Slow Cooker Sweet and Sour Spare Ribs

So on saturday I thought that instead of making my Sweet and Sour Spare Ribs recipe the usual way, I would try them in the slow cooker. This also came out of the need to have something cooked and ready when I got home from a day of scrapbooking and when Jamie got home from a day of four-wheeling with the guys.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to illustrate right now, but I will add some in sometime in the future when we make this again. It turned out so well that I don't think that I will be making them the regular way ever again. Haha

My ribs cooked from 9am to 6pm... so they were literally falling off the bone.

Ingredients

2lbs pork side ribs (must be side ribs. Yes, they are more expensive than back ribs, but they are more tender and have more meat)
1/4 cup water
flour and water to mix to thicken sauce

Sauce

3/4 cups white sugar
3/4 cups white vinegar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp garlic powder
3/4 cups ketchup
1 tsp ginger powder
1 small can of pineapple chunks in juice

~ Slice ribs apart at each rib. Set aside in a large bowl.

~ In a medium bowl, mix all sauce ingredients together except the pinapple. When sauce ingredients are well mixed, add in can of pineapple and its juices. Stir well to mix.

~ In the slow cooker dish, spread a thin layer of sauce on the bottom. Add a layer of ribs. Over the ribs, add more sauce. Continue layering ribs and sauce until all ribs are in the slow cooker. Pour remaining sauce over ribs. Add about 1/4 cup of water over the ribs.

~ Cover, turn on low for at least 6 hrs.

~ When the ribs are finished cooking, you can then thicken the sauce. If you have a tupperware shaker, or a clean empty jar, this is what you could use to mix the flour and water. I add about 4 oz of room temperature (or straight from the tap) water to the shaker, then start adding flour teaspoon by teaspoon until you get about the consistency of thick gravy. Slowly add the flour mixture, bit by bit to the sauce, stirring to mix it in. I had to remove some empty bones as I was stirring.

~ When the desired sauce consistency is reached, stop adding the flour mixture (you'll likely have extra to throw out) Keep in mind that the sauce will still thicken a bit more when it is on the table and cooling down.

~ Serve over a bed of rice with a green veggie. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds.

Hope you like them as much as we did!

Rolled Sugar Cookies

The finished product!

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface and rolling
• 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Sift together flour, salt, and baking powder into a large bowl; set aside.
2. Put butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg; mix until smooth, 1 minute. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture, and mix until combined. Stir in vanilla.
3. Transfer dough to a medium-large piece of plastic wrap. Wrap dough and refrigerate until cold, about 45 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 325 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds.
5. Take dough out of fridge and break into 4 or 5 equal segments. Knead segment in your hands to warm it up a bit. Roll out dough on a lightly-floured surface to a little more than 1/8 inch thick. Cut out shapes using cookie cutters or knife. Using a metal spatula, space 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Reroll scraps, and cut.
6. Bake cookies until edges are just starting to turn pale golden brown, about 11 to 12 minutes. Do not let the cookies brown, or they will become very hard. Let cool about 2-3 minutes on the sheets then transfer, using a metal spatula to remove cookies from parchment, to wire racks.
7. Leave cookie plain or decorate how you see fit.

Waiting to go in the oven



All decorated and ready for eating!

Tips

~ An electric stand mixer works best for this recipe, but an electric hand-held model could work too.

~ Keep an eye on the cookies. Take them out AS SOON as they start to brown slightly. This (and letting them partially cool on the cookie sheet) is the secret to CHEWY cookies.