Ribs

As I was grocery shopping yesterday, I stopped at the meat counter to look at ribs...any kind of ribs. Short, baby back, beef, riblets, spare,....anything with the name "Rib" in it. What is it about ribs that make men's mouth water?? Truthfully, they have little meat on them compared to a steak or roast. They're messy and you have to work at getting every morsel off the bone. And for heavens sake do not eat ribs with a suit and tie or a white shirt on!! How to properly cook them...now there is another story! Your can grill, braise, smoke, bake, boil & grill, and I suppose you could fry them. My dad loves to smoke them. He smokes them all day to get them just right. And they are perfect! Me....my allotted cooking time for anything is 1 hour max. If I can't get it done in 1 hour, I cook something else. Just to grill them, there are different methods....grill with indirect heat, high heat, low heat, charcoal briquet's, gas, slow, fast, fancy BBQ grill, simple Weber grill, or over an open fire (the way real men, like cowboys do). Of course no self respecting rib can be without gob's of BBQ sauce. (that's what make them messy) Grocery stores have whole isles devoted to BBQ sauce. I personally have 5 different ones in the pantry or refrigerator right now and that's not counting my dad's very special "Homemade" BBQ sauce, which I try to keep on hand as much as possible. It takes a bank loan to buy all the ingredients needed to make dad's sauce. Is it worth it??? Absolutely. But when his is not on hand I am always trying "store bought" bottles. ( that's why I have 5) My wife and I were at a neighbors house for BBQ a couple of weeks ago. He was using a "Store Bought" sauce which, I have to admit, was very close to dad's. The next day I bought a bottle of it and over the last 10 days we have BBQ'd 4 times using that sauce and love it. Sorry dad. I am anxious to take him a bottle, to see what he thinks of it. Getting back to the ribs, I'm still trying to figure out what kind to buy, what kind can I afford, how will I fix them, do I buy enough to share or eat them all my self? Too many decisions. I think I'll stick to grilled cheese sandwiches for now....10 minutes max.!