To get these rib tips ready, we're going to marinate them for a few hours. First we season with salt and pepper.

Next up we're going to smother them in some honey, to make a sweet balance to the savory flavors.

Next we'll add in about 2/3rds of a bottle of beer and the apple cider vinegar - just enough to cover the ribs. After allowing the flavor to soak in, we're going to throw these in the oven at a low heat - 225 to 250 degrees - for several hours. This will allow for even cooking and ensure the meat doesn't dry out and get tough.

With only about 15 - 20 minutes left or cooking time, we're going to drain out the excess liquid from the pan and then brush these with a savory BBQ sauce. A hickory would be great, or any of our previous homemade versions (Root beer, coffee, and so on) would do as well. This time for convenience we went with a Jim Beam's bottled bacon BBQ sauce.

After rubbing they go back in the oven at a slightly higher heat to caramelize and get a little crispy, and they're done!

For the Colcannon you'll need:

• At least two pounds and up to six pounds red potatoes, skin on (for a more traditional mashed potato taste, go with peeled baking potatoes)
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/3 medium sized head of cabbage, roughly chopped
• one bunch green onions
• ½ cup sour cream

We always find a way to work this traditional Irish side into our meal schedule in March. It's basically just a fun enhanced version of mashed potatoes. To get this going, boil potatoes as you normally would, and in the mean time melt about two tbsp. butter in a pan and then throw in the chopped cabbage and green onions.

After the potatoes are boiled and the veggies have softened, through it all together in a large mixing bowl.

Add in the butter and sour cream and mash it up. Here Megan is doing it by hand with a wooden spoon to help keep the shape, but if you are pressed for time an electric mixer works too.

Here's our prepared colcannon, ready to hit the plate!

Two rib tips and a hefty dollop of colcannon makes this St. Patrick's meal almost complete. Pop open a few more of the Killians and you're good to go!

Valentines and Birthday

Last month we showed the delicious Valentines Day bourbon marinated steaks we had for dinner, but I forgot to post this little gem: the heart shaped toads-in-a-whole Megan made us for breakfast!

After the failed horseradish vodka experiment we also went more simple with our drinks that night, trying out a few different ways to use Pinnacle's glorious caramel apple vodka. First up was a shot using brewed coffee, a bit of half and half, and a big splash of caramel apple vodka. It's an interesting combination that works, because it's a bit like having a caramel apple latte, just with an alcohol kick.

Keeping it even more simple is of course just the straight up ginger ale and vodka, with a slice of apple on the side.

Earlier this month I celebrated my 28th birthday, and of course on birthdays we try new recipes! I'm a big fan of fried chicken, so we went with a modified version of a recipe from Bobby Flay's Bar Americain restaurant, with an asparagus side inspired by Guy Fieri. Here's our base ingredients: buttermilk, flour, paprika, cayenne, and garlic and onion powder for the chicken, along with eggs, panko crumbs, and mayo for the asparagus.

First up we start the asparagus, which of course gets snapped off on the woody end, then we put together the mayo with an egg yolk and some salt and peper.

The asparagus is dredged in the mayo mixture, which is going to help the panko stick. The reason for the mayo and egg yolk is to give the asparagus a great flavor and a crunch with the panko, since these are going to be baked instead of fried.

Next they go in a bowl of panko crumbs until thoroughly coated.

We're setting them on an upside down grilling pan so heat can come from the underside as well as the top so we don't have to flip them over halfway through the cooking process.

Now it's time to coat the chicken, which will be a two part process: dredged in flour, dropped in the buttermilk, and then dredged in a second plate of flour for a double coating.

While the chicken is frying in oil on the stovetop, the asparagus is getting golden brown in the oven.

Here's our beautifully fried chicken tenders, crunchy baked asparagus, and a dollop of mashed potatoes, with a delicious beer to wash it all down.

Boysenberry Rolls and Ice Cream Cookie Dough Sandwiches

The focus of Six-Seven-Eight has always been on crazy breakfast, lunch, and dinner concoctions, which has left a void in the desert course!

Correcting that, lately we've tried out several new homemade baked treats. First we tried out a one-rise cinnamon roll recipe:

While these actually turned out pretty good, the texture wasn't quite what we were going for, so we decided to take the same basic recipe and try out something else with different ingredients on hand.

Here we've got our basic dough, but instead of rolling it out and cutting it up, we're draping part of it in a bread pan.

Next we spoon over a layer of homemade cream cheese frosting.

On top of the frosting we then drizzled boysenberry jam, which was heated up with butter.

See how the dough draping is shorter below? That's because we pulled a layer over, and then restarted the process, putting on more frosting and jam. This process is repeated three or four times until you have several delicious layers.

The rest of the dough is then carefully smoothed over the top, so we essentially have a loaf of awesome bread going on here.

Here it is out of the oven, waiting a few minutes to cool before we can dig in!

And here's a slice of that awesome boysenberry "roll," with all the layers showing.

That's not all we've been up to with desert lately though! For my birthday Megan was challenged to come up with something new and exciting, since cake is not my thing.

She's always having to bat my hand away from the cookie dough, which spurred her on to make cookie dough ice cream sandwiches - made with eggless cookie dough so it's safe to eat! Below you can see a layer of chocolate chip cookie dough she whipped up, along with some cookie dough ice cream.

To put this delicious dish together, set the layer of cookie dough in a small baking pan and then spoon in a layer of ice cream.

Carefully top the ice cream layer with another cookie dough sheet.

Set it in the freezer for a few hours, pull it out, and slice it up to get amazing ice cream sandwiches!

Here are a few we ate at my birthday party: