Pasta and Vermouth?

Our neighbors, Alex and Janelle, brought over a pasta dish that they made to go with the Margaritas and Ribs. Janelle is Italian, and she is a great cook with some very interesting recipes. Many of her pasta dishes use vermouth in the recipe, which is new to me. Here is the basic recipe for Vegetable Pasta with Vermouth.

Ingredients you will need:

1-2 shots of vermouth
1 lb of bow-tie pasta
brocolli or other vegetables of your choice
2 handfuls of grated cheese (romano or parmesan)
fresh garlic
1 1/2 cups of cream
olive oil

Saute the garlic in olive oil until golden (do not let it get brown)
Then add 2 handfuls of romano or pamesan cheese and 1 1/2 cups of cream (make it to your desired thickness or creaminess)
Add in salt and pepper (to taste)
Add 1 or 2 shots of vermouth (to taste)
Add in your favorite vegetables
Cook until slightly reduced

Boil 1lb of bow-tie pasta, drain, then combine everthing together

Sorry for the "sketchy" ingredients...those Italians don't seem big on measurements!

Enjoy!

Magical Ribs

We had another fun Saturday night with the Magical Margarita recipe. We had our neighbors over for some margaritas and good eats. One of our favorite combinations is Margaritas and Ribs, in fact, let's call them Magical Ribs.

Ingredients you will need for Magical Ribs:

3 racks of baby-back ribs (BJ's and Sams Club have a nice 3-rack package)
2 bottles of your favorite barbecue sauce
1 or 2 large onions chopped
5 to 10 cloves of garlic chopped
2 bottles of beer

In a large pot, pour in the 2 bottles of beer and add the onion and garlic. Fill the pot 1/2 way with water and add in the 3 racks of ribs. Add water until the ribs are completely covered.

Boil the ribs for 20 minutes, then turn down the heat to medium and continue to cook the ribs for another hour. Remove the ribs when you can see 1/4" of the ends of the rib bones.

Place the 3 racks of ribs on a cookie sheet with the meat side facing up, and completely cover the rib meat with the barbecue sauce (don't spare the barbecue sauce).

Place the cookie sheet and ribs in a refigerator (uncovered) for 30 minutes, then cover with aluminum foil if you want to store them longer (up to 24 hours).

To grill, use a medium to high flame and place the 3 racks of ribs on the grill with the meat side up for 10 minutes, then flip and cook the meat side for 5 minutes or so. At this point, the meat should still be moist, but will have some small signs of blackening.

Remove the ribs from the grill and place on a clean cookie sheet. With a steak knife, cut the ribs along each bone, then serve.

Experiment with the barbecue sauces to change the flavor of the ribs. We have found many barbecue sauces that produce a great rib:

Stubb's Barbecue Sauce (discovered by Tom and Alison Jolie)
Grill Mates Montreal Steak Grilling Sauce (discovered by Chuck and Charli Johnson)

Saturday Night after Snowmobiling

Saturday night after snowmobiling is a popular time for The Magical Margarita. Here I am after reaching Defcon 1 (or was it Defcon 2?).
This was a common scene at the lake house on Moose Pond in Denmark, Maine. Between 2002 and 2005, the winters on Moose Pond were filled with snowmobiles, family, friends, and the Magical Margarita.