I am on my way home!  With that brings anticipation of snow and cold weather.  Oh well that is life and I will survive.  My day is action packed with 11 hours of travel so I am looking forward to getting on  solid ground.

With that being said, I though I would continue the baked goods week and share with you one of my favorite soft chewy molasses cookies. As I have mentioned before, I love soft and chewy cookies similar to the chewy chocolate chip cookies and white macadamia nut cookies.  However, I also love MOLASSES and everything about it.

These molasses cookies have a soft chewy texture.  Growing up we called them Tuffies.  Have you ever heard molasses cookies called that before?

These take no time to make and use pretty generic baking ingredients. They are also very easy to flip to Vegan cookies as well.

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It’s Friday again!  Thursday was somewhat of a different day where I was completely snowed in.  It has been snowing for about 30 hours with wind gusts of over 60 MPH.  Needless to say, it would be entertaining to show you the snow drifts in front of the house but I was not able to get out to do that.  Stay tuned for those pictures!

For our New Year’s Eve gathering I tried a new recipe for some pork ribs.  As you all know by now, ribs are one of my favorite things to eat.  I love them!  Although this recipe did take a long time to prepare, it was well worth the wait.  These were fall off the bone and the flavor was amazing.

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Happy Thursday everybody!  Today’s post (like the rest of the week) is dedicated to super easy to prepare food that tastes great.  I was talking to my great friend yesterday and I asked him what I should make and post about for Thursday.  He said “Zesty, why don’t you make a killer loaf of homemade whole wheat bread that is super simple to make”.  I said “JT, that is an awesome idea!”  So here I am, getting ready to share with you a quick and easy version of whole wheat homemade bread.

This is a great and versatile recipe that is open for variations and additives of your favorite flavors.

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Yes it’s true!!  Slow Roasted Cajun Ribs were on the menu last night.  I was going to do them in the slow cooker but I totally forgot in the morning to put them in so I decided we would have a late supper and I would slow roast them after work.  This process takes a bit of time but like anything…. good things are worth the wait! I have a previous post sharing tips while cooking ribs, all the tips still apply however these ribs will utilize the oven as well as a two step basting process.

Ingredients ( Dry Rub)

• 3 Tbsp Dried Thyme
• 2 Tbsp Paprika
• 2 Tbsp Packed Brown Sugar
• 1 Tbsp Ground Cumin
• 1 Tbsp Dry Mustard
• 1 Tbsp Hot Red Pepper Flakes
• 1 Tsp Salt

Ingredients ( Sauce)

• 1/4 Cup Molasses
• 1 Tbsp, Soy Sauce
• 1 Tsp. Sweet Chili Sauce

Method

1. Prepare the meat and remove any silver skin to allow the meat to breakdown and become tender while cooking. Preheat oven at 250 degrees.



2. Add dry rub mixture all over and meat and ensure you rub it in well. This will allow the flavours to penetrate the meat as it cooks. If you have time you can leave the rub on all day or even over night. I just let it sit about 20 minutes.



3. After 90 minutes of cooking - I add the sauce to the top of the meat. Brush the glaze all over the meat and make sure that it is evenly distributed over the meat. This will form a nice crust to the top of the ribs.



4. After 2 hours and 20 minutes in the oven at the low tempreature. I like to blast the heat to 450 degrees for about 10-15 minutes and really build the crust on the meat. By this time the meat has already pulled away from the bone and is very juicy. The higher tempreature for the short burst just adds more flavor to the surface of the ribs.

Once out of the oven - I like to let the ribs sit there for about 10-15 minutes so that the juices will travel back to the center of the meat and ensure the succulent flavor you come to expect from pork ribs.

A great side dish with ribs is a nice coleslaw. I just grated some cabbage and some carrot then sprinkled in some cracked black pepper and red pepper flakes and used a store bought dressing and called it a coleslaw. Yesterday’s french fries would also be a nice treat beside this ribs. Now the only thing left to do is grab your favorite drink, a handful of napkins and ENJOY. Let me know your favorite sauce that you use when you make ribs.

I just had a craving for chicken legs tonight so I thought….. lets roast them for a change.

Ingredients

12 Chicken Legs
1/4 cup Molasses
2 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
1 Tsp Dry Thyme
1 Tbsp Red Chili Paste
1 Tbsp Basil Paste
1 Tbsp Worchestershire Sauce
1 Tsp Black Pepper

Method:

Set Chicken in Roasting Pan.
Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well together. Sauce should be fairly thick in consistency. I like to spoon the sauce over the chicken legs and make sure they are completely covered. If possible save a little sauce for basting

Cooking Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 Degrees. I like to cook covered for 30 minutes and then baste the chicken and cook uncovered for another 30 minutes. Once complete it should look similar to those in the picture. I hope you enjoy!