Cafe Rio Pork Tostadas with Cilantro Ranch Dressing and Spanish Rice

This is for sure in the "dinner hall of fame" in our family. If it's been too long since I've made this, my kids ask for it! And it's also a great and easy crowd pleaser, so I make it often when we're having company. I got this yummy pork recipe after it was served at a dinner for women at my church. We decided we love it on tostadas with yummy dressing and rice.

Cafe Rio Pork Tostadas
Print Recipe
3 lb. Pork Roast
1/2 teaspoon Liquid Smoke
3/4 cup Taco Sauce or Mild Red Enchilada Sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons Cumin
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1 1/4 cups Dr. Pepper

Put roast in 3-5 quart crock pot sprayed with cooking spray. Put water in crock pot and only fill til water is 1/2 way up the roast, so just covering bottom half. Add liquid smoke. Cook for 10-12 hours on low. Drain/discard water and shred pork with 2 forks or a fork and knife. Mix other ingredients and pour over roast. Cook on low 4-6 hours.

See that yummy pork in there?




You can see my excited, hungry daughter ready to eat here! Serve buffet style with tostada shells, shredded lettuce, shredded cheese, chopped cilantro, EasySpanishRice , beans and Cilantro-Ranch Dressing.
Click on rice & dressing recipes or see separate posts.

Baked Oatmeal

For those of us here in Arizona, this is such a great time of year! Baking time, hot chocolate time, warm breakfast time. I love it, no more 100 degrees before 8 a.m. So I especially love making yummy, tummy warming breakfasts for my family. I had tried a baked oatmeal last year and yes we liked it, but we didn't love it. So I started searching for recipes again a month ago and found this one from Our Hearts Inn Bed and Breakfast and it was awesome! I made a few changes, adding vanilla and cinnamon and coconut, and it's a keeper! Threw my old recipe away.


Baked Oatmeal:
Print Recipe
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 eggs
2 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups oatmeal
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup coconut
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

**Optional: add dried cranberries, raisins, or other dried fruit. Or add 1 cup peeled, chopped apples.

Stir oatmeal, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt together. Add melted butter, milk and vanilla, stir. Add eggs and beat/mix in. Add coconut. Pour into 13x9 buttered pan. Bake at 375° for 25 minutes. Can top individual servings with milk, 4 of my 6 kids wanted milk on theirs, other 2 didn't!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE pumpkin chocolate chip bread and muffins! I remember when I was in college and I used to buy pumpkin chocolate chip muffins in the bookstore almost every day and then sneak them into the library to eat while I studied! Then after I got married I kept looking for a great pumpkin bread recipe and didn't have much luck til I tried this one. I tweaked it slightly and it is my go-to, never fail recipe. My family gobbles this stuff up and so I always double the recipe. One of my favorite things to do is freeze some of the batter in a plastic container, leave it on the counter overnight, and then use it to make pumpkin muffins for breakfast! That way you can even have hot, delicious pumpkin muffins with melty gooey chocolate chips inside on a school morning. I did that this morning and my kids were very, very happy!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread
Print Recipe

4 Eggs
1 cup Vegetable Oil
2/3 cup Water
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 15 oz. can Pumpkin
2 2/3 cups Sugar
3 1/2 cups Flour
1 1/2 teaspoons Salt
2 teaspoons Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1 teaspoon Nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon Ground Cloves
1 1/2 cups Chocolate Chips

In a large bowl, beat eggs. Add oil, water, vanilla, sugar, and pumpkin; mix til combined. Here's my trick: Just add the flour in a mound on top of the pumpkin batter, DON'T stir, then carefully add salt, baking soda, and spices on top of flour **without stirring them in**! Then take a fork, and gently stir spices, salt, soda into flour while it sits on top of wet batter, then just mix that all/incoprporate it into wet batter on bottom! Stir in chocolate chips. If making bread, this will make about 3-4 loaf pans. I HATE washing bread pans, so now I always line my bread pans with foil. You can then just fill with batter, and cool bread in there after you take it out, and wrap bread in foil. Then here's the best part, just put your bread pan away! Wa-la, back in the cabinet you go, thanks for the memories little pan! Rocks my clean kitchen world. For bread, bake at 350 for one hour. Tooothpick in center should come out almost clean with maybe a few moist crumbs, but no wet batter. To make muffins, fill muffin tins about 1/2-2/3 full. Bake at 350, about 20-24 minutes. My oven takes about 22 minutes. Toothpick in center should come out clean.

Pumpkin Roll



With Thanksgiving coming up this week, I thought this is the perfect time to post this Pumpkin Roll recipe. This is always a crowd pleaser!!

Pumpkin Roll

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup pumpkin

1 tsp lemon juice

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

½ tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

  ¾ cup flour

1 cup powdered sugar

8 oz cream cheese

4 TBLS butter

½ tsp vanilla

Beat eggs on high speed of mixer for 5 minutes. Gradually beat in sugar. Stir in pumpkin and lemon juice. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, and salt. Fold that into pumpkin mixture. Spread on a greased and floured jelly roll pan. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Turn out on a towel that has been sprinkled with powdered sugar. Roll cake and towel together and let cool. Mix together powdered sugar, cream cheese, butter and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Unroll cake. Spread cream cheese mixture over the cake. Roll back up like a jelly roll. Wrap in wax paper. Chill. Serves 10.

So this is what it looks like all rolled in the towel. Start with the short end and roll up. Make sure the towel is completely covered with the powdered sugar.

This is what is looks like after it is cooled. I un-roll it, right before frosting.

And the finished product.



French Dip Sandwiches

So I don't have a picture of this dish, but you will just have to believe me on how good these are, or better yet, try them and see how good they are!! The meat is so tender and the "dip" flavor is amazing!! This recipe was made for me after the birth of my oldest son and we have been making it ever since!

French Dip Sandwiches

3 pounds of Roast

1/2 cup Soy Sauce

1 tsp dry thyme

1 bay leaf

2 (14 oz each) cans of Beef Broth

1 tsp garlic powder

3 peppercorns

1 tsp dried Rosemary



Brown Roast in Pan on stove top. Move to a crock pot and add dry ingredients then pour broth and soy sauce over the top. Cook on low for 5-6 hours (or we actually like it better to cook it in the oven on 300 for like 3-4 hours). Strain the juice and serve as French Dip or as a plain roast.

Butter Rich Cookies

These little cookies are DeVine! They may be small, but they are packed with flavor and a great texture of cookie. It reminds me a little bit of a shortbread cookie with a fantastic frosting! You have got to try these, your batch will be eaten before you know it.
Print Recipe

Butter Rich Cookies

1 1/2 squares butter, softened

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 TBLS white sugar

1 egg yolk

1 tsp vanilla

1 3/4 cup flour

Mix together the butter and sugar. Then add egg and vanilla, beat and then add flour until combined. Roll into small balls and flatten with a sugar coated glass. Bake for 7-8 minutes at 350. When cool frost with:

Brown Butter Frosting

1/4 cup butter

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

milk (as needed)

Put Butter in a big bowl (I use a 4 cup glass liquid measuring cup) and cover with wax paper. Put in microwave and cook for approx 3 minutes until brown. Add the remaining ingredients.

Melting Tip

So how many of you have melted chocolate in the microwave, and how many of you have failed at it? Seriously every time I try to melt chocolate in there it comes out hard as a rock (I have tried it every way, people, it just doesn't work). Well here is my NO FAIL, SUPER EASY, NEVER GO BACK TO YOUR OLD WAY, way to melt chocolate!!

So get a frying pan, and put your chocolate in it, make sure it is in small chucks. Turn on your stove top to Low or to a 1 setting.

Stir frequently and pretty soon your chocolate will be melted beautiful and smooth and to the perfect consistency! Easy, right???