Household 6 Challenge

One of the main reasons for starting this blog, besides my love for cooking/baking, was that a friend started up a military spouses online cooking club.  She is posting a challenge each month for each of us to work on, then we are to show our results.  This month it had to do with an MRE and what we would like to see in one.  I decided a good ol fashioned Sunday dinner with BBQ ribs, potato salad, baked beans, grilled garlic bread and strawberry shortcake for dessert.  I stated in the very beginning that I don't measure much of anything when I cook, only when I bake.  I guess I need to maybe start paying better attention to amounts if I want to share things ; ) .  Anyway, here is my meal...hope you enjoy!

I have found, after living in Texas for 6 yrs, that the meat here is not all that tender...so, I have come up with ideas to help it along a bit.  Before grilling, I will either pre-bake or boil it so that it is partially cooked before putting it on the grill.  Here are my ribs.  I actually put them in the roaster since I had a large batch to do.  I sprinkled them with pepper, garlic powder, paprika and very little kosher salt.

I let them cook for a couple of hours on 250 degrees

I then pop them on the grill for about 3 min per side.  Enough time to get some nice grill marks and a bit of grill flavor.

I then take them off of the direct heat, add the BBQ sauce and let them set for another few minutes on the top rack.

Nothing like Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ....yum!

Potato salad is such a great summertime food!  Although, I do make it year round.  Depending how many I am going to feed, or if I want leftovers for the week, that dictates the number of potatoes that I will use. I will peel them and dice them before cooking.  Just my thing, you can cook them whole then dice later.

For this batch, I used about half an onion, diced.

Sweet relish, yellow mustard and coarse ground mustard.

After the potatoes are cooked and drained, I add them to the mixture while still warm.  I think they absorb the flavors better.  I add my Miracle Whip until its not dry. 

I think I used about 6 eggs.  I let them cook with the potatoes. 

Yummy potato salad...you can season with salt and pepper to your liking. 

Found some great strawberries at the commissary.

sliced them up for dessert.  added a bit of sugar to help them along a bit

The boy decided instead of shortcakes, he wanted angel food cake.  I cheated and made one from the box, but they are still tasty!

Strawberry shortcake

Grilled garlic bread

And our finished meal.  A taste of home that can't be beat.