Surprising Father's Day Feast

For Father's Day this year I was a little short on gift ideas. With Dad's birthday following close behind, I needed multiple things, but was limited in my possibilities. As a result, I planned to make dinner so that I could be redeemed! Before the day I made big plans, scouring my favorite recipe sources for ideas. I had something in mind though, I wanted desperately to make ribs because I had never made them myself at home before and I've seen so many good looking recipes claiming that rib cooking can be easy and tasty. After some deliberation, I chose a rib recipe from Emeril as well as his recipe for macaroni. To go with that there were southern style green beans and a small store bought chocolate cake with homemade coffee ice cream. The ribs were Baby Back Ribs with a Spicy Apple Glaze. The only problem was that I couldn't find baby back ribs at the neighborhood Publix, but I wasn't deterred. What I did find was good looking regular pork ribs, and then some equally good looking beef ribs. I wasn't sure which to get cause one might have been better than the other, and then I never would have know, etc, so I got one of each. Other than that I made this recipe almost exactly as he said to, except I used a rib rub from William Sonoma instead of mixing his up just to save time. And if pressed I would also admit that I wasn't very specific when making the glaze, I just put in the proportions that looked right, no measuring involved with the spices, but yes with the liquid. And I didn't strain it at the end either because most of the stuff I used was ground instead of whole (as he suggests it might be). I also chopped up two apples I found sitting dejectedly in the refrigerator and tossed them in some cinnamon and sugar before scattering them in the pan to roast along with the ribs. This was a touch that I enjoyed because it was fun to have the apple pieces to eat along with the meat, and they were nicely flavored. Here are the rib pictures:

The first picture shows the beef ribs, the second one, the pork. I liked the pork best myself, others liked the beef better, but both were enjoyed by all. In testament to this we had barely any ribs left after we were all done feasting, and the leftovers were consumed the next day.
The other star of the evening was the other Emeril recipe Macaroni with four cheeses. Once again, did I follow this recipe exactly? No. I'm sure it would have been good his way, but I made a few changes. For one, I didn't have any fontina cheese so I used mozzarella instead, it was perfectly good this way, and it went well with the other three cheeses which I did have. I was planning on following his instructions to mix spice with bread-crumbs and parmesan and put that on top, but the dish was so full after I did the layering that there truly wasn't space. So, I let the cheese be the topping, and I thought it was just fine. I think everyone else liked it too, because it was also eaten up. Mine wasn't as spicy as his, but I think that worked fine for us. The green beans and extra glaze were good, but not as exciting to photograph. Here is the macaroni:

This whole meal was easy because I was able to plan ahead and just stick it in the oven a few hours ahead. No hassle, very good.
Now, onto dessert. I thought about making a cake, but I didn't have any 6 inch cake pans, and we really didn't need a big one, so I decided to buy one. Look at how pretty this one is:

This is a chocolate cake with fudge icing from the Publix bakery, which was recently voted best bakery in town by Access Atlanta (or something similar, one of those inserts that come with the AJC on Thursdays). Now, I am skeptical of this best bakery vote on principle alone because it is a grocery bakery after all, and those are usually associated with that hyper-sugary dyed fluffy mess that passes for frosting, and cakes that are fine, but nothing to write home about. This cake was better than that. The cake was moist and rich with chocolate flavor. The icing was not overly sugary, and it was thick instead of aerated like I would have expected it to be. So, I don't know if I rate it best bakery, but definitely give them points for making a perfectly good cake and for exceeding my expectations. I would get one of these again if I didn't have time to make something. The coffee ice cream was also made ahead and enjoyed by all, it is long gone already.
Now for the surprise part. Dad didn't know what I was fixing, so that was part of the surprise, the other part was that Mom and Emily drove down from North Carolina to share in the celebration and requisite feasting. It was a nice evening.