Happy National Baby Back Ribs AND Welsh Rarebit Day!
There was a bit of panic leading up to today – at some point I became convinced that Welsh Rarebit DEFINITELY contained rabbit… I kept thinking: if I could barely hold it together (okay, not even close to hold it together) cooking lamb, how am I going to cook rabbit?! And where does a person even buy rabbit?! I can’t just walk into Whole Foods and ask for a pound of rabbit right?!
Well, good news! My friend John (and google) assured me that Welsh Rarebit is actually just fancy cheese bread. Upon further googling, I discovered that it’s fancy BEER cheese bread, so yippee!
The kids and I walked to our friendly neighborhood Whole Foods this morning to pick up the ingredients for the day’s celebrations. While at the meat counter, the woman next to me also purchased two racks of baby back ribs! We shared a laugh and, because I’m weird and socially awkward, I felt the need to wish her a “happy national baby back ribs day!”…
She seemed confused but minnesota-nice enough to give me a pity smile before fleeing… So much for my new Whole Foods friendship…
Anyway… Nick was pumped for today! Ribs are one of his favorite foods – he’s not really a picky eater but at times he can be grumpy about food in general. Mag was also excited because it involved using the dry rub she helped make at the Montessori school as a gift for Fathers Day. At least once a week she asks if we can use her “special spices” for something… But dammit Mag! Not everything calls for dry rub! So finally, FINALLY, we broke out the Tree Top spice mix!
Ryan is usually in charge of ribs when we have them, which is rare since neither of us have high paying careers… But as he was working today I decided I was totally capable of cooking them without him. Because I’m a badass modern woman and can cook ribs if I want! (Or something like that…) I consulted several recipes before deciding they were all basically the same and I could just wing it, right?! This train of thought could be why most things I cook turn out weird…
All the recipes I read kept referencing the “silver skin” of the ribs. You’re supposed to “remove the silver skin before cooking ” Being that I’m a 12 year old boy on the inside… this all sounded dirty to me and I chose to ignore it. Again, this line of thinking may be the root of all cooking fiascos in our household…
So, with silver-skinned rack of ribs in hand, I heavily applied the dry rub, wrapped them in tin foil and left them to cook low and slow in the oven.
While all of this was happening, I got to work on the Welsh Rarebit, aka the most magical food ever created! According to the recipes it’s just toasted bread with a cheese sauce on top that has been broiled for 5 minutes. Cheese sauce is a familiar recipe in our house, one of a handful of recipes I know by heart and rarely screw up. When I was pregnant with Magdalene, we basically lived on homemade macaroni and cheese (and root beer floats) – both Ryan and I became convinced that we were some sort of cheese sauce connoisseurs. We learned about the importance of nutmeg and ground mustard, we debated the proper way to whisk a roux (a topic that’s still up in the air!) – long story short, Mag is made up of mostly cheese sauce. What makes a Welsh Rarebit so amazing is that it’s a little like making beer cheese soup then putting it on toast and baking it! It’s like a magic beer cheese soup – grilled cheese hybrid!
The unfortunate thing for me is that dairy and I are no longer friends. What started as just an issue with milk and yogurt has become a full blown, doesn’t end well experience with all dairy. It’s devastating. I love cheese – I love butter – they are the only two dairy products worth consuming and I love them more than most foods. I want to eat them daily but have had to accept that doing so means spending the rest of the day hovering in and around the bathroom. It isn’t pretty. I’ve tried vegan cheeses before but every time I’m left mourning the actual cheese taste that comes with real dairy. Vegan cheese tastes a little like feet. I’m not sure if it’s supposed to, but it does. Cheese colored feet. However, in the past few weeks I discovered the joy of nut cheese! (Feel free to mock me at any point. I realize how crazy I sound). Whole Foods carries a line of awesome almond-cheese products that ACTUALLY taste like cheese! Real fucking cheese flavor without the trauma to my intestines! So pictured above is the lovely almond cheese I used in the making of the Welsh Rarebit tonight… don’t tell Ryan, he has no idea 🙂
Here it is! The finished plate of Baby Back Ribs and Welsh Rarebit (and corn bread)! Ryan declared the ribs “Not bad, you could have asked the butcher to take off the silver skin though”.. which led to several circumcision jokes by me… Nick ate two plate fulls, a success in my book! As for Mag, she fell asleep before the ribs were finished cooking… she’s not a patient person… waiting 4-5 hours for ribs to slow cook is not her style and she will spitefully fall asleep when she feels she has waited long enough!
And the (dairy free) Welsh Rarebit? Ryan loved it! He ate most of the pan! Is it bad that I feel so happy about passing them off as totally normal cheese?! Is that where Mag’s spiteful side comes from?! Oh God! I’ve created a monster!!
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