Cafe Rio Sweet Pulled Pork Salads

No, your eyes are not deceiving you. That is a picture of a power saw being used on a chunk of meat. Our pork was frozen solid and didn't fit in our crockpot, so Jeremy had the very resourceful idea of using our power saw to slice it in two haha! I was more than a little nervous that he was going to slice through my crock pot, but I needed the pork to fit so I figured, why not? Who needs an electric knife when you've got a power saw??:)

These are so yummy! They do actually taste a lot like Cafe Rio's pulled pork salads, though they're not an exact match. Close enough, though. Ava love the pork. The original recipe called for 5 jalapeno cross sections and I thought the dressing was too spicy so I would only do 2... or none at all. :)

Cafe Rio Sweet Pulled Pork Salads

Sweet Pulled Pork

3 lbs pork tenderloin
1 ½ cups brown sugar
1 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp salt
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp garlic powder
½ tsp onion powder
1 (10 oz) can red enchilada sauce

Combine all ingredients in crock pot, except for the brown sugar and enchilada sauce, and cook on low for 7 hours. Strain fat from crock pot and shred the meat. Add brown sugar and enchilada sauce and cook on low for 1 more hour.

Creamy Tomatillo Dressing

3 fresh tomatillos, peeled and cut into quarters
juice of ½ a lime
½ cup buttermilk
½ cup mayonnaise
½ cup sour cream
2 ounces cream cheese
1 pkg dry Ranch Buttermilk Dressing mix
½ cup fresh cilantro
5-6 green onions, diced
2 cloves garlic
4 tsp sugar
2 cross section slices of a jalapeno pepper

Combine cilantro, buttermilk, green onions, garlic and tomatillos in a blender and blend until smooth. Add remaining ingredients and blend until well mixed.


For Salads:

Layer a tortilla (the cook-at-home kind work best), hot white rice, hot black beans, shredded romaine lettuce, sweet pulled pork, corn chip strips, pico de gallo (or just chopped fresh tomato) and top with Creamy Tomatillo Dressing.

Banana Pecan Oatmeal Brulee

Roasting the bananas in this recipe really brings out a yummy flavor!

Banana Pecan Oatmeal Brûlée
1.5 cups water
1 cup oats
pinch of salt
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon butter
2 large bananas, sliced
2 – 3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/3 cup chopped toasted pecans

1. Bring water to boil in a medium saucepan. Stir in oats and salt, if using, and immediately reduce heat to low. Simmer uncovered over low heat, stirring occasionally, until oats are desired texture.
2. Remove oatmeal from heat and stir in milk and butter.  Pour oatmeal into a small casserole dish (about 1 1/2 quarts) and arrange banana slices over the top.  Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over the top of the bananas.  Put casserole under a preheated broiler until sugar starts to melt (watch carefully, it happens pretty fast). Remove from oven and sprinkle with chopped pecans.*  Serve warm.
Serves 4.

Creamy Spring Peas

This was a really yummy veggie recipe - and a nice change. It uses three kinds of peas in different shapes and sizes which gives it a nice appearance and texture. The original recipe calls for pancetta but that's a little pricey for me so I used bacon so that's how I'll write it up. You can use 4oz pancetta in place of the bacon if you'd like.

Creamy Spring Peas

Salt

2 C shelled fresh English peas or thawed frozen peas (about 10 oz)

1 lb sugar snap peas, trimmed and cut into 1/2" pieces

1/4 lb snow peas, trimmed and thinly sliced

4-5 slices bacon

2 Tbsp flour

1 1/2 C chicken broth

1/2 C heavy cream

Juice of 1 lemon

1/2 tsp salt

Freshly ground pepper

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Fill a large bowl with ice water; set aside. If using English peas, add to the boiling water and cook until tender, about 1 minute. (If using frozen peas just run them under water to make sure they are fully thawed and set them aside.) Add the snap peas and cook until bright green, about 2 minutes, then add the snow peas and cook 30 seconds. Drain the peas and plunge into the ice water to cool.

Cook the bacon in a large skillet until crisp. Drain on a paper towel. Discard all but about 1 Tbsp of the drippings; add the flour to reserved drippings, whisking until toasted, about 1 minute. Whisk in the chicken broth and cream and cook until reduced by one-third, about 6 minutes.

Drain the peas (including the frozen peas), shaking off the excess water, then add to the skillet. Cook, stirring until the sauce is slightly thickened and the peas are heated through, 3-5 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice and season with 1/2 tsp salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the bacon. Transfer to a serving dish and enjoy.

Altered slightly from a Food Network recipe.

Orange Glazed Rolls

These were a fun treat for Easter dinner and quite yummy. The recipe said it makes 12 bunnies so I doubled it and had lots of bunnies left over because they're really big! And, of course, you can shape these any way you want.

Orange Glazed Rolls

2 Tbsp active dry yeast

1/4 C warm water (110-115 degrees)

1 C warm milk (110-115 degrees)

1/2 C shortening

2 eggs

1/3 C sugar

1/4 C orange juice

2 Tbsp grated orange peel

1 tsp salt

5 - 5 1/2 C all-purpose flour

Glaze:

2 C powdered sugar

1/4 C orange juice

1/2 tsp soft butter

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the milk, shortening, eggs, sugar, orange juice, orange peel, salt, and 3 cups flour; beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough.

Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover; let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch dough down; turn onto a lightly floured surface. Shape rolls as desired. For bunnies, divide dough into 13 pieces. Shape 12 of them into 12-inch ropes. Fold each in half; twist top half to form ears. Shape remaining dough into 12 balls. Place one on the loop end of each roll to form a tail; press into dough. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.

Bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes. (Bake for 10-12 minutes on a dark cookie sheet.) Cool on wire racks. In a small bowl, combine the glaze ingredients; beat until blended. Spread over rolls.

Altered slightly from a Taste of Home recipe.

Roasted New Potatoes

I decided to try this new recipe to take to a dinner with friends (this was breaking one of my hard and fast rules to Never Take A New Recipe To An Occasion - and this is why.) The directions said to chop the bacon and put it in the pan with the potatoes. After the 45 minutes cooking time it was still RAW! Disgusting. I had to pick it all out and cook it after the potatoes were finished. After I cooked the bacon we were late to the dinner but everyone liked the potatoes! Of course I didn't tell them about the bacon disaster - well, I did tell one friend because I knew she would laugh, and she did.

2 lbs. new potatoes, halved lengthwise (or regular potatoes cut in 1 inch cubes)
6 slices bacon
3 Tbsp. Italian dressing
1/3 cup reduced fat mayonnaise (or regular fat, whatever you have is fine)
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 clove garlic, minced
2-4 Tbsp. shredded Parmesan cheese
2 tsp. chopped fresh parsley (optional)

Heat oven to 400 degrees.
Combine potatoes and Italian dressing; spread onto bottom of 15x10 baking pan. Bake 45 minutes or until potatoes are tender and crisp around the edges, stirring after 25 minutes.

While the potatoes cook, mix mayo, lemon juice and garlic.

Cook the bacon until crisp, drain and crumble, set aside.

Spoon potatoes into large bowl, stir in mayo mixture and crumbled bacon. Top with Parmesan cheese and parsley.

Fried Ice Cream

Fried Ice Cream

Note: Do not attempt frying on a gas stove…

½ gallon French Vanilla ice cream

4 tsp. ground cinnamon

3c. corn flakes, coarsely crushed

Vegetable oil

Honey

Whipped cream

Shape ice cream into 8 balls. Sprinkle each with cinnamon and roll in corn flakes. Place on cookie sheet and freeze until very hard. Chill serving bowls. Heat enough oil in deep fat fryer to cover ice cream balls. Heat to 375° and fry each ball, one at a time, for 3-5 seconds. Serve immediately with honey, whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

Salmon with Pecan-Honey Sauce

I'm cleaning out old issues of Simple & Delicious again so I'm retrying recipes I marked as good.  This one is really tasty.  I recommend toasting the pecans and then chopping, otherwise you get little bitty crumb pieces that just burn when you toast them. 
You  may want to use less oil and butter to cook the salmon.  I already cut the amount in half here and it still seems like more than you need, depending on how big the fillets are and how many you use, of course.

 

Salmon with Pecan-Honey Sauce
6 salmon fillets (6 oz each)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 T. vegetable oil
3 T. butter

Sauce:
6 T. butter
1 c. coarsely chopped pecans, toasted
1 c. honey

Sprinkle salmon with salt and pepper.  In a large skillet, cook salmon in oil and butter for 10-12 minutes until fish flakes easily with a fork.
Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, cook sauce ingredients over medium-low heat for 8-10 minutes or until bubbly.  Serve with salmon.  Yield: 6 servings.

Slightly altered from Simple & Delicious, photo from the magazine too.