Recipe: Crockpot Ribs

A greyhound friend shared a recipe for slow cooker ribs on her FB page over a month ago and I filed it in the back of my mind to try.  I have a slow cooker.  I love ribs...  For your pleasure I have included the actual directions and the Megan directions.

Megan Directions:

-Buy rack of ribs on sale forget about them in the freezer for a month.
-Remember them after making a pizza for dinner because you were too lazy to try.
-Decide to put ribs on weekly menu.
-Thaw ribs.
-Remember the night before that you don't have root beer.
-Swing by the grocery store and buy a 2 liter of root beer that is most on sale.
-Start to prep the crock pot before leaving for work.
-Cut ribs in half since the whole rack won't fit in the pot.
-Place ribs in crock pot.
-Remember that you were supposed to salt and pepper them.
-Add "enough" salt and pepper kinda covering the ribs.
-Pour in root beer until ribs are 95% covered (prob could have just poured in the whole bottle, it was only $1).
-Set crock pot to cook on low for 5 hours.
-Come home 11 hours later.
-Prep veggies for roasting, place everything on roasting sheets, place in oven at 400°F.
-Drain all the juice from pot (preferably with help because ribs are fragile and will break apart if you're clumsy like me and try to remove them from the pot).

-When most/all of the liquid is drained, add "enough" bbq sauce (of your liking) to the ribs and set to cook for 1 hour on high.
-Go walk dogs.
-Come home and stretch.
-Yell at fiancé to get out of the bathroom because he's been in there too long (is this what having kids is like?).
-Pull roasted veggies from oven.
-Oogle ribs in the crockpot.
-Serve and enjoy!

#Ididthat

Internet Directions:

Slow Cooker Ribs

Ingredients
3 pounds pork side ribs (about 2 racks of ribs)

2 12-ounce (355 ml) cans root beer

2 cups (500 ml) prepared BBQ sauce

1 teaspoon (5 ml) salt

1 teaspoon (5 ml) pepper

Directions

-Remove silver skin from the back of the ribs. This can be done by pushing the back of a spoon just underneath it, and then working it up and off the ribs with your fingers.

-Sprinkle the ribs generously with salt and pepper, and place them into the bottom of a 6-quart slow cooker. Pour the root beer over top.

-Cover and cook on low for 5 hours or 3 hours on high.

-Remove ribs from the slow cooker, setting aside on plate. Discard liquid from slow cooker.

-Place the ribs back inside, along with the barbecue sauce. Be sure to coat ribs in bbq sauce. Cook on high for another 1 hour.

-Gently remove from slow cooker and serve with sauce.

Confessions {5/18}

-I believe that account activation fees are a crock of shit.  Mostly when they are more than $10.  Here's why.  To send someone out to my house to check my meters doesn't take that much gas considering I'm only 10 minutes away from all the city's main offices.  Additionally, creating an account in a system database doesn't take that much effort.  It possibly takes an entire minute to type in my information and click a few more buttons and voila, technological magic happens...  If you are coming to my house and actually physically dealing with hardware and setting stuff up, then I don't get as grumbly about your activation fees.  #cheapo

-Kathy mentioned cupping in one of her posts (like a million years ago since that's about how far behind I am on reading blogs) and now I want a cupping massage and facial in a way I can't explain.  My dilemma is do I wait until after Germany (so after I'm messed up from the flights) or just go now and celebrate surviving the buying a house process?  #treatyoself

-Another month of missing the Show Us Your Books linkup.  At this point, I'm not really surprised.  Also, I haven't read any books in the last month... so there's that.  #reading #failure

-I was so excited about finding the "witchy stick" with Teh Sister, I forgot to buy the broom I had picked out.  #toomuchexcitement

-After spending $50 on foam stuffing for the dog beds, I was informed that the company that sells the beds would actually have sent me extra stuffing for free.  This irritates me because I posted about it in a FB group before the foam arrived and then posted after pictures in the same group, at which point someone told me about the free stuffing...  If someone had said that I could get free stuffing on the original post, I would have returned the foam and saved myself $50.  #thankspeople

-I used to think that when I got a new car, I'd be able to pick out any color I wanted.  When I got Yurtle, I learned that color options are limited to whatever the company decides to offer unless I wanted to pay to have it painted after the fact.  Yurtle is blue because black, brown, red, white, and orange were not appealing options for me.  #probablywouldhavepickedgreen

-I don't like frozen peas.  I will only eat peas fresh or from a can.  #elitist

-I prefer macaroni salad with peas and eggs.  #inrandomnews

-I made the decision to go to crossfit yesterday evening.  This is surprising because:
1- I haven't been in.. a while (who's counting days?), so that made it difficult.
2- It was raining.  Charleston drivers don't function in the rain.
3- Crossfit is 35 minutes away from House on a not-raining-no-traffic-day.

Before and after...
PS.  The real reason I took the after photo was to show Teh Sister just how much bigger one of my boobs is than the other right now.  WTF body.  #getyourshittogether

Results of my decision:
We did sprints in the rain.  Usually rain runs don't bother me.. but when I have to come right back inside and lift a barbell or try not to piss my pants while I'm attempting to jump rope.. It does.
Also, I was wearing brand new shoes and we were running in the rain.  Let me describe to you my feelings about this (thank you Kevin Hart):

Then I spent AN HOUR getting home.  I got to endure my own Charleston Hell:
Rain + (2Train) + Rush Hour Traffic + Shitty Charleston Drivers = Megan's Ultimate Misery.  PS.  That's the only time math has accurately described my life.  #suckitCalculus #CharlestonHell #neverdoingthatagain

-Teh German set up the TV downstairs for the time being until we replace it with something larger (because the room is huge) and the first show we watched was Grey's Anatomy, but about 3 minutes in, I suggested Teh German change it and he put on TMNT.  #80skids

-We still have tortillas from cinco de mayo and sausage and eggs from scottish eggs, so we got creative at work the other day.  We made sausage patties in the toaster oven, soft boiled eggs in the water boiler, then we made breakfast quesadillas in the quesadilla toaster thingy.  It was delicious.  #Imtheofficialeggpeeler #secretskills #thathashtagcouldgomultipleways #imhungry

-When I got home last night, the 2nd batch of Hue lights was sitting on the counter.  That slightly made me a nicer person.  So prettay.  Teh German created the Germerica (Germany+America) scene with the front 3 lights being red, white, and blue, and the back lights are yellow, red, and off (for black).  He has a lot of fun playing with the lights.

-Because I was cold and tired last night, I finally used my bathtub after dinner.  With the jets on, I couldn't even hear Teh German playing music downstairs (thankfully, as he was trying to get the bass to work properly and I was too grouchy for all the noise (I actually drove most of the way home last night in silence, Teh WJL style)).  I lit a candle, turned on the first episode of Friends, drank my hot chocolate, and did a VO5 hair oil treatment.  #itwaseverythingIddreameditwouldbe

That is my Kindle, NOT a TV in my bathroom.

-Then when I got out of the bathtub, my relaxation immediately evaporated when I discovered that Meri had pooped FOUR TIMES in the guest room, which meant that I had to clean the carpet.  That does explain why she was booking it upstairs after she came inside yesterday.  #assholedog

-I spoke with the fence contractor yesterday and he told me they were starting the project next Wednesday and it would be finished on Friday.  Originally, we discussed them starting on Monday and being completed by Friday, the 27th, to mean: be finished on the 26th because we are leaving Friday morning/Thurs night for MD.  Yeah.  Apparently, he looked at the April calendar when I said start on Monday because April 25th is a Monday.  So when he told me they were starting on the 25 (of May), I was a little concerned for several reasons.  1- we are clearing out some of the trees behind the house over the weekend and we'd like the HOA not to notice, which is easier if they are putting fence stuff in.  2- There's no way to get it done in 2 days.  I told him if he wanted his money, they needed to have it done by Thursday and starting on Monday was my preference.  The guy I've been dealing with is a "good ole boy" and while I don't usually mind these interactions, I have a feeling I probably should have went with a different fence contractor and this wouldn't be an issue.  #homeownerproblems


Linking up with:
Life with Lolo
Humpday Confessions with Nadine and Kathy

The Movers are HERE!!! (MD edition)

-We're off to a great start.  They were only 45 minutes late of their 2 hour arrival window because "the truck wasn't working properly and they couldn't go very fast."  I'm still not actually sure what that means, but whatever... they made it.

All this was waiting on them, whatever time they arrived:

-I never thought I'd be so excited to hear the sound of packing tape being rolled out again.

-The house is going to be so barren, it's going to be soooo exciting!

-I feel the worst for the dining room packing guy.  There's sooo much stuff in there.  Oops, my bad.

-It feels weird to have strange men going through all my things as they pack them, but I'm just really glad I'm not having to do the packing.

-I started watching Between Two Ferns while waiting on the movers to arrive.  Zach Galifianakis rocks, and not just because he went to NC State.

-I feel so bored just watching them.  At least I turned on musics!

-Boooo they won't let me packout my car wash stuffs.  I'm going to have to have help for MY move down to Charleston.. I can already feel it.

-YAY more strange men in my house!  The delivery people came to deliver Teh MD Teenage Roomie's furniture set.  It's sooo pretty!

-The packers definitely missed all the stuff in the drawers.  Sorry I'm a hoarder and have so much stuffs dudes!

-Ok, they won't let me pack out anything that could explode.. except that lotion isn't really one of those things, so yeah, just pack that out buddy.

-They definitely tagged the dog food and trash can for being packed out.  I don't think Teh MD Adult Roomie or the dogs would approve!  Glad I caught that.

-Just watched the movers bring down the boxspring for my bed.  They didn't even touch the ceiling over the stairs.  I was amazed that was even possible after moving in and seeing how much destruction there was from trying to get it UP the stairs.  Siiiiiiiiiigh.

-I feel obligated to sit on my couches for as long as possible knowing that Teh MD Adult Roomie's couches and dining room table aren't going to be delivered in the next week.  YAY for camping chairs with drink holders, a rocking chair, and a beanbag!  College style livin'!

-HOLY SHIT!  Teh MD Adult Roomie moved so fast I had NO idea what was going on.  We heard a crash and then she was jettin' it to the dining room and slammed the door closed as the brown dogs made their way to the bottom of the steps!  They had knocked over the baby gate keeping them in doggy jail!  NEVER seen her move so quickly.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, in this house dogs and food are our #1 and #2 priorities (in no specific order from day to day).  Proof was definitely shown today through her actions.

Doggy jail!

-Dogs released into the yard.. after it's been raining.  Meri's paws are covered in mud from doing zoomies.  Bath time for Meri!!

-Quickest bath she's ever had!

-Ok.. so maybe it wasn't the boxsprings that caused the problem.. It was my massive ass headboard to my bed.  I had to sign a waiver for them to use some "force" to get it down the stairs.  Turns out, they just didn't understand when I was trying to say they needed to angle it just the right way, and they didn't actually have to use that much force.  Being right is difficult.

-OMG RAIN!  And all the boxes were outside the truck... At least I'm awesome and helped moved the boxes in the truck.  #likeaboss #nbd

-Oh, sweet, sweet packing tape.  I love the sound of progress.

-Doggy dinner delivered upstairs!

-I can SEE the mosquitoes swarming me.  I'm not sure why the door had to be open all.day.long. but good talk guys, good talk.  I was pretty proud of myself earlier in the day when I smashed one in my hand.

-I have officially set up the new living room.  YAY camping chairs!  Time for dinner.

-Hehehe, huge rolls of saran wrap make me giggle.. and think of working in the backroom at Target.  Goodbye couch and loveseat!

-OMG whhhyyy do I have so much stuff?  We just keep finding things.  A lamp here, a wind chime there, a mirror there, 2 wall hangings there, a curtain and rod there.  These poor guys will never get to leave (it didn't help they didn't arrive until 11 when I was waiting on them at 08.. just sayyyinnn').

-Oh, bye-bye dining room table!  I'll miss you!  See you soon!

-Tipping movers, not an expense I expected.  But they were awesome and they carried in Teh MD Roomie's new entertainment center in from her car and they stayed till 7:30pm and there was lots more stuff than they expected and they were careful with everything.  Worth it.

Overall, it wasn't a bad moving experience.  They were super late getting here, I was hoping they would be finished by 5, but that definitely wasn't the case.  It was 4 dudes from JK Moving (and every time I'd pay attention to their shirts that said "JK Moving," in my head I'd say, "Just kidding moving!" and have a self-giggle.

After the movers left, Teh MD Adult Roomie and I worked at getting some of her new items set up.  We set up her entertainment center and lamps and end tables.  She went to pick up Teh MD Teenage Roomie while I finished up end tables and vacuumed up all the styrofoam pieces from all the things.  BTW, I hate the stryrofoam particles, they make me rage for serious.

Despite how much I sat around for most of the day, the day was exhausting.  The house is empty-er.  Teh MD Roomies started moving stuffs in last week, so it wasn't completely barren in our house.

Last weekend living solo..

For my last weekend living alone, I partied it up. Haha, that's funny. I didn't actually party, but I did have a great weekend.

Somethings should just be left to the internet.

Friday evening started with meeting a friend at Target who had brought Phil to a doctor appointment to get his blood tested to see if he could be a blood donor.  Due to having to do homework, I missed out on girls night.  From the photographic evidence, they had a blast.  I was really sad about missing out on that good time.  On the other hand, something finally clicked and I was able to accomplish my homework and bypass the wall I'd been hitting all week.

After the thunderstorm rolled through, Teh FL Greyhound Lady came over to hang out and take a nap until it was time for us to leave to go pick up new greyhounds at 3am.  This is really one of the most rewarding things I think I do with GEGR.  More so than the blogs and the meet and greets.

Project Racing Home is located in Greensboro, NC.
It's about the halfway point of the journey for these pups.

Since they were loaded into the hauler early, everyone has to go business before we load up again to head to S.MD.

Bella and Esme were picked up at twilight.  They found pumping gas very intriguing.

After dropping the dogs off at Greyhound Central and socializing for a few minutes, we decided to head home.  But first, we did this:

Yes, we stole 3 ears of corn.

I made a quick pitstop at Kohl's because I finally decided to let my dedicated and faithful toaster oven retire.  Armed with Kohl's cash and coupons, I walked in and practically stole a pair of shoes for how much money I saved on the toaster oven AND a pair of new shoes.

Wooo Kohl's!

Old Whitey has been a faithful toaster oven since August 2004, when I left for college.
Yes, that is a food pyramid on her roof.  Pirate Gone Marine apparently didn't realize that taking the loaf of bread off the top of the toaster oven was a good idea before using it.  It's also dented from so many moves.  In the end it was her heating elements that finally started giving out.  You've been a good toaster oven.  Rest in peace.

YELLOW.  Not sure if I like these, but we'll see.

After Kohls, Teh FL Greyhound Lady headed home and it was naptime for Teh Megan.  When I woke back up it was cleanin' time.  I finally accomplished the bathrooms, which have been irritating me for some time, but I was trying to wait till closer to Teh Bear's arrival so they were clean when he arrived.  I also re-vacuumed the house and finally vacuumed the stairs.

After all the cleaning, I finally tossed some brownies in the oven to bring to Teh Monopoly's house as a dinner contribution.  I finally got to play Cards Against Humanity, which was such a fun time.  There was so much cackles.

I also got to try hard root beer.
It was pretty good.

I headed home around 2230 since it felt like midnight.  Sleeping less than 6 hours can kinda do that to you.

Sunday morning was church, where I think I did much better at the slides, with the exception of not having the scripture due to not being in the know about the pastors being on vacation.  Communication fail.  After church, Teh Bear and I had some Skype time before he left to go do activities and I decided to finally dust and clean the floors, the last of my to-do items on my list.  Right as I finished the cleaning, Teh Greyhound Neighbor asked if we wanted to go on a walk and I was happy to say yes since Phil had been being pretty spastic all day.  To include some crazy drama about not being able to walk on the slippery floors to get his dinner since I was washing the rugs.

Don't question greyhound comfort.
Especially since Phil has $80 dog beds.  He'd rather hang out of his crate.

All moved!

I'm not sure if you picked up on the fact that I was planning on moving/packing to move/moving/unpacking/no longer moving...  I know that sometimes I don't always share all the pertinent information with everyone, but.. I moved.

I went from a 850ish square foot apartment to an almost 1300 square foot townhome... for the same amount of rent per month.
Did you hear that?  That, my Dear Gentle Readers, was a sweet, sweet sigh of relief of no longer feeling "pent up" from me and Phil (and that dog is seriously a sigh-er, he probably learned from his Mom.  /shrug).

It.is.marvelous!

Often I have described my decorating style as cozy and a few blogs ago someone asked to see photos of the new place.  I was waiting to get stuff unpacked and mostly settled, but YOU WILL HAVE PICTURES AND YOU WILL HAVE THEM NOW!!!

See, sometimes I let you down (November recaps), but sometimes, I'm all over this shiznit, yo!

Ok first some "how to properly wear a Greyhound scarf" photos.
Donner really wanted to snuggle the other day.  I sat down in the floor to snuggle with him and he decided that he just wanted to hug my neck... with his body.

He might be looking away from me, but he was leaning on me so hard he almost knocked me over.

Ok, ok on to the tour!

Living room..

The dog crate wasn't up to begin with, but now that I have Donner (my first foster Greyhound), it's safer the crate is up... Even if it takes up 1/4 of my living room.
The really awesome "rug" at the door is because it's been raining a few days a week recently which makes my "fenced in grass spot" reallllllly muddy and Phil doesn't really seem to like to walk around the edges where it's NOT muddy.  Jerk dog.  So there's a towel for standing on and a towel for wiping off paws.

 Other side of the living room.
That bottle on the back of the couch is fabric softener mixed with water to try to help eliminate the static electricity build up.  I've been shocked so much and usually I get shocked touching a light switch, which makes it even worse!

 The final angle of the living room.

If you were involved in the FB voting for canvases back in December, you can see some of the winners displayed here!  The rest are in the tree dining room.

Moving onto the right side of the kitchen.. 

PS.  That is the cutest Valentine's doggy hand towel on the fridge door.  Seriously.

And the left side of the kitchen (this is starting to feel like the Cupid Shuffle (not because all the Valentine's stuff!))

PPS.  We fit FOUR people and 2 Greyhounds in here Monday night.  No JK.  My last kitchen could barely contain one person and a Phil.  So.much.more.spaces!?!?  I even have unused cabinet space.  

No jk.  LUUUUBBBB.

The dining room from the kitchen.

The table is fully expanded all the time now that I have the room.

   The dining room from the front door.

 Oh, hai Phil!

 Hall where the washer/dryer/HVAC/water heater/coat closet/downstairs bathroom are all located.

And we are now upstairs.

That's the StoryPeople print that Teh Sister got for me for Christmas this year.  :)

Master bedroom to the right.  You can't see the half bath past the closet doors.

And yes, those are Christmas lights.  I surprised Teh Bear with them (its special to us).

The other end of the master.  Phil used to barely have room for his one bed.  Now I could fit like 8 of his beds in the bedroom.  LUUUUUBBBBB.
Also, where my uniform is hanging is a walk-in closet that is the size of the outside storage room, which is really big for just clothes.  So much room for activities!!!

The only full bathroom (which some would consider a bad thing, but I didn't care about extra showers, only extra toilets).

And Donner, hai!

The monsters are seriously awesome.  I'm sad they no longer make this set... because that means I'm stuck with only 4 towels and 1 of each hand towel and only 2 of the wash cloths.

   

The storage room.  This is where a lot of work needs to happen.

Most of this stuff could be consolidated and put into the closet of this room and the spare bedroom and the rest could go outside in the outside storage room or under the stairs.  

SO MUCH MORE SPACES!!!!!

The other side of the storage room.

Teh Bear keeps telling me to get rid of the Cessna Engine (the fan) but I think I'm attached to it.  

I'm like a Hoarder almost.

The spare bedroom.  My first spare bedroom ever.  Also known as the "Clearance Room" because all the bedding (at least) was purchased on clearance and the bed was purchased off Craigslist.  

The light is on because I was waiting on Teh Sister to arrive for her first MD visit when I took these photos!

Casa de Teh Megan, we leave the light on for ya...

A final gratuitous shot of the hounds, because I just can't get enough of them. 

It's ok, you can admit you love them too... even if you think they are too skinny (they aren't!)

So that is the official tour of Casa de Teh Megan.  My lease here is for 2 years, which kinda makes my heart pound a little bit harder because that's a LONG time to be locked into a single place.. especially for ME, Queen of Moving Every Single Year Since 2004 (no jk).  Honestly though, when I walked in the door of this place when I was just looking for a place to live, I relaxed.  It felt like home before it was even my home.  

Sometimes, you just know when things are right and this place was right.  And I was right, this place is a sigh of relief every time I come home.  My landlords are unbelievably awesome.  Seriously.  They sent me a "congrats on your new place" card and a $25 gift card to Target when I moved in.  My landlord!  The people I will be giving money to spent money on ME.  I was shocked.  I wanted to hug their necks.  My landlords who met me halfway the Saturday night after I moved in because I locked us out.  A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.

Proof they really sent me a card.

Yes, I live across from a potentially shady gas station, but it means that I can walk to the ATM if I need cash.  Yes, I live across from a red light where I have to listen to some "thumper cars" (the cars with the obnoxiously loud bass), but I'm 15 minutes from work in bumper to bumper, all the way there, traffic.  AND... FOUR HUMANS AND TWO LARGE DOGS can fit in my kitchen AT THE SAME TIME.

I looooooooove my new place and I'm super glad I have a place to call home... and hopefully soon Teh Bear will be here with me!!  Fingers crossed, we're waiting to hear back on a job in the area...