<h2>Slow-cooked dry-rub ribs: <br>They're on the grill now!</h2>

I'm expecting my sons to come over tonight as a sort of belated BD toast -- I'm slow-cooking pork ribs (country style), and will contribute some import beers to our plans for an import "taste-testing" get-together tonight to wash down the ribs.

I haven't made ribs in ages. When I first made them this way (dry rub, slow-cooked on the grill), three summers ago, I probably made them three or four times that summer. Very good eating, and I made slight adjustments about the cooking process each time, as I'd always found a thing or two to tweak.

Two summers/autumns ago, I made them only twice -- once in summer, and once in early autumn. Last summer, I don't think I made them at all. Why? It's a long process -- on a charcoal grill, you really need to babysit them to make sure the coals don't get too hot or, just as or even more important, too cool or else the heat will die. So you're constantly checking the heat and trying to add just the right number of coals periodically to keep the heat at a low simmer.

But when it's all over, and you've done them right, they are very good eatin'. I'm baking some potatoes on the grill, too ... keeping them a tad off direct heat so they can sit there almost as long as the meat.

I think I'll go and pick up another six-pack of an import just to make sure we have enough variety to sample tonight. I have some Heineken already, but ... I thought we should have least four to choose from.

(AN HOUR LATER): I just got back from the grocery. Not only did I get one more import, but I got two: Grolsch (Holland) and New Castle (England). Here's hoping for a fun night of "tasting."

:-D