Pennington's Foodstory

    I was working with one of my wine suppliers the other day when we decided to stop for lunch.  It was one of those brutal Tennessee days with 100+ degree heat with an equal percentage of humidity.  We walked into the restaurant hoping for a welcoming blast of AC, but because the place was so packed, that sensation was not available.  I was pouring down sweat, well past the threshold of comfort when I'm told there would be a 15 minute wait.  AARRGGHHH!  I was almost to the point where I needed to step into their walk-in cooler or start shedding clothes.  As exciting as that may sound, it would not have been appropriate.  I tried to work my brain into a Zen-like state where the heat is no longer an issue, but this was posing to be a bigger challenge than I was up for.  Luckily, a table opened up and we were seated.     The server noticed my discomfort and brought me a pitcher of water.  I contemplate...

   You just don't decide to cook ribs.  "Hey man, there's a cook out this afternoon, I think I'll make ribs."  If you care about food, which I'm assuming you do, this would never be a sentence you would think much less say aloud.  Like all things good, cooking ribs is a process that takes time and organization.  It's not hard by any means, but to do it right, one must plan ahead.  Oh, by the way, I'm talking pork here people.  A few summers ago I talked with a bunch of folks and tried a bunch of recipes in order to come up with a method I found to be great without too much hassle. I'm going to try and be as concise as possible, because I can ramble all day about cooking ribs.  This is the basic formula that works best for me and my set up.  The key factors are, Rub, Rest, Slowcook, & Finish.     I'll start with the most important part, the meat.  "Babyback" ribs are the standard, because they're nice a...