Friday night and nothing to do...but I still did a lot!

So, we had nothing to do tonight, aside from Izzy going to her first dance up at the firehouse.  So I took the opportunity to do a little cooking and test a few recipes from my "stack".  My goal was to not make a trip to the grocery store and still be able to make a dent in my stack.  Whenever I grocery stop, I always check out the cheapie bin in the meat section.  I found some boneless pork ribs for $1.53 and brought them home and froze them.   So I thought this receipe was a good way to use them:

Vinegar Sauce

2 cups cider vinegar
1 1/3 cups water
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons ketchup
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar, or more to taste (I probably ended up using about 1/2 to 3/4 cup)

5 teaspoons salt

4 teaspoons red pepper flakes (I only used 1 tsp since the kids would be eating it.  It had some heat at 1 tsp so I would think 4 would make it pretty damn hot!)

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon ground white pepper

Combine all ingredients and whisk until sugar and salt dissolve.  Taste and add more salt and sugar as needed.  Refrigerate until needed.

I ended up warming the sauce on the stove to really dissolve the sugar and salt.  I used about half the sauce to cook the ribs, covered, at 300 degrees for about 2 1/2 hours, then I took off the cover and cooked for another 30 minutes.

I also do some gardening and still have cherry tomatoes growing like mad.  I didn't even put the plant in the ground, it sprung from my compost I put in the garden in the spring.

So, since I had an abundance of tomatoes to use and some basil to use before it dies, I made this recipe.  It's not from my stack but I still had everything in the house to make it.

Orzo-with-Tomatoes-Basil-and-Gorgonzola

I used feta instead of gorgonzola.  It's a keeper and so pretty!

One more receipe from the stack.  Dessert.  I have no idea where I got this receipe but I obviously wrote it down in a hurry, I don't even know what it is called!  They were a little time consuming to make and the marshmallow busted out of some, but consesus was they were tasty and reminded Joe of a cinnamon roll with the icing on the inside!  I did have to make a trip to the grocery for the crescent rolls!

2 - 8 oz crescent roll dough

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 melted butter

16 large marshmallows

Separate dough into 16 pieces.  Dip marshmallow in butter and roll in cinnamon sugar mixture.  Wrap dough around and tightly seal.  Dip seal side in butter.  Place that side down in muffin pan.  Bake 350 degrees for 10 minutes.  Make a glaze with powdered sugar/milk and top with nuts.

Then, Joe and I hung out on the back patio and listened to the game.  I went to bed so early and missed the text that there was drinking going on in the driveway up the street!  Damn!  So, for a friday night with nothing to do, I did a lot!