Labor Day is the unofficial end of summer, September begins and kids go back to school. Because of the great weather and the three day weekend, it is also a day to relax with friends and family and firing up the barbecue. But there are so many things that are great on the grill from Carne Asada to Bratwurst.
My advice: look at your local stores Weekly Ads and find something on sale that looks good. Weekly Ads no longer have to be those annoying paper clippings that come in the mail that you ignore. Look up your local stores online. Ralph’s, Safeway, Albertsons, Fresh and Easy, and your local market have Weekly Ads on their websites. Simply go their site, click Weekly Ads and type in your zipcode to view your local supermarket’s holiday specials. Every year for Labor Day there will be tons of sales for things to grill over labor day weekend.
This year, a sale on beef ribs on sake at my local Vons appealed to me. Not Beef shortribs wich you can braise or grill Hawaiian style, but good ‘ol huge, long, beef ribs, often called “dinosaur bones.” I say huge, because they look huge, but in fact there is not a ton of meat on each bone, so a half of a rack still feeds one person.
I decided to grill up some “dinosaur bones” for my brother and his family this year. I found 2 giant slabs for $8.46! When I added sides of cornbread and salad it still only comes to $4.00 per person including a 6 pack of beer brewed by Craft brewery North Coast Brewing Company for Trader Joe’s at $5.99. (It’s called Black Hart, and is a hoppy stout that pairs deliciously with beef ribs. You can also serve a spicy Zinfandel, if you’re not a beer drinker.)
We had a great time.
However, over the past four months that I have been writing this blog, it has been summer in Los Angeles, and I have posted a lot of grilling recipes. Below is my recipe for Beef Ribs as well as some of my other favorites from this summer:
Beef Long Ribs
2 racks of long beef ribs
¼ cup of your favorite BBQ spice rub (I used Johnny Tush’s spice rub, as I had a ton lying around, but more on that later. You can also use my usual BBQ dry rub, found here.)
1 bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce
Olive Oil
- Using kitchen shears, cut the ribs into ½ racks. Rub theribs with dry rub and a little olive oil. Let stand for one hour.
- Preheat the oven to 250 degrees if possible. (Some ovens start at 300 degrees, which is fine as well.)
- Place the ribs in a roasting pan and cover tightly with foil. Roast for three to four hours. (For 2 racks, 2 roasting pans will likely be needed.)
- Preheat the grill. Remove the ribs from the oven and place on the grill starting with the meaty side down. Brush with BBQ sauce. Cook for ten minutes on low heat, flip, brush with more BBQ sauce, and cook for ten more minutes. This is mostly to get the ribs that cooked-on-the-fire taste. Alternatively, you could preheat the broiler and finish the ribs off similarly that way.
Serve with your favorite packaged corn bread (I like Trader Joe’s Cornbread) or cornbread recipe. Throw in a Tablespoon of your dry rub to give it a Labor Day BBQ flavor.
Alright, NOW you are ready to go to the store. I am sure you can find what you need for ONE of the recipes cheaply.
September 1st, 2011 at 9:45 AM
Those look insanely good and meaty… yum! Thanks for sharing, great photos too.