We’ve been eating a lot of warming cold weather foods during this cold winter, and I’ve been experimenting with my recently purchased crock pot. Combine the tastiness of BBQ pork ribs with the ease of crock pot cooking and you’ve got a winner.

I keep meaning to take a picture to post with this recipe, but I have to admit that the aroma of those ribs just makes me forget about the photo op.

I love the fact that I can put it all together and then go do other things.  The delicious aroma of BBQ pork ribs filling the house lets me know that dinner will be ready soon. Using my son’s new rice cooker and cooking the green beans in the microwave, I can really make this a no fuss dinner.

I like to serve these pork ribs with rice and fresh, boiled or micro-cooked green beans. It just seems to make a good flavor combination. This cooks up enough deliciously flavored juice to pour on top of the rice, too.

We buy a 3-4 lb. package of ribs and only cook half at a time for two to three hungry people. I sometimes mix up twice the amount of the dry rub and increase the marinade amount (increased amounts follow recipe.) I use half and keep the rest for the second half of the package of ribs. (Refrigerate the marinade, but not the dry rub.)

If you are making ribs for four or more people, double the recipe of dry rub, increase the marinade amounts as below, and cook the whole package of ribs, as long as your crock pot is large enough to accommodate that amount.

Try these ribs and let me know what you think.

Crock Pot BBQ Pork Ribs

To make this recipe you will need 1-1/2 to 2 lbs of pork short ribs or back ribs. This is about half of one of those long packages of ribs you find in the store.

Thickly slice 2 large sweet onions and place them in the bottom of the crock pot.

Cut the ribs apart and place them in the crock pot on top of the onions.

Mix together the following ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp sweet Hungarian paprika
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper

Apply the above mixture to the ribs, turning them to apply on all sides. This can get rather messy if you are doing it with your hands. I like to place the mixture in a small shaker jar (one of those little glass containers with holes in the lid) to apply to the ribs. It is much easier and neater this way.

In a separate bowl or container mix the following ingredients. (I put them in a small jar, close the lid, and then shake until blended.)

• 1/2 cup cider vinegar
• 3 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp dry mustard
• 1/2 tsp garlic salt
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

Pour this over the ribs in the crock pot and put on the lid.
cook on High 4 to 6 hours or Low 10 hours.

Enjoy.

Marinade for double recipe:

• 3/4 cup cider vinegar
• 4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1-1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
• 1-1/2 tsp sugar
• 3/4 tsp dry mustard
• 3/4 tsp garlic salt
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

GamesRadar.com, one of the top game sites on the web, has done a write up of our cookbook and even included some recipes. A clip:

Food: In World of Warcraft, it’s good for the health and it’s good for the mana. But why should your avatar be the only one who gets to sample Azeroth’s most savory dishes? Meet Irillys, a Tauren Shaman on the Bloodscalp realm (in real life, Guinevere Mee); she’s on a culinary quest to make World of Warcraft’s in-game fantasy food a reality. Her first project, The Tauren Chef Cookbook, offers easy to follow recipes based on and inspired by food items found in the game.

Here’s the rest: How to create a World of Warcraft Feast

He missed on a point or two, but it’s 99% good. Irillys isn’t really the Tauren Chef (being a Blood Elf,) but she does have a maxed cooking skill. We’re quite pleased with the write up.

Thanks GamesRader!

Well, I’ve been hard at work getting the latest cookbook - Wrath of the Kitchen King - ready for release. I thought I would give you an idea of the contents so far, starting with everybody’s favorite course - desserts. (Well, it’s my husband’s favorite.) I have already perfected recipes for the following desserts:

• Chocolate Square
• Dalaran Brownie
• Dalaran Doughnut
• Delicious Chocolate Cake
• Galgar’s Cactus Apple Surprise
• Ironforge Bread Pudding
• Murloc Eye Pie
• Tigule & Foror’s Strawberry Ice Cream

Murloc Eye Pie and Ironforge Bread Pudding are two exclusive Tauren Chef recipes and are already available for free! Yipee! You can find Ironforge Bread Pudding right here on this site.   Murloc Eye Pie is available in the free pdf that will give you a taste of the cookbook to come.

Chocolate Square is smooth, chocolately, and very easy to make as I’m sure you will be glad to know. This is an Apprentice level dessert that beginners can make with no problems.

Dalaran Brownie is also very easy to make, sort of Journeyman level dessert. You probably won’t even make a great mess of the kitchen, which your housemates will be happy about. You will fill the house with the delicious scents of baking chocolate stuff, and your housemates will probably forgive any mess because of this. Oh, and you will have to share the brownies.

The Dalaran Doughnut is a Master level recipe as it combines aspects of bread making with deep frying. It is quite delicious and allows you to try a variety of flavored glazes and sprinkles. Yumm! Homemade doughnuts!

Delicious Chocolate Cake is just like the name says: delicious and chocolate. This recipe makes a rich, very moist cake with all the right WoW ingredients. It is an Artisan level recipe, but well worth making from scratch. You won’t get this cake from a box mix!

I’ll bet you didn’t know that Galgar’s Cactus Apple Surprise is a dessert. Well, it is, and a very cool and refreshing one at that.I would classify this as a Journeyman recipe, possibly bordering on Expert.

Ironforge Bread Pudding is great on a cold winter night (and it’s also good first thing in the morning!) Journeyman level.

Murloc Eye Pie is a very different kind of pie. Think of a pie . . . filled with murloc eyes . . . sound good? Well, it really is. You just have to use really sweet, fresh murloc eyes. Make one and dare your friends to try it! This is classified as an Artisan level recipe due to the pie crust. But it could be Journeyman level if you buy a ready made crust. The filling is fairly simple to put together.

Tigule & Foror’s Strawberry Ice Cream is rich, creamy, and very strawberry. Yum! I love homemade ice cream. This is a Journeyman, bordering on Expert level recipe. Here’s a picture:

Tigule & Foror's Strawberry Ice Cream

I’m still trying to decide on whether the Burning Soufflé will be a dessert (Chocolate Soufflé or Grand Marnier Soufflé) or a main course soufflé (cheese soufflé, vegetable or seafood soufflé.) Any requests?

If you would like to see some very good, quick videos demonstrating how to make the perfect latte and how to do that exciting and beautiful latte art visit this link to see professional barista Jessica Kelly making lattes look just lovely.  Just watching the videos makes me want a latte now!

The videos are courtesy of Breville, a company that makes espresso machines, among other culinary products. I happen to have one of Breville’s espresso machines, (though not the top of the line,) and I am very happy with it.

The five hearts latte art looks fairly easy to do. I’ll let you know after I try it.

Five Hearts Latte Art

Coming soon to a kitchen near you . . .

I’ve been working on a couple of the last few recipes this week. Yesterday I made Mead Basted Caribou, and oh that was good, if I do say so myself. We like it rare, and it was definitely red and juicy!

Today I made Carrion Surprise. This is a delicious and warming dish, great for a cold winter’s night. It is also good re-heated. (I know this because I’ve made it before, but I didn’t get any photos then. I think we ate it too fast.)

I still have to make Murloc Tacos, and Tracker Snacks this week, and here it is nearly Thursday. I will make the Burning Soufflé and Northern Stew next.

Here’s a picture of the Mead Basted Caribou. As you probably know, Mead Basted Caribou is a recipe from the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.

Mead Basted Caribou

This is a very cool stop motion video which gives new meaning to spaghetti.

clipped from www.break.com

Browse through the lists of available World of Warcraft foods and you’ll find a few items that, well, maybe you’d rather not eat. We all have our tastes and our cultural preferences.

Some of the dishes found in other parts of the world might even be called, disgusting. Of course, it’s all a matter of taste, right?

So the RatesToGo blog has a few Mexican delicacies to stimulate your imagination. Perhaps to go along with Thanksgiving dinner? Especially if you want to insure that your relatives don’t come back?

Everyone has their favorite dish - whether it be a personal or local favorite. Depending on where you visit, a dish you might consider off kilter may be a favorite and well-respected delicacy. Such was the case when we visited Mexico, where we found some truly disgusting dishes we just can’t quite bring ourselves to prepare at home…
Here’s the rest: Disgusting Delicacies of Mexico

Well, we had to move from Web Hostng Company A to Company B. All in all it went about as smoothly as these things go, but there were a couple of hitches, this blog being one of them. For some reason were were locked out and all of the links were broken.

Fortunately, we had a backup of our database (with all the posts and such.)

Unfortunately, it was a July backup.

Fortunately, with a little copy and paste (the front page posts appeared to be fine, despite the links being broken) we were able to grab the posts made since late July.

Unfortunately, a couple of posts were lost and all comments made since the July backup were lost.

Well, I think we’re Ok now.

Hopefully we’ll be able to start posting a lot more regularly than we have in the past. Our goal is to be posting daily, not monthly.

It’s a well known fact that you really can’t put too much garlic into whatever you’re cooking. It’s also a fact that Garlic has a long history of being a medicinal herb, in addition to its use against vampires and such.

Now it looks like modern science has some proof (from the Mediterranean
Diet:)

Great news for all you garlic lovers out there! Recent research at the University of Adelaide, in Australia, has shown a direct link between munching on the smelly stuff and reducing high blood pressure. Untreated high blood pressure is a very real killer. Over 16 million people in the UK and a staggering 73 million in the US suffer from high blood pressure. Two thirds of these people do not have their blood pressure under control. Almost one in three do not even know that they are suffering from high blood pressure.*

Here’s the rest: Garlic Each Day Keeps A Stroke At Bay

Usually I’m too uninterested to do much more than a PBJ for lunch, but today I said “what the heck…” and did this stir fry. Gwynne liked it, too.

This makes a pretty quick and easy lunch (or dinner.)

• 2 packs chicken ramen & flavor packets
• 4 thawed chicken thighs (use breasts if you’d rather)
• 1/2 sweet onion, chopped up the way you like it.
• 1/4 cup green onions
• 1 tablespoon finely diced garlic
• 1 or 2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1/4 cup water

Boil the ramen for 3 minutes and then drain.

Chop the chicken into bite sized pieces. Chop the onion also. We like larger pieces, but feel free to use smaller ones.

Heat up the wok and add the oil.

Toss the chicken, all the onion, the garlic, and the pepper into the hot wok and stir fry until cooked (about 3 min.)

Add the flavor packs from the ramen packets and also add 1/4 cup water. Toss it all together until all is well mixed.

Grab a couple of plates, put some ramen on each, scoop the stir fry on top, and eat.

Feel free to adjust any of the above depending on your tastes.

If you want to add anything to the recipe then make a note in the comments section.