Bones 'n things (or dreadfully delicious)

Recipes: Bloody Bloody Mary, Dem Bones with Sauce

It's Halloween week, and Wayne and I are traveling to Los Angeles to spend the holiday with family. As a bonus, we'll go to Day of the Dead at Hollywood Cemetery and throw a Halloween Party for friends who just haven't had enough fright driving L.A. freeways. It should be scary fun! Hehhehhehhehheh.



After a whole lot of ghoulish back and forth between the Northern California and the Southern California contingents, here's the menu we've settled on for the party.

Dreadfully Delicious Menu!!

Bloody Bloody Marys

Blood Red Wine

Devilicious Eggs

Dem Bones with Sauce

Corpse Strings with Eyeballs and Grave Moss

Ghost Mashed Potatoes

Graveyard Cake

 

First things first, ahem, the Bloody Bloody Marys. Here's a frightfully good recipe! Of course, if you have black goblets, or glasswear with skeletons and skulls, all the better. If not, no worries. Ghostly swizzle sticks would add just the right amount of atmosphere.

 

Bloody Bloody Mary

For each drink, fill a glass with ice cubes.

Add 1 1/2 ounce vodka.

Fill nearly to the top with tomato juice (not V-8, not Bloody Mary mix, just plain tomato juice).

Add a good splash of Worchestershire sauce, a couple drops of Tobasco, 1/4 teaspoon creamed horseradish (I like Beaver Extra Hot), and a grind of black pepper.

Stir well and garnish with any (or several) of the following: The traditional celery stick, a skewer of green garlic-stuffed or pimento-stuffed olives, lemon wedge, pickled okra, dilly beans, pepperoncini, zucchini sticks.

Yum.

 

 

 

 

Dem Bones with (BBQ) Sauce

 

I originally got this recipe off the internet. I think it's one of the best I've ever made . . . you'll probably love it too!

 

Four pounds of pork ribs (or babyback ribs) will serve 4 - 6 people at a party. If you're making this for you and your honey, get 2 pounds ribs and divide the ingredients for the rub in half. If you are having a BIG party, get 7 or 8 pounds of ribs and double the rub.

For 4 pounds of pork ribs or babyback ribs:

 

The Rub

• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon smoked salt (hickory or alderwood). I get this at my local spice shop; you can also find it online.
• 1 tablespoon sweet Hungarian paprika
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder or granules (not garlic salt)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground red New Mexico pepper

Plus, for the finale

• 1 1/2 to 2 cups BBQ sauce - make your own, or your favorite bottled.

 Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

Mix together the sugar and spices to make the rub.

Peel off tough membrane that covers the bony side of the ribs by inserting and dinner knife or a spoon under it and working it off with your fingertips. This isn't necessary for babyback ribs.

Apply the rub to all surfaces of the ribs.

Cover a baking sheet with two layers of aluminum foil, shiny side out. Lay the ribs on the foil meaty side down.

Cover the ribs with two more layers of foil and crimp the edges tightly.

Bake for 2 to 2 1/2 hours or until the meat starts to shrink away from the bones. Remove the ribs from the oven.

Heat the broiler.

Cut ribs into serving sizes (2 or 3 ribs) and arrange them on a foil covered broiler pan, bony side up. Brush them with BBQ sauce.

Broil for about 2 minutes until the sauce is cooked on and the ribs darken a bit.

Turn the ribs over and repeat on the other side.

We plan to arrange Dem Bones on a platter in the shape of a skeleton. If that doesn't work, we'll just pile them up for A Pile of Dem Bones. Serve with more sauce on the side. Scarily good!

Want to make those cute Devilicious Eggs at the top of this spooky post?

Here's the recipe for Deviled Eggs from an earlier post. Then just decorate with Faces and Fangs made from capers (eyes), slivers of olives, bits of radish, leaves from parsley (fangs), and other edible incredible bits and pieces. Easy! and so sweetly spooky!

On the next post, I'll do the recipes for the rest of our Dreadfully Delicious Menu.
Have a BOOtiful Halloween!