Pretty OK Ribs

To help stretch my family's grocery dollars, I take part in the Angel Food Program. Thirty dollars for a box of frozen foods and dry goods is a heck of a deal, especially for families with financial strain. It's a church program, but they didn't seem to mind that I'm not a Christian when they found out, and the people have always been exceedingly friendly and accommodating - hands down, the most positive interaction I've had with the Church that I can remember.

Among other items in the box, from time to time there are packets of ribs. There aren't enough for me to make a meal for the whole family from one pack, so I saved them up until I had a few packs. I decided on Sunday that I finally had enough ribs to make a meal for all of us - and then found out I had more than enough because roommate J doesn't eat ribs. He eats BBQ, but not ribs. I don't get it. Anyway, I thawed them and sorted them - sometimes they're beef, sometimes pork, and one pack was St. Louis style - anyone know what that means? 'Cause I don't.

I lined two pans with Release Foil and liberally applied a store-bought rub (c'mon, y'all, I'm from New England, we don't do rubs up there, unless they're of the "back" variety) to both sides of each set, xylophone, rack, then covered them with more foil and popped them into the fridge until Monday afternoon.

Monday afternoon, I stuck them in a two-hundred degree oven and ignored them for two hours or so, then upped the ante to two-fifty and took a nap. Then I took them out, left them tightly covered, and put them back in the fridge because I had Black Hat Society last night and no time for ribs.

Today, I put them back into a two-fifty oven for an hour or so, then pulled them out, dumped all the fat and liquid stuff in the pans (don't cry - I'll reserve it next time to make something horrifying, I'm sure) and slathered them with (store bought) sweet-n-spicy sauce, then covered them up and baked at three-hundred degrees for half an hour. Uncovered, baked another fifteen minutes. Made some canned beans (lazy, lazy, lazy...but I did doctor them with molasses) and served 'em up.

Turns out, they are pretty OK ribs. Maybe one day I'll go entirely homemade, but for now, this'll do.

Some folks boil their ribs, then season, sauce, and cook. Some bake them with the rub and eat them that way. Some slather in sauce and slow cook, and some folks have fancy smokers that need tending and feeding and produce something akin to heaven on a bone. How do you do your ribs?