Jack Daniels' Glazed Ribs

So Sunday turned out much differently than we expected. All but one of Hubbs' crew ditched him. Can ya believe it? Finally, around 2:30 one of the guys showed up.. but by then Hubbs had pretty much one whole side (the longest and most important side) done - by himself. Poor guy. I felt bad for him, but maybe it was a girl thing? He didn't seem upset at all and I think he was actually enjoying himself because he wouldn't let me help him. Maybe the whole, "I built it myself with pride" thing? I don't know - but that man worked his arse off yesterday and today I've got two sides to our fence done, and done beautifully. The back is still unfinished as they ran across major roots when trying to dig the holes for posts on Saturday, but as soon as Hubbs can figure out how to set posts back there, he'll be able to knock out filling the fence in quickly. At least now, the ugly neighbor's house is no longer an eye sore and the yard is essentially completely fenced in so we don't have to worry about Chloe & Nigel getting out to wander the streets.

As for my big "Thank you - you guys rock!" second dinner? I froze it.. tee heee! The good thing is we're having a few people over for 4th of July and most of my prep is done and in the freezer just waiting to be thawed and grilled :D I simply threw the London Broil and the marinade in the freezer and after making 60 wantons, I froze them on a baking sheet and then put them in a freezer bag once they were frozen.

Regarding the Jack Daniels glazed ribs, Ilva asked in comments about whether she could use an Irish whiskey instead of Jack Daniels rye whiskey. Personally, I think this glaze is simply named after the Jack Daniels company because they came up with it? It's definitely not named Jack Daniels because you can taste the rye.. after this glaze cooks, you can taste no alcohol whatsoever. I think if you left the whiskey out completely, you'd never be able to tell a difference. This glaze became popular at a chain restaurant called TGIFriday's. I first had it about 8 years ago over their pork chops and I was instantly addicted. It's a sweet glaze with a nice zing that goes well with chicken, pork or beef. The main ingredients are dark brown sugar and pineapple juice with a small amount (surprising, eh?) of cayenne pepper to give it a kick that doesn't really hit you until you've had a few bites. I found the recipe on a copy-cat site that rocks, Top Secret Recipes, and they cloned this recipe to the T. It's not a hard glaze to make, but there are a lot of ingredients. Here's the thing though.. the following recipe is suppose to yield 1 cup of the glaze. But you must cook it for hours to get it to thicken up, therefore you don't get 1 full cup. I always double or triple the recipe. Saturday while it was cooking on my stovetop I noticed how much it had cooked down and panicked a little bit thinking I wouldn't have enough for the mountain of ribs I had to glaze, so I took it off the heat too soon which gave me a very thin glaze. I ended up serving some on the side for dipping because of it. If I were thinking, which I wasn't, I would have added a tablespoon of cornstarch to the teriyaki sauce before adding it.. which I think I'm going to do from here on out. So keep that in mind if you try it ;)

Jack Daniels' Glazed Ribs