Sweet Pork of the Cafe Rio Variety

Happy Cinco de Mayo!! Behind Thanksgiving (I am an American after all) this is the best food holiday around. Who doesn't love Mexican food? Thank goodness for all those illegal immigrants, without them there's no way you could ever get a decent tamale. I say if they bring good food, we can certainly party with the Mexicans, the more the merrier , right? (Name that movie.) I realize these recipes are coming to you a tad late, I much prefer to have my meals planned out, but these are worth the hustle to the store to get things cookin'. Are they the real recipes from Cafe Rio? Who knows? But, honestly you will be eating what you make for breakfast, lunch and dinner. So good.

Café Rio Pork
Serves 8

5 lbs pork loin (approx)
18 oz coca cola classic
1 cup sugar-in-the-raw
1 (7oz) can Chipotle Chilies in Adobo
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp garlic, minced

Remove chilies from the can of adobo sauce. Rinse the chilies and can with the coke to get the sauce. You are using the sauce and not the chilies for this recipe. Discard the chilies or save for another recipe. Put all ingredients except pork in the blender. Blend until smooth. Pour over pork in the crock pot. Cook on low for 7-9 hours until it pulls apart easily. After cooking, shred with forks.

Serve in burritos, enchiladas, tacos, nachos, on a salad or whatever...

Café Rio Rice
4 cups water
4 tsp chicken bouillon
4 tsp garlic, minced
½ bunch cilantro
1 can green chilies
¾ tsp salt
1 Tbsp butter
½ onion
2 cups rice

Blend cilantro, green chilies, and onion together in food processor. Bring water to a boil and add all ingredients, simmer covered 30 minutes.

Café Rio Cilantro-Lime Ranch Dressing
1 envelope buttermilk ranch dressing mix
1 cup mayo
1 cup buttermilk
½ bunch cilantro
1 heaping tsp minced garlic
2 tomatillos
Cholula Sauce to taste (or ½ Serrano pepper with seeds removed)
Juice of one lime

Blend in food processor or blender, store in refrigerator until ready to serve. Dressing continues to get hotter when it is stored in the fridge. It’s best if you make this ahead of time to let the flavors meld together; will keep about 2 weeks in the fridge.