Ribs with Cherry Cola Barbecue Sauce

I think I need to cook less so I can have time to blog it all.  I've been making breakfast, lunch and dinner lately and it means all of my food time and then some has been used making the food leaving no time for blogging about the food.  Starting with the first thing that took up my whole evening - ribs with cherry cola sauce.  They were delicious, but time consuming.  I also decided to try some onion rings that day which made for a lot of cooking followed by a lot of clean up.  Should have made this on a weekend when I had DH home to be helpful, not on a weeknight when he was only home for 20 minutes and then out again.

I didn't follow the directions very well on the baking of the ribs.  I followed the pattern of David's ribs more than just the dry rub they had in the cookbook I was using.  I also added more spices to the rub.  The ribs were good, and the bbq sauce was awesome.  The actual sauce recipe called for 1/4 cup cherry preserves.  I didn't have any so I used 1/4 cup sugar and about 1/2 cup cherries.  It also called for hot sauce.  I didn't feel like spicy bbq sauce. It was so good the way we made it that I wouldn't change anything.  

The original recipe is from a Betty Crocker magazine from last year.
These are actually pictured in the post before this for faux onion rings, but the picture is horrible.  Had my camera set to something weird and it took a black pictures.  I fiddled with it to get it to where it is now, but it is still rather sad, so I'm not reposting.  

Rib ingredients

• 2 racks pork baby back ribs
• 1 teaspoon seasoned salt (plus about another teaspoon for sprinkling)
• 1 teaspoon seasoned pepper blend (plus more for sprinkling )
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger/garlic (from a jar)
• 1 can cherry cola (I used wild cherry pepsi)

Sauce ingredients

• 1 cup barbecue sauce
• 1 can cherry cola 
• 1/2-3/4 cup cherries (I used frozen)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground mustard

Directions

1. Heat oven to 400 for shorter cooking time (this is what I did, and what I would suggest if planning to grill - but you can also do 325 for longer cooking time.  (***see note below) Prepare a cookie sheet (jelly roll pan) by cutting a sheet of heavy duty foil a few inches longer than the pan on both sides. Fold the edges of the foil up along the edges of the pan to make kind of a pan.  Put the 1/2 can of soda in the bottom of this foil pan.    Mix 1 teaspoon ginger/garlic, 1 teaspoon seasoned salt and 1 teaspoon seasoned pepper together.  Sprinkle bottom of ribs with seasoned salt and seasoned pepper (or garlic blend.)  Rub top of ribs with ginger mix.  Sprinkle with additional seasoned salt and seasoned pepper.  
2. Place ribs in prepared pan.  Cover with another sheet of foil, seal edges and bake for 1 1/2 hours (2 1/2 -3 for lower temp - but check after 2.)  
3. Meanwhile, In a 2 quart saucepan, mix sauce ingredients.  Heat to boiling.  Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer uncovered 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally, until flavors are blended and sauce is thickened.  (My grill was really hot, and I let me sauce get pretty thick, so I only brushed them 1 other time and didn't cook them too long on the grill.)
4. Serve ribs with remaining sauce. 

***I find that the ribs get really nice and tender this way, so it is hard to put them on the grill, but you could add the barbecue sauce in the oven for the last bit of cooking if wanting to do them this way.  They would taste excellent.  (I'd say just add the sauce at the beginning, but you have to wait for it to cook.)