BBQ Spareribs & Macaroni Egg Salad

We have been craving some pork ribs here lately so I picked this recipe out in my Food Network magazine and decided to give it a whirl. It's a lengthy recipe and takes at least 4 hours of cooking time so it's a great meal for Sundays which is when we made it. I decided to make the marinade, the rub and BBQ sauce the morning of. I completely forgot that I was supposed to marinate the ribs overnight but they still came out delicious after only 4.5 hours of marinating in the fridge. I made the BBQ sauce and just let it sit out at room temperature all day. I only cooked 2 small racks since there is just the 2 of us but made full amount of rub and BBQ sauce to freeze.

The recipe can be found online: BBQ Spareribs

We have a propane grill, so I let 2 cups of apple wood chips soak in cold water for about 45 minutes. Then, created a pouch with foil and  placed the drained chips inside. We sealed it up tightly and poked holes all over so the smoke could escape and  placed this on the side of the grill with the flame on. After about 10 minutes the smoke started to develop and we threw the ribs on. The ribs were so flavorful and really tender. The BBQ sauce is tangy and has more of a vinegar base to it - surprisingly enough Q loved it (even though he abhors Vinegar!). So all in all these ribs came out great and I would definitely make them again!

Now onto the Macaroni Egg Salad - this was a real quick side that came together in about 30 minutes. I made it about 2 hours before the ribs were going to be done and let chill in the fridge while we were waiting. This was also an epic find from Food Network's recent issue and can be found here: Macaroni Egg Salad. I used 1/2 green bell pepper in place of celery only because I didn't have any celery on hand. I also whisked up the ingredients until well combined before I added the egg and cooked pasta.

I would say that if we had a charcoal grill we might be able to taste the smoke flavor more as the propane grill isn't that effective in our experience with the "foil technique". But there were some subtle hints of the smoke flavor just not enough to get excited about!

Don't forget to serve the ribs with some delicious sauce on the side too!

Enjoy!