♫ Summertime, and the livin’ is easy… ♫
Finally a decent-weather day. Low 80s and low humidity. I could live with this. Alas, today is the only day we’re getting good weather. Back to high humidity tonight.
Oh well… I enjoyed it while it was here.
And I enjoyed getting outside and grilling some ribs! But before I grilled ribs, I made pasta salad and Phoebe’s Baked Beans.
The pasta salad was easy.
I cooked up a package of perline pasta (you could use mini-ravioli) and added 4oz of diced speck (use prosciutto) a small red onion, a yellow and a green zucchini, diced, some frozen peas, and some chopped sun-dried tomatoes. The dressing was a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Salt & pepper.
It was really simple and really good. A good pasta salad is a clean out the refrigerator salad. Seriously. Anything goes.
The beans were perfect – as always. This is just such a good recipe…
Phoebe’s Baked Beans
- 1/2 cup minced shallots
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1/2 cup tomato puree (I use tomato paste – I never have puree in the house!)
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons molasses
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 chipotle chiles, canned in adobo sauce, seeded and chopped
- 2 (28-ounce) cans baked beans
Preheat oven to 300°.
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add shallots; sauté 4 minutes or until golden. Add cumin and garlic; sauté for 1 minute. Add tomato puree and oil, and cook for 2 minutes or until thick, stirring constantly. Add remaining ingredients (except beans.). Reduce heat; simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Combine beans and shallot mixture in a 2-quart baking dish. Bake at 300° for 1 hour or until thick and bubbly.
They seriously come out perfect every time.
And the ribs…
I did a dry rub of smoked paprika, chipotle powder, onion powder, garlic powder, cumin, salt, and pepper. I put the ribs into a 250° oven for about 2 hours before putting them on the grill with BBQ sauce.
We went through lots of napkins.
And… I picked up more peaches, today. Another dessert coming up!