I got home from work to find Jac assembling a garden salad with mixed lettuce, cucumber, snow peas, cherry tomatoes, orange capsicum and sliced hard-boiled eggs. She’d taken her barbecue tools out – the Bar B Mate, and our longest pair of tongs. When I see the Bar B Mate come out, I know I’m in for a treat – you can just imagine my anticipation!

I was starving as usual, and as Jac got the barbie fired up and ready for cooking, I was unable to resist sneaking a slice of hard-boiled egg. I cracked fresh black pepper and a little salt over the egg before popping it into my mouth.

Jac bought the ribs already marinated. They were called “barbecue spare ribs” and came from the family-owned butcher at the Forest Lakes shopping centre. Sorry, she can’t remember the name of the butcher, but she tells me they have a lovely selection of meats. :)

She also cooked potato slices on the barbecue. This is how she prepared them. She sliced two large nadine potatoes and parboiled them in the microwave, with a little garlic salt in the water. She cooked them until they were about 70 per cent done, then drained off the excess water in the colander. She’d greased the barbecue with olive oil and placed the potato slices on the now very hot hot plate. As she cooked the potato slices, she seasoned them on both sides with salt and pepper. I couldn’t wait to eat them. If you try cooking potatoes on the barbie like this, be careful when you flip the slices over. They can be on the fragile side, especially the larger slices, before they get a chance to brown a little.

Here’s my plate.

I didn’t even bother with cutlery, as I had to pick the ribs up with my fingers to eat them anyway. The ribs were meaty, juicy and bone-suckingly perfect. The marinade was finger-sucking good. Great butcher, great barbecuer, great eater… the perfect team – though as the great eater I must salute the butcher and barbecuer for doing all the hard work to make the eating possible. :)