Hospitality Week

I have dubbed this "hospitality week" at the Sigmon house. By scheduling luck (and by luck I mean I haven't kept up with a calendar while I've been on leave) we had friends over for dinner twice this week. One couple brought us a "Happy New Baby!" meal of pulled pork sandwiches. Then I pulled out all the stops on a rib dinner for a friend and his daughter while his wife is over in France. (Rough break for everyone, right?) Looking it back, it's sounds like Hospitality Week was sponsored by the National Pork Council but no, I do all my own rib-buying with my lucrative stay at home money.

Being off work leaves time to actually set the table. I picked up the cloth napkins and pineapple napkin rings at our church's rummage sale.

Before I get to the ribs (and you MUST make these ribs), I'll explain this new term "hospitality week." I found that when we cleaned, straightened up and staged the dining room and bathroom to look a lot nicer than it usually does, it was really easy to just pick up again two days later without having to reclean the whole apartment. We have friends (you know who you are :-) who are really good at opening their home to guests - it seems like they're constantly hosting friends for dinner and I'd like to be the same way. So I suggested to Brian that we do Hospitality Week once every month or so. Clean the house, set up the dining room, pick some great recipes and host at least two dinners. Our friends are so wonderful to host- they always bring something to contribute, they don't bat an eye when your baby starts fussing and none of us are fancy 8pm dinner people. Not to mention the most important part- they're great company! We all have a million excuses not to invite people over but I want to push those aside.

This is what happens when you've been off work for 12 weeks. You make a little bouquet for the 3 year old girl coming to dinner.

Now, onto these ribs. I was lacking dinner inspiration when making up this week's meal plan and flipped to through last month's Southern Living. I don't know if I marked this recipe the first time I read this issue, but "Honey and Soy Lacquered Ribs" jumped out at me.

Southern Living needs a little note next to this recipe that says "Your life with be incomplete if you do not try these ribs." I have a new rating system that's going be called "On a scale of zero to Honey Soy Ribs, how delicious is this?" They are so easy: short ingredient list and a lot of hands off time. You can throw these in while the baby naps and still nap yourself. They're sweet and spicy and I might make them weekly in the summer time. If you've got kids coming over for dinner, just skip adding the sauce. They can try them plain, with a regular bbq sauce or if they're adventurous, they can try dipping a piece into the spicy sauce. I served them with baked sweet potatoes (they just bake with the ribs) and roasted broccoli. Our friend brought a salad and dessert, and we had an all-around lovely evening complete with cocktails. To hospitality week!