4th of July all-day cooking extravaganza

Background: I am married to a Texan. It's the 4th of July. That is all...

St. Louis Style Ribs:
http://www.amazingribs.com/recipes/porknography/best_BBQ_ribs_ever.html
The rub:
http://www.amazingribs.com/recipes/rubs_pastes_marinades_and_brines/meatheads_memphis_dust.html
Tyler's Ultimate Potato Salad
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/potato-salad-recipe/index.html
Peach and Blueberry Crumb Pie
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/peach-and-blueberry-crumb-pie-recipe/index.html

Here's all the ingredients for the ribs:

1. Make the dry rub. The recipe will make a TON of rub, and you'll only use a tiny bit. You can save the extra rub or give some to EVERYONE you know and it should be enough to go around...

Put the ribs in the fridge for at least an hour.

2. Depending on which kind of grill you have, set the temp for 225 degrees with dual zone heating. Use hardwood  for smoking. Grill the ribs for 6 hours. Yes, 6 hours. This is what the ribs look like half way through and the smoke billowing from the chimney.

3. When the ribs are done, brush BBQ sauce on both sides, crank up the heat to high, and let the sauce caramelize. My favorite BBQ sauce is Stubbs.

While the ribs are cooking, make the potato salad. Here are the ingredients:

1. Here's the cool thing - you boil the potatoes and eggs at the same time. So easy...

2. After 12 minutes of simmering, take the eggs out and put in cool water in the fridge. 3-5 minutes later, take the potatoes out and set them aside to cool.

3. Add the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and mix.

4. Chop eggs and potatoes and add. Gently mix.

5. Put in the fridge until dinner is ready.

Now for the pie. This is one AWESOME, yet MESSY pie. Soooooooooooo worth it though, and easy to make!

Here are the ingredients:

Even the original recipe calls for a ready-made pie crust and frozen fruit...

1. Thaw the blueberries and peaches. Grind the tapioca in a spice grinder. I have one. It's Marcus's. I have no idea where it came from.

Here are a couple of tips. You can keep brown sugar soft forever if you just put the crust to a loaf of white bread in a ziplock bag with the brown sugar.

If a recipe calls for fresh lemon juice, take a lemon and roll it against the counter hard with your palm. It will soften the lemon and more juice will come out.

Remember, you can easily keep a yolk safe when separating your egg white by cracking the egg into your hand and letting the white slip through your fingers into a bowl.

 2. Mix all the pie filling in a bowl.

3. Mix all the ingredients for the crumb topping (amazingly good!!!!!!!!!!!!!) in a food processor.

When the crumb topping looks like this, you're done

4. Unroll the pie dough and place in the pie pan. Brush the egg white on the dough to keep it from getting soggy.

5. Put the filling in the pie, then top with crumb topping. Bake in 375 degree oven for 55 minutes.

Let the pie cool while you eat dinner.

Though Marcus told me I was very brave for trying to slow smoke ribs, I was hoping for a better turnout. They were fully cooked, tender, and juicy, but I didn't like the way the bark fell apart when I tried to cut the ribs, and there wasn't enough meat on the ribs to make it worth the whole day's effort.

The potato salad needed 2 more eggs and 1 more potato. The recipe calls for 1/4 cup pickle juice in addition to the chopped pickle. If I made this again, I would leave the pickle juice out, because the pickle flavor was too strong for me. But then again, I hate pickles... It was very saucy, which is why I say 2 more eggs and 1 more potato.

The baked beans were from a can. Marcus loves this brand

The pie was UNBELIEVABLE!!! I served it with a scoop of ice cream. The fruit was just the right mix of sweet and tangy, and the crumb topping was the most amazing flavor I've ever tasted on earth!!!!!!!!!!!

MAKE THIS PIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When it was all said and done, it took a whole day to cook, and 20 minutes to eat. I did get to celebrate with a drink that Marcus made up for me:

I hope you enjoyed reading about my 4th of July cooking adventure. Please let me know if you make any of these recipes or like any of my tips!