Victor received an awesome Birthday Present in the mail last week from a friend in Kansas City – local Kansas City BBQ sauces and rubs. Totally awesome!

We’re both huge fans of regional cooking and really love locally-produced products. We’re going to have a lot of fun going through these!

We’ve had the Gates BBQ sauce in the past, so I started off with it, because I knew it would be Nonna-acceptable. I’m still feeling my way around her likes and dislikes and want to make sure that if she doesn’t totally love something, at least doesn’t hate it.

Nonna loved it.

Victor started the ribs in a 250° oven for a couple of hours while I was at work. I finished them on the grill.

Meanwhile, I made Boursin mashed potatoes – just add Boursin cheese to your regular mashed recipe – and the ever-popular over-cooked broccoli.

One of these days I’ll cook two vegetables. Really.

And we now have lots of fun sauces and rubs to play with this season.

Can’t wait to try ’em all!