Anytime is the perfect time for barbecue ribs, especially when it’s summertime! And in my opinion, there’s nothing better than a plate of tender, barbecue ribs and hot, buttered corn-on-the-cob on a beautiful summer evening!  Perfectly cooked ribs can be a challenge, however, and the secret is low and slow cooking.

What better way to cook low and slow . . . than a Crockpot? And here’s a perfect recipe for doing so!

BBQ Beef Country Ribs
Serves: 5-6

Ingredients:
¼ cup shortening
5 pounds boneless beef country ribs
1 medium onion, halved and then thinly sliced
1-1/4 cup catsup
½ cup celery, thinly sliced
¼ cup light brown sugar
¼ cup cider vinegar
1-1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon prepared mustard

2 tablespoons flour
8 oz egg noodles

In a heavy frying pan, heat the ribs in the shortening until browned on all sides. In a medium bowl, stir ¾ cup of water and the remaining ingredients except the flour and noodles. Pour over the ribs in the Crock-pot. Cook on low for 6-7 hours until fork tender. In a cup, mix the flour and 4 tablespoons of water until smooth. Gradually stir into the hot liquid of the Crock-pot (gently stirring around the ribs), and then cook until the mixture is somewhat thickened, 10-15 minutes.

Cook the egg noodles, per package directions, and drain. Serve the ribs and barbecue sauce over the noodles.

It’s rib time!

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:
Several thousand years ago, it was also rib time, but one of a totally different kind. “And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and as he slept, He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man, He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said: ‘This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh, and she shall be called Woman, BECAUSE she was TAKEN OUT OF MAN.” (Genesis 2:21-23)

Did you know the rib is the only bone in the human body that not only has the ability to repair itself, but can actually regenerate itself?  I’m not ribbing you! When a human rib is removed from the periosteum (the sheath that surrounds it), the rib will eventually grow back! And because this happens, ribs are often used for facial and other reconstructive surgery or when bone grafts are needed for other parts of the body. Additionally, the cells in bone marrow (which are found in the center of the rib) can be turned into almost any tissue in the body. How appropriate that the “Great Physician” would have anesthetized Adam and taken a rib from his side to create Woman. Eve was literally of Adam’s bone and flesh and blood.  And if she was “taken out of man”, then what was needed to create her was already within Adam. She was there all along.

Eve wasn’t created from the dust separately from Adam. She was custom built to be Adam’s partner. Matthew Henry once eloquently said, “Woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved.” I love that statement! It’s such a beautiful word picture of what I believe God intended.

It’s true that woman was created last.  But perhaps God did so because woman was the crown of His creation?

– Cheri Henderson