Friday Night

Rotor

Just finished initial prep for tomorrow night when I'll have 7 for dinner. I'm starting with pork back ribs. They're sitting in a dry rub right now that I put together without a recipe but after reading some ideas here. I used very coarse sea salt, brown sugar, cinnamon, hot paprika, garlic and onion powder, black pepper, and some hot pepper mix I have, and a couple of herbs, oregano, sage, ground ginger too. The ribs are appetizers, they'll go on at lunch - starting at about 250 indirect and slowly raising it to 350 ish to finish them about 5 hours later. I'll put them in a roasting pan, on top of the pizza stone. [p]Main course is going to be about 1" thick strip loins. I got a nice strip loin roast from Costco and cut it up at home. They're in a marinade made from red wine, vidalia salad dressing, pepper, the coarse sea salt, and a little hot paprika. Planning to do a sear/sear/dwell on these babies, but because they are thick I think I'll keep the sear to 600 or so.[p]Not the most ambitious cook I've done, but its the first time I've planned ahead and got the marinades going the day before ...[p]Better be good because one of my egg benefactors is coming for dinner, and he's sure to notice humpty is now the Big Green/Grey Egg ...[p]Rotor

Smokin' Todd

Rotor,
Not the most ambitious cook??? Well, I dont know what you have done much in the past, but this sounds like our guests are in for some real good treat! And pretty much seems like you opted for "whatever is in the cabinet" for marinade and seasoning....which is what I feel is the way to go! Forget the cook books, ect, and go with instincs is my philosophy once in a while. Have a great one!
ST

Rotor

Smokin' Todd,[p]Thanks for the encouragement. My father-in-law was a Navy Chef during WWII and went on to become Director of Food Services for the Canadian Forces. I never got to spend much time cooking with him, but I remember him saying much the same thing as you and that the most fun he had was when he just followed his instincts. He also said to cheat, by keeping interesting things around the kitchen to throw into the mix!