Baby Back Ribs & Hasselback Potatoes

If it wasn't for croque madames, pork chops, pork belly, and bacon I could be Kosher. But above all of those, the most irreplaceable unclean feast has to be ribs. For Bubbe, my Jewish grandmother, baby back ribs are one of those "oh I didn't realize that was pig -- well since I've already had it once..."

And who could blame her? Digging into succulent, fall off the bone pork ribs slathered in dark red barbecue sauce is one of God's greatest gifts.

Ribs in our household were frequently served up at Bones (now L. Woods) or Portillo's. And it's been way to long since I've had them, so for Game of Thrones night we baked up two racks. We even made a homemade BBQ Sauce, which turned out really tasty even though we couldn't get the hickory liquid smoke.

The Baby Back Ribs are surprisingly easy. We did a simple dry rub of Chicago seasoning from Penzey's. Popped them in the oven, meat side down, at 250° for about 3 hours. After flipping them and smothering the entire rack in sauce, we finished them in the oven for another 20 minutes. They really kicked ass.

And if ribs wasn't enough, I also made Hasselback Potatoes, which are these cool accordion looking baked potatoes. It was an excellent feast to pair with an excellent double feature of Game of Thrones.

Bonnie didn't get any ribs but she settled for sleeping on top of Mommy's legs.