Brady’s birthday was a success. He got to eat breakfast with Anna, my mom brought him Chipotle for lunch, his dinner was a giant slab of ribs and then he played poker with the guys.

It took a while for Anna to understand and succumb to the fact that it was not her birthday, and therefore cake was not going to be her only food of the day. This was probably my fault because we did make Brady his birthday cake before lunch.

Then all through lunch she said, “Cake, I want cake for lunch.” You would have thought I learned something from the experience but I didn’t. I proceeded to let her help me make the frosting for the cake before dinner so all through dinner we heard, “Frosting, I want frosting mommy, frosting.”

But, like I said the day was not about her (haha, everyday is really about her) so back to Brady.

For his birthday dinner he picked ribs. It ended up being the perfect February day to make them since it was about 45* and not raining. Here is the fail-proof way to make super tender ribs:

1. Start with a good cut of ribs. Go with Baby Back Pork Ribs if you want them to be super meaty and tender. I made the mistake of buying spare ribs one time and it was not the same. I had 3 full slabs for my dad, Brady and Tom and we had leftovers.

2. Rinse and dry them off (something I always do with meat) then lay them on a foil covered cookie sheet, meaty side up.

3. Use a rub. Find a rub you like and cover the ribs with it, actually rubbing the spices into the meat. If you don’t have a specific rub you like, mix together a little salt and pepper with brown sugar, and chili powder.

This is a good one if you want to buy one:

4. Let them sit for a little while on the counter or overnight in the fridge with the rub on them.   

5. Preheat the oven to 250* and put about 1 Tbsp. apple cider or red wine vinegar in the cookie sheet or pan. Add a few (3-5) Tbsp. of water to the pan.

6. Cover the pan with foil and wrap the edges down tightly. Make sure to use a few pieces of foil so no moisture can escape. You essentially want to steam the meat for a few hour to make it tender.

7. Let the ribs cook at 250 for anywhere between 4-6 hours. Check to see how tender the meat is when removing them. They will be fully cooked when you take them out.

8. In the meantime, work on your sauce. I will save that for another post but I always make one with fresh onion, garlic, brown sugar, ketchup, vinegar and other spices but your favorite store bought sauce will work as well.

Or simmer a diced onion in a little olive oil and apple cider vinegar and then add it to store bought sauce to kick it up.

9. Cover the oven cooked ribs with sauce and preheat your grill. Put ribs on the grill for 15 minutes on low/med. heat (or 10-20) until they get grilled on the outside.

10. Slather them with sauce one more time and serve!

Then make sure to dig into a double layer sour cream vanilla cake with buttercream frosting.

Happy Birthday Brady!

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