Kansas City style dry rub ribs and cornbread (page 260 something)

Having perfected chicken, we moved on to ribs last night. We had Dorothee and Evan over along with friends / coworkers who live down the street.

We did the 5-4-3-2-1 rub with 3 racks of spare ribs. Next time we are going to try baby backs, but the store had spare ribs, and it is actually what the book recipe is for. After doing the rub, we let them cure in the refrigerator for the recommended 2 hours. Then, on to the grill. With 3 racks, space rapidly became an issue on the grill top. To be honest, there was a moment I wished for the Phoenix, though it would certainly take up most of our front yard.

Two racks of ribs don't really even fit, and end up with half of each still directly over the heat. Not an ideal solution. So I pushed the coals to one side, and made an impromptu rib stand out of a cast iron pan, just until the ribs were firm enough that I could lean them on each other. AND...I used the gas grill for the third rack. Apologies to the purists...it had to be done.

For the sauce, we served Stubbs, added after cooking rather than during. While shopping for the sauce, I was amazed at how hard it is to find a sauce that is more than just high fructose corn syrup, water, and a few flavorings. Sad really.

Audrey made the grilled cornbread from Weber's Art of the Grill, in cast iron, on the grill top. We used bits of grilled red pepper as the filler rather than corn, onions, and the other stuff the book recommends. We also used Jiffy packs of cornbread rather than making it from scratch. It was amazingly delicious and highly recommended. Let it rise for at least 10 minutes, then on indirect heat. We had the ribs keeping warm while the cornbread was cooking...another inconvenience that would not have been necessary if we had the Phoenix.