Thrifty Oven Dinner, BBQ Rib Tips, Hasselback Potatoes, & Broccoli

This has been such a busy week and I just wanted something I could stick in the oven and not mess around with.  The solution was to grab a package of rib tips from the freezer and thaw them.  Remembering my butchers adage for cooking pork, low and slow, I salted and peppered them and slipped them into a pan and popped it into a 200 degree oven at 1:00 PM in the afternoon where they languished uncovered for hours!! Meanwhile I scrubbed 2 baking potatoes and left them in the sink to drain,  Next I grabbed what was left of the fresh broccoli I had purchased and peeled and diced it into bit size pieces. Fresh garlic, salt, black pepper, and red pepper flakes were strewn across the top of the broccoli along with 2-3- T. of water.  I set all these things aside until later in the day when I planned to finish them up in the oven.

At 5:30 PM I made thin slices through the thickness of the potatoes and set them into a baking dish.  After drizzling them with oil and seasoning them they went into the oven uncovered as I increased the temperature to 350 degrees and removed the rib tips.  In order to finish the ribs I slathered them with BBQ sauce and covered them with foil,  The top of the stove vents the gas oven so I like to set things in that area to keep them warm, so that is where the meat rested.

We generally eat late, around 7:30 or 8:00 PM.  When the potatoes tested fork tender ( about an hour and a half later, the potatoes were large)  I covered them with foil and placed them next to the meat atop the stove.  30 minutes before mealtime I placed all three dishes back into the oven to finish.  The broccoli was tender crisp as were the potatoes and the pork was melt in your mouth tender.

It was a good day.