Monday Bike Rides and BBQ Lamb Ribs

Back in February I started a bike ride on Mondays (I'm usually off on Mondays), that I call my grocery-getter ride. It was actually a way for me to get some saddle time in on my touring bike, which I normally don't ride except on my bicycle trips. So I started riding into town and doing my chores, buying whatever groceries we might need, cruising out to the river, and eating lunch on the Greenway. When the weather is warm, I even bring a paperback and enjoy some premium leisure time, reading in the solitude of the far southern end of the greenway,while sitting along side the river bank. This is some sweet bicycle time; I don't plan on giving it up anytime soon. I usually manage to pull about 25 miles out of it, too!

The grocery-getter on the Greenway.

Also in February, we bought a couple of  spring lambs from our friends Dan and Kathy at Slagle Farms in Cartoogechaye. Like a lot of other people, I did not grow up eating lamb. I can't even tell you if my folks ever cooked it. I have, however, become a huge fan of the delicious meat. Since I am the proud owner of a freezer full of lamb, I have been enjoying learning how to cook the different cuts.

Today, I focused my culinary attention on baked BBQ lamb ribs. I could have baked these in my Dutch oven, but time got away from me, so I used the regular oven. This is what I did:

I placed a couple rib slabs in the bottom of a stock pot this morning. I threw in a large diced onion, two stocks of diced celery, a tsp. of salt, and lots of dried herbs (whatever I had in the pantry, basil, rosemary, herbes de provence). If I'd had garlic, that would have gone in too! I added enough water to cover everything and brought it to a boil and then turned it down and simmered it for an hour. I took the ribs out, let them cool, trimmed off the fat, and sliced each slab into three sections.This afternoon, I brushed the ribs with a bottled bbq sauce and stuck them in a 350 degree oven.

I baked them covered with foil for about 45 minutes and then took the foil off for about 15 minutes to crisp them up a little.

Ribs fresh out of the oven.

The ribs were awesomely tender and delicious, they were cooked perfectly, and the meat seperated easily from the bone. Black Betty whipped up a tasty side of Israeli cous-cous with dried apricots, pine-nuts, and green olives, and we ate up.

BBQ lamb ribs with Israeli cous-cous.