A Christmas Day BBQ With Only One Major Glitch

Setting up the BBQ at 4:30ish...yes, already dark outside...

Surely now you must be wondering why on earth we would take it easy on Christmas morning with a lighter breakfast.  (By lighter I mean not much food.  I am sure those cinnamon rolls were anything but light!) We have decided to BBQ for dinner!  BBQ in the snow!  We picked up these gorgeous looking steaks and some ribs!!  Who wouldn't want to save room for that??  Of course BBQing in the winter here requires keeping the BBQ area clear of snow so you can get to the BBQ!  Lucky for us we did that the other day!

Three thick rib steaks....drool.....

The ribs need a little more day before prep to get their flavour on.  The day before they get a massage with a rub mix and time to rest in the fridge.  I used the same rub ratio that I put on my pulled pork.  I must also give credit where credit is due.  This is another Alton Brown recipe!

The day before you plan to cook your ribs, prepare the rub.  In a bowl combine:

• 6 tbsp light brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1 tbsp kosher salt
• 1 tbsp chilli powder (sometimes I use paprika instead)
• 1 tbsp of any mixture of spices (this is where you can really alter the mixture to suit your taste):
• for example: 
• ½ tsp cayenne
• ½ tsp old bay
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp onion powder
• ½ tsp ground black pepper
• ½ tsp dried thyme      
• (as long as you combine 3 tsp of spices, you will get the last 1 in your ratio)

Remove the skin from the back of the ribs.

Coat the ribs with the rub all over making sure to rub all of the tasty goodness into the meat.

Wrap the ribs in tin foil and let them chill in their own tastiness until ready to cook.

The next day:

Preheat the oven to a low temp such as 275F.  Keep the ribs in their foil packets but open up one end and pour about 1/4 cup of liquid in.  I like to use beer but oj, wine, stock, or even water can be used.  Roll the end of the foil back up.

So maybe I used a little more than 1/4 cup...

And some for the cook!

Slow bake the ribs for 2 to 2 1/2 hours.

Remove the ribs from the oven and let them rest.







Slather the ribs with your favourite BBQ sauce and heat up the BBQ!  (Sweet!)

Look at all that BBQ goodness!

 To prepare the steaks, remove them from the fridge to take the chill off for 20 to 30 minutes.  Grind some peppercorns in a grinder so you can use fresh pepper to sprinkle on the steaks.

Rub a healthy amount of pepper and kosher salt onto the steaks.

BBQ on a hot grill until desired doneness.  I am not going to give out times on this one as with the cold weather and the wind chill...it actually took quite a long time to cook the steaks on the grill.  After 45 minutes of getting only one side looking nice, I had to change things up.  I had every intention of cooking completely outdoors but I couldn't get the flame high enough to fight off the cold to cook properly. This made me quite sad as I had to run away to the indoors and a hot broil element in the oven, just isn't the same.  The steaks and ribs still turned out so very tasty.

Our first sign that things were not going as planned was when the propane tank turned out to be empty!  Enough gas to light the grill but not enough to keep it going!  D'oh!  Lucky for us the neighbours left their gate unlocked....also lucky for us these neighbours are good friends of ours and we do borrow things from each other when needed.  Hubby got the new propane tank hooked up and fired everything back up!  That is until the cold took over!  D'oh, again!

I even had to bring the veggies inside!  I wrapped potatoes, sweet potatoes, and carrotts in foil with some butter, salt and pepper and threw them on the grill...again the cold prevails and I moved them to the oven....SIGH.

Peeled, cubed, buttered, salted, and peppered....ready for the grill!

The mushrooms were sauteed inside with butter and garlic!





Creamed spinach also cooked
                                                        indoors.

After all was said and done, the three of us enjoyed a very tasty half BBQ'd meal.  Not as relaxing as originally planned but it all worked out in the end.

I hope everyone has had a stress free, tasty, and a very Merry Christmas.  All the best to you and yours during the holiday season!