Ribbed Man Hat

When we were back in the U.S. around Christmas, we made a trip out to Tim's dad's place.  Heavy snow was predicted to for the area (and lived up to the weatherman's hype, as pictured above), but Tim was wildly unprepared, clothing-wise.  Somehow his winter coat made its way into storage instead of coming with us to Indonesia.  Ditto with Tim's winter hat and gloves.  Worried about being stuck in the snow, we stopped to buy Tim gloves and a hat, but were pretty unhappy with the quality of everything we saw and ended up buying a crappy hat (see hat above) that was not warm enough and got super stretched out.  I wish I had had time to make Tim a hat before the trip...

Thus, despite being wildly inappropriate for Indonesian weather (hot hot hot, humid), I made Tim a ribbed winter cap for his birthday using this free pattern.  A simple, ribbed, rolled brim hat, perfect for a dude, knit in a pretty greyish yarn speckled with blue, red, yellow and chartreuse, Cascade Yarns 128 Tweed.  

One slight problem I had:  I don't know if I just knit really tight, or if Tim and I both have abnormally large heads (it's a virtual planetoid!  it has its own weather system!), or both, but this hat is just large enough to cover our ears... there's no way the brim would roll and still cover our ears unless I added like another 2 or 3 inches in length.  Luckily the hat looks good unrolled, too, so no worries.

Ok, now we're going to cry ourselves to sleep tonight on our huge pillows.

Chinese-Style BBQ Ribs

Tim and I have had a rack of baby-back ribs in the freezer since Super Bowl... since we were running low on freezer space, we decided to bust them out for a slow-cooked Sunday dinner. 

(Sorry the photos are so bad... after smelling these things cooking for 3 hours, I was too impatient to set things up for a good photo.  Had to eat.)

We decided a Chinese-esque marinade sounded good, so I made a marinade that was an amalgamation of a Gourmet magazine recipe and a Rasa Malaysia recipe, with much success.  The resulting ribs were sweet, spicy, sticky and sliding off the bone.  Highly recommended.

Here's what I did:

- 1 rack of baby back pork ribs

- 1-2 tablespoons peeled, minced ginger

- 1-2 tablespoons peeled, minced garlic

- 1/4 cup soy sauce

- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

- 1/3 cup hoisin sauce

- 2 tablespoons honey

- 1 teaspoon Chinese 5-spice powder

-  a couple big squirts of Sriracha sauce (maybe 2 tablespoons?)

- Course ground black pepper

• I blitzed it all together with my stick-blender, reserved about 1/4-1/3 cup, and poured the rest over the rack of ribs.  
• I marinated the ribs in the fridge for about 7 hours.  
• I set the oven to somewhere between 325 and 350 F (our oven is in Celsius and is quite inaccurate to boot so I do a lot of estimating), wrapped the ribs in tin foil with the marinade (meaty side down) and cooked them for about 2.5 hours until they were tender and almost falling off the bone.  
• I opened up the foil, turned the ribs meaty side up, poured the reserved marinade over the top and broiled the ribs for about 7 or 8 minutes (until the marinade was bubbly and caramelized).
• Served with rice and sauteed veggies.

Non-Super Bowl Super Bowl Party!

Since Tim's team, the Giants, is in the Super Bowl this year, he insists on watching the big game live.  Which, here in Jakarta, means he'll be watching it Monday morning at 7 am.  Boo.

Craving American-style fatty, cheesy and salty Super Bowl party foods, we decided to host a mini (4 people) non-Super Bowl Super Bowl party this past Sunday.  We played Wii and ate lots of terrible (but terribly delicious) food, including:

Heart-attack-on-a-plate: cream cheese + chili + cheddar, all melted together and served with chips.  An oldie, but a goodie.  In the past, canned chili has sufficed, but I couldn't find it here, so I made my own chili based on this "adult" sloppy joe recipe I've made in the past.

Hot spinach dip: in an attempt to incorporate some veggies into the meal, I made a hot spinach dip- cream cheese, mozzerella, spinach, garlic, onion... you'd think you couldn't go wrong.  Except it did go a little wrong: somewhat bland.  Not sure what the solution is... more salt?  Some red pepper flakes sauteed in with the garlic and onions?  It was good, however, a few days later spread on bread, topped with sauteed chicken breast and mozzarella, and grilled like a panini.

(sorry forgot to take a photo of the spinach dip!)

Ribs: Tim decided that his contribution (well, besides lots of beer) would be to try making grilled ribs.  He bought some baby back ribs from our local butcher shop, put together a dry run, marinated for 24 hours, then "smoked" them on charcoal grill using indirect heat and water for steam for about 2 hours.  Pretty good!  He thinks perhaps the grill ran a little bit hot and he could have taken them off sooner, but I thought they were pretty good for a first try at ribs!

Hummus: the old In Garten stand-by hummus made an appearance, with the addition of some cumin, paprika and additional lemon juice and zest.

Buffalo bites with homemade blue cheese dip: I sorta made this recipe up a bit... I cut some boneless chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces, coated them in egg and flour, lightly pan-fried them, and then tossed them with a mixture of butter and Louisiana Wing Sauce (we are the proud owners of about a million gallons of this stuff... I wanted Frank's or Crystal, but this was the only option.  A good buy, though.)  I was hoping that the way I cooked the chicken would give the sauce something to stick to, but not get soggy.  Served 'em with a homemade blue cheese sauce, similar to this recipe, but without the dill and with the addition of a splash of Tabasco and Worcestershire sauce.  I think these were the winner for the evening... so addictive!  Definitely tasted like good old American bar food.

Rice Krispie treats:  I had big plans to make S'mores with my homemade marshmallows, but a number of factors dashed those dreams on the rocks... 1) I couldn't find graham crackers at the store (I saw them around Christmastime and am now kicking myself for not buying a box or two.) and 2) in a trial run, the marshmallows didn't toast correctly- too wet and melty.  Sigh.  Fail.  I blame it on the humidity.  Rainy season is a bitch.  Rice Krisipie treats were a good back-up, though.