Cafe Rio style pork AND rice, Patrizio, Sugaraholic, and Charlie's new bed

You probably have tried to duplicate Cafe Rio's delicious sweet pork, but have you ever tried to make their cilantro-lime rice?  I made a version of it tonight, and it turned out very similar. It really makes all of the difference.

Fresh pico de gallo also makes this salad yummy. The only thing missing is guacamole and their dressing. We used ranch. Next time I will have to try to figure out how to make their dressing. I think they use buttermilk. IDK. I will have to experiment.

Cafe Rio Pork Barbacoa

2 ½ lbs. pork roast
⅓ cup water
1 clove garlic, minced 
⅛ teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon pepper
1 cup canned salsa verde
1 cup brown sugar
 
Put pork, water, garlic, salt and pepper in crock pot on high for 4 hours. Drain, shred pork with two forks. Stir together salsa verde and brown sugar, pour over pork and stir in. Serve in burritos, tacos, salad, etc.

CILANTRO-LIME RICE

1 c. uncooked rice (long-grain, white 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. 

 My co-worker, Anthony, told me that this was the best Italian place in Texas. He said his friends from Italy agree that this place sells authentic Italian food. Every time they visit, Anthony takes them there because they consider Olive Garden and Carrabas to be a disgrace.

I had to pick up Adam from the Love Field airport yesterday evening, so I decided to call in an order. Patrizio's is located five minutes away from this Dallas airport, so I considered this my chance to try this place.

Overall, it was very good! The online prices must be wrong, because our order came out to be 30 bucks. They were listed around $8/9 dollars. I would definitely like to eat here again, but wish it was cheaper.

Okay so I have officially become a sugarholic! Totally weird, since I was the girl in high school who didn't eat sugar. I still can't believe I went on a no-sugar diet for 4 1/2 years. The first two weeks of October, I went off sugar again, b/c it was a Zumba challenge. I felt so good! Maybe I should do this regularly. My sugar intake from the last two weeks of October up until today has been ridiculous! I am embarrassed to even think about how much I have consumed.

Snickerdoodles

2 ¾ cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 ½ cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. In a separate bowl, mix butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in eggs. Gradually stir in flour mixture with a spoon.

2. Stir together cinnamon and remaining 2 tablespoons sugar in a small bowl. Shape dough into 30 (1 inch) balls; roll in cinnamon sugar. Space 3 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. (If you don't have parchment paper, you'll have to get the cookies off the sheet quickly after baking or they'll stick. The bottoms of a couple of my cookies got stuck to the baking sheet.)

3. Bake cookies until edges are golden, 12 to 15 minutes.

For example, I ate a half dozen of these snickerdoodle cookies, shortly after I made them last night. I consumed a lot of cookie dough too. I also had milk duds, kit kats, and reeses pieces. Left over Halloween candy is hard to resist, when it is close in reach.

Are you a Sugaraholic? Take this quiz to find out

TRUE OR FALSE?

• I don't eat refined sugar every day.
• I can go for more than a day without eating some type of sugar-containing food.
• I never have cravings for sugar, coffee, chocolate, peanut butter, or alcohol.
• I've never hidden candy or other sweets around my home in order to find and eat them later.
• I can stop after one piece of candy or one bite of pastry.
• There are times when I have no sugar of any kind in my home.
• I can go for three or more hours without eating and not experience the shakes, fatigue, perspiration, irritability, depressions, or anxiety.
• I can have candy and other sweets in my home and not eat them.
• I don't eat something sweet after every meal.
• I rarely drink coffee and eat doughnuts or sweet rolls for breakfast.
• I can go for more than an hour after waking up in the morning without eating.
• I can go from one day to the next without drinking a soft drink.

If you answered false to more than 4, you are sugar sensitive. (Meaning a sugaraholic like me).

Charlie absolutely LOVES his new bed. We got him a new one today, while we were out buying an office chair for our new desk, and he has been in it ever since we introduced it to him. He will come play with us, and then go straight back to it. I can't believe how much he has grown! He outgrew his other bed weeks ago. He sleeps in his kennel at night, but loves to lounge in his bed during the day. I love our puppy!! I can't believe that we have almost had him for two months now. He will be five months old in a week. We got him right when he was three months old.

hehe Adam took this picture of his tongue sticking out.

Oh, so I was asked to post the recipes for the stuff I cooked last weekend (see last post). I will do that soon. I need to find all the papers I wrote the recipes down on first. I will also post the Cafe Rio recipes, sugardoodle recipe, and lemon bar recipe.