Diet, School or Ribs???

Ok so my diet has been going relatively well, until now, Friday night was a night of Chinese food, and A LOT of alcohol, I haven’t gained exactly, mid week I had lost another 300g not a huge amount of weight, but a little bit all the same, I have put that back on, I am not going to see this as a negative, and judging by my current inability to eat anything….. I really feel quite ill, it shouldn’t be too long until I lose it again.

Life seems to be taking on so many changes at the moment, my husband has ‘finished’ work, I have officially handed in my notice, my last day being the 6^th of July and now I am looking into going back to school. I say looking into because, I really want to go back, the issue is going to be money and work, the course I want to do is possibly 2 years long, 2 years of being in ‘part time’ employment seems like a really long time. I suppose my husband and I have a high standard of living, by that I mean we don’t struggle. We can’t afford to go jet setting all over the world though, either, but we’re comfortable. With me going back to school full time, the life we are accustomed to will be no more. I could postpone school get a job and work until we are sorted, by that I mean wait until my husband is established in work again. That means holding off on what I want to do, (although, after so many years with my ex, I am used to putting off what I would like, so not really a hardship) and I am certainly not getting any younger, thinking about it I’ll be 36 by the time I finish this course if I start this year. The more I think about it the more I think it’s a pathetic little pipe dream……. I guess I am destined to be uneducated!!! With that as my final thought on the matter for today I’ll leave you with this recipe.

We bought some “fat ribs” that’s a literal translation, I’m not really sure what the proper translation would be, I’m not even really sure why I bought them? As soon as we got home I put them in the freezer along with the beef I bought, and totally forgot about them, that is until I pulled them out of the freezer by accident – oooops – I had no idea what to do with them, this is the recipe I used, I was a little worried because I wasn’t sure it would work, but it did and they were delicious!

Sweet And Sour Chinese Spareribs

1kg pork spareribs

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Scallion tassels to garnish

SWEET AND SOUR SAUCE

2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp dry sherry
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp  sesame oil
1 tbsp sugar

1. Arrange the spareribs in 1 layer in a roasting pan, season with salt and pepper and cook in a 275°F/140°C oven for 1½ hours.

2. Make the sauce: combine the garlic, soy sauce, sherry, hoisin sauce, tomato paste, sesame oil and sugar.

3. Spoon the sweet and sour sauce over the spareribs, turning them to coat evenly increase the oven temp to 350°F/180°C and cook for 25-30 minutes. Garnish with scallion tassels before serving.

 The original recipe also included 1 grated ginger root, I'm allergic to ginger so didn't include it.

Servings: 4