What a Crock

Last year (or was it for the infamous 12:12 party?) Johnny bought a crock pot for cocktail meatballs. You know the ones... meatballs in chili sauce mixed with grape jelly. YUM! The crock pot comes with a recipe booklet and I've only tried two recipes out of it. So far, they've been really good. The first one I tried was the tangy ribs. It uses bottled bbq sauce and cherry jam (which I had on hand). Of course, I bojangled it up with some extra black pepper, cayenne pepper and probably a lot of hot sauce.

SWEET & SAUCY RIBS
2 pounds pork baby back ribs
1 tsp black pepper
2 1/2 cups bbq sauce (not mesquite flavored)
1 jar (8 ozs) cherry jam or preserves
1 Tbs dijon mustard
1/4 tsp salt
salt (optional)
pepper (optional)

Trim excess fat from ribs. Rub 1 teaspoon black pepper over ribs. Cut ribs into 2-rib portions and place into the crock pot. Combine bbq sauce, jam, mustard and salt in a small bowl. Pour over ribs. Cover and cook on LOW for 6-8 hours or on HIGH for 3-4 hours (or until ribs are tender). Taste and adjust seasoning with additional salt and pepper if desired.

Thanks to everyone for your comments on my recipes! I really like to cook and try new recipes (although folks seem to like the tried and true curries and such). I wish I had time (and energy!) to cook more frequently. It will be good when the gang starts Gourmet Tuesdays again. We started Thursday Night Dinner at William's two years ago, but it fizzled out after two turns.

ASIAN-SPICED CHICKEN WINGS
3 pounds chicken wings
1 cup soy sauce
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup ketchup
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup dry sherry
1/2 cup hoisin sauce
1 Tbs fresh lime juice
2 Tbs sesame seeds, toasted
1/4 cup green onions, thinly sliced

Broil the chicken wings 10 minutes each side or until browned. Transfer chicken wings to crock pot. Add soy sauce, brown sugar, ketchup, ginger, garlic and sherry and stir thoroughly. Cover and cook on LOW for 5-6 hours or on HIGH for 2-3 hours or until done, stirring once in the middle of cooking.

Remove wings from crock pot and reserve 1/4 cup of the remaining pan juices. Combine 1/4 cup pan juices with hoisin sauce and lime juice. Drizzle mixture over wings.

Before serving, sprinkle wings with sesame seeds and green onions.

This is the recipe I botched. I mixed the hoisin and lime into the crock pot, so the finished product didn't have a glaze over them 'cuz it was all cooked in. I did add a couple glugs of Red Hot sauce and lots of black pepper but it didn't have enough heat for John. He likes it spicy!

ENJOY!