Our oldest granddaughter Izabelle (Izzy) just graduated High School a couple weeks ago, she's been occupied with working and preparing for college so she asked if I would smoke some ribs for her graduation dinner, sure no problem 2-3 racks will feed the family. Uhm well I want to invite a few friends gramps, okay my dear, how many friends? 20 or so give or take. Okay well you can't feed that number on three racks of st Luis ribs. Holding off for an accurate count, we now stand, the night before the event at 45 guests. Normally for that many I'd roast a 50-70lb whole pig and be done with it. Nope they want pork ribs, so the wife is doing the sides and I'm up to eight racks of ribs and three tri tips. A big pan of home made Mac and cheese, a gallon or so of baked beans. My smoker is not big enough or all this! So I'll jist be smoking the ribs, doing the tri tips on the grill and the sides will be prepared indoors. This is Izzy and my wife Katherine and me at her graduation. She's grown into a wonderful young woman works 30hrs a week as a swim instructor, goes to a local junior college and plays softball. I hope I do her justice with the food.
First up, the rub, keeping it simple. Brown sugar, paprika, fresh ground pepper, granulated onion, granulated garlic, ceyenne powder. I think that's it this time?
And the star of the show, 8 racks of St.Louis cut ribs. Time to get to work trimming and removing the membrane, rubbing up and covered for the night.
And here is where our guests will be seated for dinner! The remains of last years garden some mint that's gone out of control and my favorite jalapeño Bush. Going to transplant the jalapeño this evening once it cools down a bit. And begin the transformation.
Congrats on the graduation !.........and the cooking !
Congratulations to Izabelle!...she knows what she's doing, she requested the master chef :)
Sal
.....and he even trimmed up the beard for graduation....
That's a lot of people to feed, but you will pull it off!!! 😊
Brett
If it weren't for the short notice I might have tried to fly Chilli out here to handle this part. But I will middle my way through somehow. I'm half way through prepping the ribs now!
LOL.....I almost said you need to enlist his help, but didn't want to offend you😁
Like I said you got this...👍
Brett
And all rubbed up and ready to rest overnight.
Go David Go!
It is all about the grandkids now.
I feel you brother, I'm sure you will do well. ;)
I keep it simple, If I am grillin', It is going to be steak.
Ribeye's or strips with Baked Potato's and crab legs.
That is how I Roll.
Proud Grandpa will do anything for their grandkids. The meal is looking like a great start.
Wishing Izzy great success!!!
Congratulations Izzy!
Be proud, grandpa. Must be beautiful thing to see your grand daughter as a little peanut 18 years ago and to now see the smart and successful woman she has become.
Enjoy your family and that lovely looking meat.
Warm regards,
Dom
Thanks to all for the kind words of encouragement. Yes I couldn't be more proud of my grandchildren. So here goes. The smoker is getting up to temp 225, and the ribs are rolled up because that's the only way they fit in my little smoker. The yards coming along. More pics to follow.
In they go
And out of the smoker, yard set up, into the oven to steam, finish on the grill, tri tips, Mac and cheese. The beans were delicious but not one of the teenagers tried them? So much food and before I could get a pick of the money shot, the food disappeared? My daughter snapped a couple pics and sent them to me but this party got out of hand.
Can't believe how fast the food disappeared ? But then I've never cooked dinner for a bus load of teenagers before. Everyone had a good time and can't wait for the next rib fest.
Looks delicious David......of course you stashed a rack of ribs for later right ?? You have plenty of beans for yourself too. Congrats on pulling it off. I never doubted you could do it, I only doubted your sanity in accepting the challenge lol
I know and my wife commented we only have five more coming up. I told her that place in Brookings Oregon is looking pretty good to me. And yes I did stash a rack! And there's a bit of Mac and cheese and the beans left over. I'm eating good all next week.
Fabulous David!!!
That was really smart about rolling the ribs.
It's great cooking for the kids ! are you planning to open a restaurant ? ;D
Great job Dave. Food looks superb and doing for such an occasion makes it all even better.
Scott
Great job !!
You did good Dave!
Sal
I think it must be in our DNA. Growing up it was the kitchen were everyone gathered while the lady of the house supervised the meal prep everyone else sat around and joined in conversation. Seems like every happy occasion was cantered around a meal. My wife and I hosted Saturday dinners as our kids were growing up and we kept it up Whalen our grandchildren were small, now they all have Saturday activities or work and the Saturday dinners have fallen to once a month, as the family has grown it's become more and more work and we're not getting any younger. I still feel that way and sitting back watching friends and family enjoying each other's company and especially the food gives me a great deal of satisfaction. The consensus on the food from family was "the best ribs ever", they said the same thing on the last batch? but they insisted that these were better than the last and the best ever. The difference in the two batches of ribs? This time I added more brown sugar to my rub. from the guests, absolutely fantastic and when you doing this again? What's in your rub? Party was loud and happy and people didn't want to leave. Cleanup was done by 8:00 and quiet returned, to my wife's great appreciation. I know I'm not alone in the feeling of satisfaction that is had by experiencing the smiles and laughter of people enjoying a good meal together. The bonus to doing the cooking is that I get to sample everything during the process! When I started to clean the empty rib pan it was full of the little bits that fell off the ribs, I couldn't resist scraping them all up with my fingers and shoveling them into my mouth. And then there's the leftovers!
Thanks for the opportunity to share.
A great event David! Well done.
Thanks for sharing it.
Steve
Damn David...
(I stand and applaud)
That was a big feed to host and a huge job pulling it off.
Well done sir! Well done!
Everything looks great.
Congrats to the family.
Good work David. Dominick
Hold on somebody sent me a money shot. I believe this is leftovers.