♫ 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!