Dinner Tonight!

I LOVE Cafe Rio and I know many of my friends enjoy this obsession as well. Unfortunately most of my immediate family members do not enjoy Mexican cooking. I love Mexican. I grew up in Southern Calif and had Grandparents that lived in South America on multiple occasions. We used to have enchiladas for the extended Family Christmas dinner. Tonight I put together several recipes I'd collected thanks to one of my hosts, an Enrichment dinner and the web to make our own version of the great Pork Barbacoa Salad. I was shocked when almost everyone at the dinner table enjoyed it (it is hard to please Ashley). Let me share the recipes with you!

Pork Barbacoa
4 lb pork roast (I used a 6 lb roast and you could easily get a bigger one. I put part in the freezer for another night)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp cumin
1-2 Tbsp molasses
2 1/2 cans tomato sauce
1 to 1 1/2 C brown sugar
2 C Dr Pepper
1/4 tsp salt
pepper to taste
Cut fat off pork. Place pork in crock pot. Mix ingredients and pour over pork. Simmer in crock pot until meat pulls apart easily. (6-8 hours) Remove meat from crock pot, shred, skim fat off juice and mix back together and let simmer another hour to let flavors blend.

Cilantro Ranch
1 packet TRADITIONAL Hidden Valley Ranch mix (not BUTTERMILK)
1 c. mayonnaise
1 c. buttermilk
2 tomatillos, remove husk, diced
1/2 bunch of fresh cilantro
1 clove garlic
juice of 1 lime
1 jalapeno (if you like it spicy keep the seeds in it, if you like it mild, just remove the seeds)
Mix all ingredients together in the blender then refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Cilantro Lime Rice
1 c. uncooked rice
1 tsp. butter or margarine
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. freshly squeezed lime juice
1 can (15 oz) chicken broth
1 cup water
1 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lime juice
2 tsp. sugar
3 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro
In a saucepan combine rice, butter, garlic, 1 tsp. lime, chicken broth and water. Bring to a boil. Cover and cook on low 15-20 minutes, until rice is tender. Remove from heat. In a small bowl combine lime juice, sugar and cilantro. Pour over hot cooked rice and mix in as you fluff the rice.

I only had sticky rice on hand so I just cooked it about 10 minutes longer.

I also bought the flour tortillas from Costco that you cook at home. I have made flour tortillas from scratch many times, but these ones from Costco are almost as good and save a TON of time. And we had guacamole from Costco in the freezer, they never put enough of it on at Cafe Rio! We had some romaine lettuce, cheese, sour cream and chips to add to everything above.

Everyone loved that they could put what they liked on their tortillas and I loved the whole thing! Enjoy!