Cookbook Challenge Consults The Today Show and The Olympics

I am peering at that proverbial end-of-tunnel light for the Cookbook Challenge where we are picking among the remnants of our oddball collection of cookbooks. I had to work on the Fourth of July, so Keith prepared a mouth-watering BBQ.

The ribs were from a 2005 Today Show cookbook recipe. Yeah, its a bit dated, as Katie Couric is among the Fab Four pictured on the cover and she and her replacement Meredith Vieira have both since left. It's a fun collection of some of their favorite foodiness and there's plenty of early looks at some soon-to-be culinary superstars. Steven Raichlen provides a recipe for Kansas City Sweet and Smoky Ribs and The K-Man used this as the basis for his ribs. In the interest of space, I'm not going to provide this recipe, but I will say the basis for the marinade is apple cider and fresh lemons and I believe these ingredients were the key....those ribs had a bright, citrussy zest that balanced the deep, bold barbecue flavors perfectly. Keith used the rub recipe from this as well and then, to save time, used locally made Smokehouse BBQ sauce instead of the Raichlen sauce recipe. These were some deeelicious ribs and K served them with a wonderful pasta salad made with rotini pasta, heirloom tomatoes and cukes from the Excelsior Springs Farmers Market, assorted cheeses and Kraft Parmesan Asiago Balsamic Vinaigrette. Dessert was grilled peaches brushed with a tasty sauce of Keith's making....a warmed mixture of dark rum, brown sugar, butter and cinnamon to taste.

We enjoyed a vegetarian meal later in the week and returned to another dated cookbook for one of the dishes. We consulted The Kraft U.S. Olympic Training Cookbook from 1992 that was a grocery store freebie if you bought three Kraft products back then. Our Farmer's Market green beans were put to good use with the cookbook's delightfully easy Green Beans and Tomatoes Italian. These and some sweet corn-on-the-cob made for a filling and healthy meal. We also took another stab at homemade ice cream this week as our first round turned out so well. We chose our mutual favorite-mint chocolate chip. It was a tad less creamy than the Alice Waters recipe but still a beautiful thing. We found the recipe at www.allrecipes.com here.

The recipe for the Green Beans and Tomatoes follows. This and the Today Show recipes count as #65 and #66. The Cookbook Challenge has only a few more recipes to go until completion and we will wrap it up with Julia Child's Coq Au Vin. Yum!

Green Beans and Tomatoes Italian

1/4 lb. (3 cups) green beans, cooked
2 plum tomatoes, cut into thin wedges
1/4 cup Seven Seas Viva Italian Dressing (or other Italian dressing you have on hand)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

Cook green beans, tomatoes and dressing in saucepan over medium heat 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated, stirring occasionally. Stir in basil. Makes 6 servings.