Gluten-Free Barbecue Sauce!

Diet restriction. I don't like how that sounds. Why does it have to be a restriction, why can't we just focus on the word free when we say gluten-free? Probably because we don't have many options.

But that can mean freedom, folks. Freedom from the box, whether it's the cake mix box or the box of glutinous cookies you can no longer devour (time to make our own tasty versions!). For me, it's more about thinking outside of the bottle...

I've made a new kind of food pyramid for myself. I'm not ashamed. The very bottom, recognized as the largest section, is strictly reserved for comfort foods (but at this point in my expecting life, they are necessities). That's where you'll find an assortment of yummy foods, from homemade yellow cake with chocolate frosting to... barbecue! Barbecue is on my food pyramid, yep. Though it might not do anything for my heart, its presence on my plate certainly makes the smile on my face a little bigger! :)

Ah, but gone are my KC Masterpiece barbecue sauce days. No more reaching for the bottle and pouring that great maroon colored sauce on chicken or ribs. The only gluten-free barbecue sauce I know about is Annie's... and I'm not a fan :( (though she does make tasty mac and cheese).

I remember the first time I made barbecue sauce from scratch. It was tasty... but it was missing the special somethin' somethin' that makes barbecue over-the-top finger lickin' good. Ok, so I'm referring to the cheater's version of barbecue (aka heavenly smokiness in a bottle). But it's just too cold outside for a real barbecue (and, unfortunately, it isn't allowed at my place!).

So what to do? Make a sweet and smokey sauce for my slow-cooked ribs. Yum!

Meat falls off the bone, just the right amount of sauciness... borderline illegal, folks. This gluten-free bbq sauce has THAT mouthwatering zing; it'll make taste buds happy and bellies sing. Thankfully, I can use my favorite worcestershire sauce now because it's finally gluten-free (thank you Lea and Perrins :)! Woohoo! Just make sure the vinegar is also gluten-free and you're good to go!

Oh yeah... and make sure you've got plenty of napkins! ;)

Pork Ribs and Barbecue Sauce

Don't you hate it when you have plans to wrap up a 40 hour work-week by going out on a fun date with your husband but then the car breaks down...when it's 102 degrees outside?! I do! But at least it's a lot more interesting when it happens in Austin, even if living here does remind me of being trapped inside of a convection oven (not that that's happened to me...yet :).

So why is it more fun? Because getting stranded outside of a flower shop can be quite entertaining, especially when one of the locals decides to jump into the flower shop's dumpster and climb back out with a dozen red roses perfectly in tact for...who?! Before I could figure out who, the flower guy took off in his beat up but fully-functioning pickup truck filled with a variety of trash-to-treasure goods. (The saying here is Keep Austin Weird - we practice what we preach. :)

This is what happened on Friday evening. Thankfully, it happened when the hubby and I were together. We couldn't help but laugh at the abandoned-flower-arrangement rescuer and...our far from fully functioning VW Passat. (It might be a cute little car but it has plenty of annoying qualities.) With a busted alternator, our car helplessly sat there while we waited for the AAA tow truck to pick us up and take us home.


Because Jose's full of good ideas, he thought it'd be best to get ahold of a mobile mechanic. That way, we wouldn't have to spend a ridiculous amount of money and time at a dealership while missing work and losing even more money in the process. It was a great idea; the mechanic came to OUR house Saturday afternoon, and just a few hours later, our car was good as new! The other silver lining? Instead of going out Saturday, I had the chance to stay home and make the juicy ribs I'd been craving for a few weeks now. I also decided to go a step further and make the BBQ sauce myself! I made sure to spend some time 'studying' a few recipes beforehand, so I wouldn't come up with anything too crazy; the end result was inspired by this recipe.

Stuffing also sounded good; I tried remembering what my parents put in their stuffing, but I couldn't remember all of the ingredients, so I added a few of my own. Only thing is...it came out a bit flat - sort of the way cookies taste when I forget to add the salt! Here are the components of the stuffing, or dressing :): Cornbread, bits of black forest bacon (and the drippings), cranberries, golden raisins, sweet onion, carrots, celery, savory, rosemary, sage, a pinch of butter, olive oil, and poultry seasoning. I know I could've added some chicken broth...but what else is missing? Salt? Next time, what can I do to take this recipe to a tastier level? I welcome any tips!

Ok...so I know I said that I'd be posting a 'Traveling the World One Plate at a Time' recipe at least once a week, but last week I went out of town and this week...well, I remembered that Texas is like another country (and we eat plenty of ribs here)! :) Is that a good enough excuse? ;)