Happy June Everyone!
Books: I started Brenda Maddox’s book “Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Side of DNA” which is a biography of the woman behind the famous “X” photograph of the crystallized DNA molecule. This photograph led Watson and Crick to the structure of DNA and the Nobel Prize in 1962. Since Rosalind died of cancer in 1958, she was never even nominated.
Exercise: I’m going to try and update the Exercise workouts I like. I have already posted all of my DVD’s here on the blog. The following workout is Tabata style – where you work hard for a certain amount of time and then rest for 10 seconds.
45 Minute Total Body Tabata Workout
Plus, it’s free!
Recipe: I am all about the slow cooker during the summer. It heats up our food and doesn’t heat up the house! This recipe comes from America’s Test Kitchen “Slow Cooker Revolution”. The slow cooker is perfect in breaking down the connective tissue in ribs as well as developing a nice tender cut of meat.
I get the St. Louis style ribs not because I’m from St. Louis, but because I like the cut. The meat seems more substantial than baby back ribs as well. St. Louis doesn’t have anything to do with how they are cooked. This cut of rib is a spare rib with the sternum bone, cartilage and rib tips removed which create that nice rectangular rack. Sometimes you can find them with a seasoning already rubbed in. If so, simply skip the spice rub step and go directly to putting them into the slow cooker! Grab some cole slaw and corn on the cob and LOTS of napkins for a full summer meal.
For the BBQ sauce, I use my homemade no-cook sauce.
- 1 and ½ tablespoons sweet paprika
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ½ tablespoon salt
- ½ tablespoon black pepper
- 3 pounds St. Louis style ribs
- 1 and ½ cups BBQ sauce
- cooking spray
- Spray the inside of a 5-7 qt. slow cooker with cooking spray.
- In a small bowl, mix the spices together: paprika, brown sugar, cayenne, salt and pepper. Rub onto the meat.
- Place meat into the slow cooker with the meaty side facing outward.
- Pour half of the BBQ sauce onto the ribs.
- Cook on low 6-8 hours.
- At this point, you can remove from the slow cooker and serve with the rest of the BBQ sauce.
- Alternatively, at this point you could move them to a foil-lined cookie sheet and tent with foil. Meaty side DOWN.
- Broil the ribs 10" away from the heating element. Skim the leftover liquid in the slow cooker of fat and discard. Brush some of the leftover liquid onto the ribs. Broil about 3 minutes - until browning occurs. Flip and brush again with liquid. Broil another 10 minutes - until browning occurs. Rest 10 minutes. You can boil and reduce the liquid more to serve on the side.
