Unique Serving Platter

When I was growing up, we always had an outdoor fire pit in our backyard. This was a place where we could cook out during the day, and it became a gathering place for friends and family at night. There are several times when serious discussions happens at the outdoor fire pit, and it also became a place to be alone and work through troubling thoughts and situations. We weren’t alone either, many of our neighbors had one as well.

There are many people today who have an outdoor fire pit and their reasons are much the same. Hanging out around a roaring fire has a charm that you can’t find anywhere else. There is something about the roar of the fire, the crackling of the branches, and the cozy atmosphere of an outdoor fire pit that brings people back time and time again for more.

You may not be able to have an outdoor fire pit, this will depend on where you live. If you live in a town or in a larger city, you may not be able to have an open flame within the limits of your township. This is a safety issues, and is meant to keep everyone safe from accidental home and property fires. Some places even frown on charcoal grills, though I don’t personally know of anywhere you can’t have one in your yard. If you want an outdoor fire pit, make sure you find out about your local ordinances before you put one in.

If you don’t want to simply dig an outdoor fire pit, you can find other ways to go about keeping things safe. It is always a good idea to have some sort of metal or stone wall around any fire pit in order to keep the fire contained. These outdoor fire pits can be above ground, but if you look, you can find something to contain it within a hole you may have dug for you. Safety should always be your first concern, so don’t take any shortcuts when you decide on what type of outdoor fire pit you want. Use caution whenever you have an open fire, and keep water nearby to douse the flames when you are finished. If you are experiencing a dry spell, take extra care with your outdoor fire pit to avoid your neighborhood and home from going up in flames.

When I was growing up, the Memorial Day backyard barbecue was the hit of the summer. My dad would make the most delicious barbeque ribs I had ever tasted. In general, my dad was a pretty light hearted joke a minute kind of guy. When he was working the backyard grill, he became someone quite different. Suddenly, he was all business. You could talk to him, but if you broke his concentration on the barbecue grill, he would start to tune you out. Getting the meat to just the perfect temperature was his only priority.

I always thought that his barbeque ribs were the most delicious food in the world. They were sweet, smoky and slightly crunchy on the outside. We would never go out for barbecue ribs when I was a kid and looking back, it was just as well. As a kid, I never had to find out that my dad made barbeque ribs that were about average at best.

When I first got to taste slow cooker country style ribs, I thought that I had died and gone to heaven. My dad’s barbeque ribs were all but forgotten the moment my teeth sunk into that moist, succulent meat. I had never heard of a slow cooker ribs recipe before. My dad was strictly a grill kind of guy. Although he used a barbeque ribs spice rub, he might as well have left it off because the flavor barely got into the ribs.

With slow cooked ribs, the spices penetrated the meat perfectly. I can’t even explain how good it was! I had heard people talking about the meat “falling off the bone” before, but I had never really realized that they meant it literally. After being smoked for hours and hours, the rib meat is so tender that it dissolve right in your mouth. It was so good, in fact, that I did not even use barbecue sauce. The ribs did not even need it!

What I didn’t know back then was that there was more too those barbeque ribs than using a slow cooker. The actual quality of the rib meat itself makes a big difference. My dad bought his pork ribs at the Safeway, but these ones were from a local organic farm. You really could taste the difference! You wouldn’t think that it would matter after hours of cooking, but it really did!