Longtime Columbus-area cooking teacher Betty Ann Litvak has published her first cookbook, a memoir of her years teaching cooking classes, From My Kitchen to Yours: A Home Cook’s Road to Success ($26.95, softcover, Sunstone Press).
For Litvak, teaching cooking was a second career. She was a high school French teacher and turned to cooking after she retired. She started out at the former La Belle Pomme cooking school in downtown Columbus, first as a volunteer, then as an assistant and finally as a teacher.
She opened her own school, Betty Ann’s Kitchen Classes, in 1987, which she operated for 24 years, until her retirement in 2011.
Litvak’s book is a compilation of appetizers, international fare, desserts and everyday American home cooking. She has filled it with plenty of tips, party food and party menus too.
The book is available at www.amazon.com or by contacting Litvak directly at bettyannkc@aol.com.
Here is Litvak’s recipe for Barbecued Baby Back Ribs, including a sweet sauce laced with Coca-Cola.
BARBECUED BABY BACK RIBS
3 racks baby back ribs (about 7 to 8 lbs.)
For the sauce:
2 cups Coca-Cola (not diet or caffeine-free)
2 cups ketchup
½ cup Worcestershire sauce
½ cup A-1 steak sauce
2 tsp. Liquid Smoke
2 tbsp. brown sugar
Onion powder to taste
Garlic powder to taste
4 tbsp. unsalted butter
Lightly salt and pepper the ribs and place on a rack in a large roasting pan. Add 2 cups of water to the bottom of the pan. Cover pan with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, then turn and bake another 30 minutes, or until tender and no longer pink inside, checking by cutting between two ribs with a knife. The ribs can be cooked to this point and then refrigerated until you are ready to grill them.
Prepare the sauce. In a large saucepan, mix all ingredients. Bring to a boil and simmer slowly to reduce to about half of the original volume, about 30 minutes. Sauce can be made a day ahead.
When ready to grill ribs, preheat grill to high, then brush the less meaty side of the ribs liberally with sauce and place on the grill, basted side down. Reduce heat to medium and grill until sauce begins to bubble, watching closely so ribs don’t burn (sauce can burn easily as it has brown sugar in it), then baste other side, turn and grill until bubbly and brown. Remove to platter and cut ribs into 2 to 3 portions and serve with additional sauce, which you have brought to a boil. Leftovers warm up very well.
Makes 8 servings.
Lisa Abraham can be reached at 330-996-3737 or at labraham@thebeaconjournal.com. Find me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter @akronfoodie or visit my blog at www.ohio.com/blogs/lisa.