Barbecue Short Ribs by Daniel O'Brien - from "From the Mariner's Galley Cookbook" (1979)

RECIPE

3 pounds of short ribs
2 Tbl drippings
1 onion sliced
1 2-ounce can tomato paste
1/2 cup water
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup vinegar
1 tsp paprika
2 tsp chili powder

Brown ribs on all sides in skillet.  Place ribs in casserole dish.  Reserve 2 tablespoons of drippings in skillet, and add remaining ingredients.  Heat to boil and pour over meat.  Cover and bake at 350F for 1 1/2 hours.  Garnish with watercress or parsley.

I wouldn't know former Seattle Mariners President and CEO Daniel O'Brien if he barged into my kitchen and shouted "I am Daniel O'Brien!".  According to his bio in the From the Mariner's Galley cookbook, he joined the Mariners in 1979 from the Texas Rangers organization.  He later worked for the Indians in the 80s and the Angels in the 90s.
 
I was looking for a simple barbecuey recipe for the Canada Day holiday a couple days ago and found this one.  It looked idiot-proof and I had all the ingredients minus the ribs.  A quick trip to the supermarket and we were ready to go.

To give the ribs an extra flavour explosion, I snuck in a quick pour of my favourite maple-hickory BBQ sauce and you could add your favourite too.  The result was a pile of tender ribs slathered in thick, tasty sauce.  The onions were sort of an afterthought, and I didn't bother with the watercress or parsley garnish.  What for?  It's all about the ribs, man!

So thank you Daniel O'Brien.  Your teams were mediocre, but your ribs were dalashous!

Bookshelf - "From the Mariner's Galley" (1979) by the Seattle Mariners

 

 

96 pp. in plastic binder-style binding

 

48 recipes from players, coaches and staff

 

 

This was a lucky find on ebay, where it had been sitting for some time before I snapped it up.

 

The Seattle Mariners love -- LOVE -- publishing cookbooks.  Over the years they have put out at least five of them, and it all started with this one from the still-fledgling expansion franchise.

 

As cookbooks from the 70s go, this one contains the obligatory recipe for Orange Jello Salad (by infielder Bill Stein) and Carrot Cake (infielder Bobby Valentine). 

 

There are also some fancy dishes for balance, like Saltinbocca alla Toscana (promotions and marketing director Jack Carvalho) and London Broil (pitcher Mike Parrott).

 

This cookbook also contains a couple of oddities, like a recipe for dog biscuits (woof!).  There's also a recipe for baked Polish squirrel by third base coach Bill Mazeroski, which concludes: "The only thing less edible than the parsley is the baked squirrel."  Wacky man, Bill Mazeroski.

 

Bear With Me, Please.

Finally getting around to revamping this here blog and sharing my mania for baseball cookbooks with the world.

It's a bit messy at the mo, bear with me please.  Not sure what kind of format I'm going for, some kind of idiot-proof Tumblrization of the existing blog. 

In the meantime, please scroll down and enjoy some "Classic La Ru" episodes from 2013.