End of summer barbecue

Summer is waning, though I'm not sure you could tell it from our Texas temperatures which are climbing back intoi the 90s. But the season of barbecues is almost over. We had a true barbecue dinner tonight, though for various reasons I don't need to go into here none of it was done on the grill. Our menu: baby back ribs, corn on the cob, potato salad, green salad.
I have acknowledged Krista Davis, author of the Diva series with the most recent The Diva Haunts the House, and Mystery Lover's Kitchen blog before, and I freely confess I am indebted to Krista for a post she did on a recipe called Dead Man's Bones. It is so simple and sounded to good, I resolved to try it. Last week at Central Market I thought I'd just check out baby back ribs and see how expensive they were--well, they were on sale for 50 cents less a pound. So I bought a rack. As usual having once read Krista's recipe, I thought I knew it, so I missed a few things. But the ribs were still delicious. This is the way I should have done it:

1 rack baby back ribs
4 garlic cloves, chopped
3/4 cup apricot preserves
1/4 cup soy sauce (I like the low sodium)

Preheat the oven to 425. Line a roasting pan with foil (this is the step I forgot, so I have a huge cleanup job soaking in my sink--oh well, ala Scarlett, I'll think about that tomorrow). Put the ribs on the foil, meat side up, and roast 20 minutes. While the ribs are roasting, mix the other ingredients for the sauce. (Another place I goofed--I had made the sauce and put it on the ribs during this first roasting--can't tell that it hurt a thing.)
Remove the ribs, flip to bone side up and slather with half the sauce. Roast 15 minutes. (I let them go 20 minutes). I found that some sauce had pooled on the ribs, so I spooned it off and added to what was left in my measuring cup.
Flip ribs meat side up and baste with the rest of the sauce. Roast 15 minutes--again I did 20. They cut apart easily, serving two ribs per person, though even I wanted a third. Christian said he's never known me to cook baby back ribs, and he's probably right. It's not something I ordinarily cook. But we loved these.
Krista says you can do the ribs on the grill and they take less time. Start with the meat side down and baste the bone side. Turn meat after 20 minutes and baste the top.
The potato salad I made tonight is for my friends who don't like mayonnaise or are gluten free. Jordan, always watching her diet, liked it because it doesn't have the fat of mayonnaise. Recently I went to a potluck supper and my longtime friend Sue Winters brought this Lemon Potato Salad:

6 medium red potatoes
1 small onion diced
1/2 cup celery or thereabouts, diced
1/4 to 1/2 cup parsley, finely chopped--darn, I bought parsley and forgot it
1 small jar pimiento--my family doesn't like pimiento so I omitted this
2 tsp. lemon peel, fresh--I presume grated and that's what I used
3-4 Tbsp. lemon juice, fresh--about two lemons
3-4 Tbsp. salad oil
1 Tbsp. salt (don't skimp)
1/4 tsp. pepper
Boil potatoes in skins until tender. Peel and dice while warm. Add onions. Pour sauce over warm potatoes and onions and coat well. Add celery, pimiento and parsley. Chill.
On first bite of this potato salad,  you get a strong lemon taste--but the after taste is definitely pepper. Really good.

Try both of these recipes and enjoy!