Preparing for the awesome.

I'm not going to lie, I'm a competitive person.  I like to play games, and I like to win.  And for the last two years, when I go on vacation with my family at Chincoteague Island,  we  have a Rib Cookoff competition.  The first year, I was victorious. Basking in the glow of my win, I took the tropy home, and reveled in my win for a whole year.  Last year brought sadness. I was competing against my uncle, and my cousin Potter, and  my uncle pulled out a miraculous win (by a large freaking margin).

Last year's devistating loss meant that I could not rest on my laurels. I could not fly by the seat of my pants and expect to pull out victiory. I need to be more methodical. more calculating.... more awesome.

So I put together my rub,  which is based off of Alton Brown's 8 + 3 +1 +1 ratio, and I rubbed up a rack of ribs and let it sit overnight.  I made my own tomato-based barbecue sauce, Which is a new tactic that i'm trying this year. (I've never used a tomato based sauce before).

I invited Paul over for dinner, so he could guinea pig the ribs for me, to make sure that they were okay.

I cooked the ribs, low and slow, and in the last half hour, I brushed on the bbq sauce.  Then, once they were done, i cut them, and tossed them in a bowl with more sauce.

They were messy, but they were pretty awesome.  I need to tweak a little (A little less heat is needed) but they were pretty freaking great.

Watch out, Uncle Dave.... I'm comin' to get ya.

And for dessert, we had oreo cupcakes with cream cheese oreo frosting. MMMMMMMMM