Grandpa's Coca-Cola Ribs

Here are my adorable parents, who are just about to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary. With all their friends. And all our giant extended family. At my house. Please pray for good weather.

Anyway, my mom has always been an amazing, phenomenal, extraordinary cook. As a matter of fact, when I did the "All About Me" section on this blog and described myself as a self-taught cook, more than one person who has known me for a while pointed out that I actually had a pretty fantastic teacher, otherwise known as My Mother. Totally true! I probably should have mentioned that. At any rate, she was and still is a virtuoso in the kitchen. Fresh-baked bread, home-made pasta, chocolate mousse cake, veal Oscar, marinated mozzarella, the best scones in the entire world, I could go on and on. My dad...well, he made some pretty great scrambled eggs over the years, but he was mainly relegated to kitchen clean-up crew along with the rest of us.

However. Over the past few years, I have had more than one great meal at their house, and complimented my mom on whatever it was, and she said these four words that were not usually ever strung together in my childhood home:

"Your father made it."

Macaroni and cheese. Shredded beef barbecue sandwiches. And lately, these ribs that are the sweet and spicy kind that literally fall off the bones as you eat them.

Dad? Dad, is that you?

So when he made them for dinner over Memorial Day weekend, I thought that's it, the world must know about this. And with that, here they are, the world's most scrumptious and tender ribs, from the world's most scrumptious and tender dad.

Grandpa's Coca-Cola Ribs

• 4 lbs Pork Ribs
• 3 cups Coca-Cola or Dr. Pepper
• 3 cups Ketchup
• 1 cup Packed Dark Brown Sugar
• 6 tablespoons Chili Powder
• 4 tablespoons Ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons Dry mustard
• 1 tablespoons Ground cinnamon

1. Transfer the ribs to a large non-reactive glass or ceramic dish pour 2 cups of Coca-Cola or Dr. Pepper over them. Reserve the third cup of the soda for a sauce to be made later. Let the ribs marinate, tightly covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated, overnight.

2. Pour the remaining 1 cup of soda into a blender or food processor and add the ketchup, brown sugar, chili powder, pepper, dry mustard, and cinnamon. Mix until smooth and well blended.

3. Put the ribs in a roasting pan that has been coated with cooking spray, brush with the sauce, and roast covered in a 225 oven for about 2 1/2 hours until very tender. (Can be done the day before. )

4. To finish, grill over high heat, basting with the uncooked sauce until the outside is crispy, about 10-15 minutes. Meanwhile simmer the unused sauce for about 20 minute until a little thick.

Click here for printable recipe