Ribs-And a Plea to Texas

I was feeling a little guilty this week after confessing my love for Oklahoma. (I'm still thinking about taking up the offer to feed ducks at the Oklahoma family farm from Heidi ;o), but in the meantime...) I don't want to be kicked out of Texas (yet), so I tried out a recipe that screams 'Texas'...to me. I've never actually been a huge fan of ribs. I wouldn't say meat has a prominent place in my life. This is probably due to the fact that 'meat' came in the forms of casseroles when I was growing up. I like casseroles, but you can only eat so many between the age of 2-18. Therefore, I'm not terribly great at cooking large slabs of meat....I'm working on adding it in. Well, until I can get those people who make that food pyramid thingie to agree to place skittles under the 'fruit and vegetable category'....hello-five a day-there are five fruity flavors, coincidence? I think not! Such a teeny tiny request I have, and when it goes through-forget you meat. I'd taste the rainbow daily, and ribs and skittles just don't merge well. I got this recipe from my friend Sonia. Her husband is a grill master. He does a LOT of research, and a lot of trial and error, and then...when he's done trialing, and erroring, I go over for dinner. He makes ribs so great....that I now can't say 'I'm not really a fan' of ribs, I double heart these ribs. The original recipe comes from a book called Smoke and Spice and the official title is 'Dry Rub-Wild Willy's Number One-Derful Rub' I call it 'The first ribs I ever ate, and really liked.' I guess you can choose which title you like best if you decide to add them to your recipe book.
Mix 3/4 c. paprika, 1/4 c. freshly ground black pepper, 1/4 c. course salt (or kosher, or sea salt), 1/4 c. sugar, 2 T. chili powder, 2 T. garlic powder, 2 T. onion powder, 2 t. cayenne.
You can leave this mix in a jar to use...whenever, and it's enough to cover 3-4 racks of ribs, depending on how 'spicy' you want it to be.
I halved the recipe when I made them, and used the whole thing, but I'd probably cut back a little next time, it was very spicy with that much coating. I know there are a lot of smoking methods to meat, but I just slapped them on the grill over some charcoal for 6 hours, and they were falling off the bone great.