Muy Delicioso!

Last week I had a patient that only spoke spanish. It gave me the chance to practice my espanol from high school, but it made me realize how horrible it is and how I've forgotten almost everything! I couldn't figure out why the only words I could remeber were el lapiz, la regla, la escuela, el papel...What good does classroom lingo do in the real world? At least I could remember como estas and tiene dolor. It actually started coming back to me, and when we'd get stuck in our conversation, I'd say "como se dice..." and do a little charades. It was kinda fun...we had some good laughs. Anyways, I know Cafe Rio is FAR from being authentic Mexican, but it's close enough and sooo good, and my encounter at work put me in the mood to experiment on some good comida del mexico. I found the recipe for mi favorita- the pork salad- and made it a couple days ago. It was muy delicioso and I highly recommend it- plus the leftovers are amazing!! Now I can't stop habla-ing en espanol :).
Here's the recipe:

Cafe Rio Pork

(I used two small pork roasts)
1 ½ cans coca-cola classic (generic varieties or diet is not as good)
1 c. sugar (I used white sugar, but I think brown sugar is what they use)
1 (7 oz.) can Chipotle in ADOBO sauce (since you use the sauce, not the chiles, it is important that you get the chiles in adobo sauce)
1 heaping tsp. dry ground mustard
1 heaping tsp. dry ground cumin
1 tsp. minced garlic

Remove the chiles from the can of adobo sauce. (Leaving the chiles in will make it so potent that you’ll cry just smelling it.)
Add all ingredients (except pork) in a blender. (I put some coke in a bowl with the chiles and sauce and rinsed the can with coke to get all the sauce out.

Blend until well mixed. (You can skip this step, but it’s nice a creamy when you do this.)
Place pork in crock pot and pour sauce over it.

Cook on low for 7-9 hours or until the pork pulls apart with a fork.

Café Rio Cilantro Ranch Dressing
1 buttermilk ranch dressing packet – make as per recipe
2 tomatillos (tomatoe-like vegetable with a husk around it)
½ bunch of fresh cilantro
1 clove garlic
Juice of 1 lime
1 jalapeno or a few drops of tobasco for a more mild flavor
Use a food processor or blender to blend all ingredients together. Refrigerate.

I used the uncooked tortillas that you have to throw on the skillet, melted cheese on the bottom, and you can use canned black beans and make the special rice, but I was lazy and bought Zataran's black beans and rice mixture (New Orleans flavor). I found a simple pico de gallo recipe, and avocados were like $1.75 each, so I left out the guac. Enjoy!