Let’s All Try and Get Along

There is nothing quite like a mess of barbecued beef ribs except they take time and are awful messy. The other day I brought home some boneless country style ribs that I cut from the flatiron. Now the flatiron is a very flavorful part of the cross rib and when cross rib roasts are on sale you should be able to purchase one at the same price. You might even find some out in the meat case already marked up as cross ribs. Just ask the butcher and then ask him if he will cut them into country style ribs, that is if you want to save time and money and forego all the mess.

Anyhow I took the boneless beef country style ribs and placed them in a crock pot with my favorite barbecue sauce (my own recipe of course) and let them simmer for about eight hours. Every now and then I would turn the lid sideways to allow some of the moisture to cook off. The sauce turned really dark and rich and the meat was falling apart. I poured a generous amount of sauce over each serving of ribs.

With the ribs we had a nice, freshly made, room temperature (has to be room temperature, and the potatoes have to be gently simmered until completely tender and with the skins on) potato salad with hot homemade biscuits from the oven and a tossed salad for a little green. Man was that a good meal.

I don’t know what it is but If I have a nice potato dish and a tasty hunk of beef I’m pretty darn happy. Then throw in a bread item and something green and I’m in heaven. I’ll eat the pasta dishes that the wife and daughters come up with but they just don’t hit the spot like meat and potatoes do.

I’ve often wondered why it is that most men prefer meat and potatoes but a lot of women like to slip in a little soup and salad or pasta dishes and the like. There must be something in women’s genetic make up that requires them to punish their men folk by serving them frilly dishes without any substance. Or maybe they are just trying to civilize us. Probably goes back to a more primitive time when the men would drag home a dead carcass of some kind, slam it down in the kitchen and ask when dinner would be ready. Actually that doesn’t sound like all that long ago, but that’s beside the point.

I think women are trying to wean us from our meat and potatoes. It’s some sick idea from a deep seeded resentment just because we don’t always wipe our feet and we like to put the game on when we get home from a hard day at work. It just might be a conspiracy. Add one more to the list. I’d put it right up there with the black helicopters and area 57.

You just can’t trust them. Why the other day I came home from a hard day at work hoping for a little something I could sink my teeth into and there to my horror on the dinning room table was a pot of homemade chicken soup. Now what am I supposed to do with that? And then when I asked where dinner was you would have thought that I had just shot the cat.

It’s a good thing that I am sensitive to my wife’s feelings. Instead of grousing around about having hot water with chunks in it for dinner I politely made a couple of peanut butter and jam sandwiches to go with the soup, after of course, crushing mass quantities of crackers into it in order to soak up all the moisture. Yes It could have been a real rumble in the jungle if I hadn’t decided to take the high road and simply make do.

Anyhow the boneless beef rib dinner was a big hit. The kids loved it. In fact one of them requested it for their next birthday dinner. So for you women out there who want a nice and easy beef and potato dinner for your man, that isn’t messy, give the boneless flatiron country style ribs in a crock pot a try. And don’t forget to boil the potatoes with the skins on and serve potato salad at room temperature after removing the skins of course and the biscuits are a nice touch and something green is always good. Now, remember that we love you and stop all this conspiracy and resentment stuff.

John