Fourth of July Grill Out

The Fourth of July is when we watch baseball, parades and fireworks, but it is also a nationwide grill out. We had relatives over so I tried to have something for everyone. Clockwise from the pickle in the photo is a bacon-cheese burger, an Italian sausage dog with grilled peppers and onions, cole slaw, Mesa Grill Potato Salad, and Molasses and Honey baby back ribs. All these were grilled using Bobby Flay techniques and recipes. I must say that I think the rubs were the best. Four hours before dinner I pulled out the slab and seasoned it with salt, pepper, garlic and chili powder. I covered the slab with no-stick aluminum foil and placed it on the upper rack of the grill over low heat. I let the grill do its work for the first hour undisturbed. I turned the ribs over during the second hour and prepared the sauce. In a sauce pan over the grill I combined molasses, honey, brown sugar, salt, garlic and ancho chili powder. During the third hour I opened the foil over the top of the slab and slathered on the sauce. I recovered the ribs with the foil - still on low heat - and let the sauce ooze and bubble down over the slab inside the foil. I know people say that their ribs fell off the bone. The meat on these ribs did not fall off the bone - why would you really want that anyway? But they did melt in the mouth. These were the most tender and the most juicy ribs I ever grilled. The secret is not the sauce - although this sauce was terrific - the secret is the long grill time over the low heat. I also grilled a few burgers and dogs...

PS - Remember to check out the St. Francis Winery's Turn Up The Heat Contest. I have a video on their site and I hope that video will win me the title of Grill King of Sonoma Valley! Go watch the video at
http://www.youtube.com/user/StFrancisContest#p/a/f/1/Gr1Y4MUFX_U 


Happy Fourth and keep grillin' Paul