Pork ribs and the very best barbecue sauce of the universe!

Today was the first real warm day of spring in Berlin. 

Me and Wil bought plants and seeds and prepared our balcony for spring and summer. 

Tomatos, basil, chive, thyme, radish and even soybeans...we've been busy planting and cannot wait for everything to sprout! Hopefully this year we will be luckier with our ras-, black- and strawberries as well.

Anyway, first warm day also means 

FIRST POTENTIAL BARBECUE DAY!

Therefore we cleaned our hibachi, got the coal ready, bought 2 kilos of pork ribs and I dug out my:

VERY BEST AND MOST FAVORITE 

(not existing) recipe for 

BARBECUE SAUCE (!) 

which is simply made by mixing ketchup, worcester sauce, maple syrup, orange juice, soy sauce, vinegar, beer, hot sauce, smoked and fried bacon bits, chopped onion, salt and pepper, and some brown sugar.

Just start with the ketchup and slowly add all the other ingredients until the taste makes sense and it's not too sour, not too salty and not too sweet, but still thick enough to stick on the meat.
You can add some starch dissolved in water to the boiling barbecue sauce to thicken it.
No, you don't necessarily have to boil it. I just did it in order to reduce and thicken the sauce...

I marinated the meat in the barbecue sauce for at least 1 hour (4 hours are better, overnight is perfect) then cooked it in our gas oven at its lowest (150 degrees celsius) for about 90 minutes  or until the meat almost comes off the bones.
In between I drizzled some of the barbecue sauce over the meat.
After that we threw it on the barbecue.

Don't panic if the meat turns black. 

That's just the burning sugar in the sauce.

It's definitely not healthy but it tastes sooo incredibly good!

Me and my partner Wil  both came to the conclusion that burned barbecue sauce is one of the best tasting things in the world.

Seriously.

We served the ribs with more  (reduced) barbecue sauce, drank cold beer and ate until we felt slightly nauseous.

Guess that's the price you
have to pay for good hearty food...

The very best CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES!

Ok. After all this hearty and meaty posts I thought it was time for something sweet again:

Chocolate Chip Cookies!

German cookies are usually hard and rather crispy.

I always preferred the soft and chunky American cookie version and kept searching for the perfect recipe.

And here it is (approved by several Northern Americans)!

What you need:

240g all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

150g margarine (butter makes cookies crispy!)

115g white sugar

115g firmly packed light brown sugar

1 large egg, at room temperature

1 tsp. vanilla extract

300g dark chocolate chunks, or chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 180°C.

In a bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Set aside.

In a second bowl, cream the margarine with white and brown sugar until smooth for about 2-3 minutes. 

Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix well.

Add the flour mixture and beat thoroughly.

Stir in the chocolate chunks/chocolate chips.

Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto baking paper covered cookie sheets, leaving several inches between for expansion.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the edges are slightly brown.

Cool the cookies for a few minutes before removing them from the sheets.

Enjoy with a glass of cold milk!