Memorial Day and an Unexpected Bonfire

We celebrated Memorial Day in the usual way. Family, fun, food......and a bonfire.

It started out with a challenge. We decided to cook ribs, which I had never cooked before. I went to my favorite source of information, the Internet. Reading several recipes I learned that slow and low was the best way to go. (hey, that rhymes) I prepared the ribs as directed, set my grill to the right temp and placed them on the grill. Now, I over estimated how big my grill was and the three racks of ribs didn't fit. I placed one on the upper rack of the grill and two on the lower. Imagine my surprise, after a while, to find that the ribs I had placed on the upper rack were cooking perfectly while those on the bottom were still raw.

After two hours, the ribs on the upper rack were perfect, but the bottom two were still cooking too slow. I decided (because it was close to time to eat) it crank up the heat. When it was time to eat (we couldn't wait any longer) I pulled the "perfect" rack off thinking we would start with those, turned the heat back down, and put the other two racks on the top rack.

I believe it was no more than 15 minutes, from the time I put them on the top rack, to when I went to check them again. When I opened the grill, I saw nothing but flames. Sometimes, when you grill you have flare ups from the fat dripping down. This was expected, but it took a minute for my mind to process the fact that this wasn't a flare up in the bottom of the grill, the actual ribs were on FIRE!

One was singed a little, but this one, was a briquette~ Black and charcoal all over. I still can't imagine how, after turning down the heat and putting them on the top rack, this happened.

Ah well, we had one delicious rack of ribs, one that was so so and then this one. It added a little excitement and amusement to the day.

Funny side note: My oldest daughter's boyfriend came over later and ate some and took the rest home. Goes to show teenage boys will eat anything!