Date I made this recipe:
June 5, 2017 – Bloomington (MN) Crime Prevention Association's (BCPA)
annual Book 'Em Sale
The First Official
Law Enforcement Cookbook Compiled by Nadine E. Anderberg
Published by R&E Publishers
ISBN: 1-56875-063-3; © 1993
Purchased at: a
previous BCPA Sale, of course!
Recipe: Crockpot Ribs – p. 52 – recipe contributed by
Ted Vastine – Chief of Police, Chadron ,
Nebraska
Folks, you cannot believe how giddy I get when the first of
June rolls around because that means it's time for the BCPA's annual book
sale. The sale kicks off the first
Saturday of June and runs for two weeks, giving me plenty of time to stock up
on used cookbooks.
I've lost track of how it came to pass that I found out
about this sale but I've been going for years now and I tell you what, if you
live in the area and you like books in general, this is the place you need to
be as they have rows and rows and rows of books in every category you can
imagine.
Since this is not my first rodeo, let me tell you the
drill: every year, the BCPA finds an
empty store front in the Bloomington area and starts accepting donations around
April 1st so that by preview day – this year, Friday night, June 2 – you have
tons of books from which to choose at prices that make you cry coming in at
anywhere between $.50 and $2.00. On the
very last day, everything is half-price.
When you walk in the door, you can grab a few grocery bags
from the volunteers or, if you are me, come in with several cloth bags with a
plan to grab more if necessary and yes, it has been necessary to go back to my
car. In many ways, I feel like a rank
amateur with my cloth bags because other people come armed (and dangerous) with
rolling suitcases and even the metal book racks used at places like Barnes and Noble. Talk about being prepared!
On the first full day of the sale which is always a Saturday
(Friday night is preview night but you have to pay admission) and the last day
of the sale (also a Saturday), you can check your book-filled bags at a bag check
where they will total up your purchases to get you through the checkout line
fast. Such a nice touch! The checkout line is long on that very first
day so plan accordingly.
And if you go be sure to bring either cash or your
checkbook as they don't yet accept credit cards. I tell you what, I feel like I'm sending a
kid off to a first day of school:
"Do you have your tote bags?
Your checkbook? Okay then son,
off you go!"
Finally, I make sure my Dropbox app on my phone contains the
latest and most updated cookbook list since I now refer to that while I'm
perusing the section. Back in the early
days, I had to print out my lists which took some doing and so hooray for going
paperless! I've broken out my entire
spreadsheet into sections so that I can look quickly at my list to decide Yeah
or Nay. I am not alone in my
list-keeping as I often see other people with phones out looking through
different sections of personal interest to them.
That said, I think it would amaze you to learn that I have a
very good sense of my collection – all 2,440
books (and counting) –and usually know without looking whether or not I have
already a book I'm considering In all my
years of collecting, I've only accidentally purchased a book I already own
maybe 4-5 times and that was during the days of the paper lists. Yes, I am that good!
Since I'm sale veteran, I know where everything is laid out
and make a beeline to the cookbook section
where everything has been broken out by category e.g. small appliance cooking,
international cooking (all types of ethnic cookbooks), canning, cookies,
casseroles, well-known cookbook authors and the like. It normally takes me less than a minute to
start filling one of my bags and it is not atypical of me to walk out with over
20 books at a time.
Most years, I return at least once if not twice to do a
sweep for "new" books that have been donated between visits as they
accept donations practically until the very end.
If previous years, I've walked away with one full set of Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cooking
cookbooks and this year, waltzed out with a bunch of Southern Living cookbooks for a mere $5.00. Although I have some of the Southern Living cookbooks in this set,
it was cheaper for me to buy the entire set and then donate the ones that I already
own. Out of the 20 books in the box, 13
are staying put and 8 are duplicates but why quibble when the whole thing cost
pennies on the dollar?
The great thing about this sale is that I manage to find the
most interesting/hilarious/long-sought after books ever, and it amused me to no
end to find this cookbook about law enforcement at a law enforcement book sale!
The recipes in this cookbook were "Contributed by
People in Law Enforcement Agencies of the United States ," whose jobs ranged
from secretary to dispatcher to patrol officer to chief of police from agencies
around the country.
This book's Table of Contents is pretty small by comparison
to other cookbooks, but many of the recipes sounded really good. Your choices are:
- Breads
- Casseroles
- Desserts
- Main Dishes
- Sandwiches
- Side Dishes
- The Final Chapter: If All Else Fails i.e. a word about donuts!
Now shocking as it may seem, Andy and I are not necessarily
fans of ribs, barbecued or other and so instead of buying a regular rack of
ribs for this recipe, I decided – after consultation with two butchers – to go
with country ribs i.e. all meat, no bones.
I think they came five to a package which would have been fine had we
not loved them so! These were really
good although be warned that you will not need the full 5-6 hours of cooking
time. I think ours were ready to go
after about two hours but I kept them in on High for 2 hours and Low for 1 hour
and that was plenty of time. In fact, my
only complaint was that I probably left them in too long as they were almost on
the dry side.
Still, this was one of the easiest things I made in a long
time and cleanup was a breeze but then again, I expect that from crockpot
cooking – no fuss, no muss, no hovering over the stove to make sure things are
"going well." Nope, you just
put the whole thing in the crockpot and let it do its thing.
If you are local, the BCPA sale ends Saturday, June 17th
and trust me when I say I there are still plenty of cookbooks (and other books)
for you to browse. This year's sale is
located at 494 and The Shoppes at Lyndale near Pet Smart and Best Buy. Hope you find something fun – I sure did!
Crockpot Ribs – serves
4-6 – prep time 5-6 hours – submitted by Ted Vastine, Chief of Police,
Chandron, Nebraska
3-5 pound ribs
½ cup catsup
¼ cup water
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons grated onion
2 tablespoons vinegar
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon chili powder
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon pepper
Put ribs in bottom of crockpot and cover with
ingredients. Cook on high for 5-6 hours.
(Ann's Note: Easiest instructions ever! Mad props for that. If you are making half the recipe though,
cook on high for 2 hours and then check.
If you want to cook them some more, I suggest lowering your temperature
to Low and then check after a half hour.
I let mine cook at Low for about another 60 minutes which was almost too
long—not that anyone complained about them!)
