Chocolate Orange Logs

This recipe comes from my Lion House Christmas Cookbook. I thought they looked fun and simple fancy. It was a simple dough (Though not sweet enough for my taste. I think I will add a little more powdered sugar next time.) and very delicate. My love for orange and chocolate together runs deep in my blood. My grandma Bartholomew loved orange chocolates and has passed it on to my mom and all of her kids. Can't eat an orange chocolate flavored anything and not think of what an amazing woman my grandmother was to so many people.

These were fun to make with my boys for our Christmas goodie boxes this year. The chocolate and nuts are an absolute must! The cookie just doesn't taste good with out it.

Chocolate Orange Logs (Lion House Christmas)

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar

1 teaspoon orange zest

1 teaspoon orange extract

2 cups flour

1 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup finely chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter in a large bowl, gradually adding sugar and beating until light and fluffy. Stir in orange zest and orange extract. Gradually add flour. Shape dough into a long roll 3/4-inches wide; cut roll into 2-inch pieces. Place on greased cookie sheet. Flatten one end of cookie lengthwise with a fork. Bake 10 minutes, or until light brown. Cool cookies on a wire rack. Melt chocolate chips in microwave oven or in top of a double boiler over simmering water. Dip unflattened ends of cookies in chocolate, then roll in chopped nuts. Store in covered container.

Makes 4 dozen.

Sweet Cafe Rio Pork

There are several recipes I have seen for the Cafe Rio meats. Having only eaten there a few times on my visits to Utah I don't really know if they taste like the restaurants meats or not, but we enjoy them anyway. Sorry I don't recall taking a picture of this meal. It makes a lot of food so prepare it when you have company coming or plan to freeze it.

Sweet Pork

1 (3 lb.) Pork loin roast, thawed if previously frozen

1 (16 oz/ 2 cups) jar of Salsa

1 can green chilies

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 can black beans, undrained

Tortillas

Cheese

Lettuce

Tomatoes

In the bottom of a large crock pot mix salsa, green chilies, brown sugar, and black beans. Add the pork roast and cook on high for 4 hours. Take the meat out of the crock pot and shred with a fork. Return meat to crock pot and cook one hour more.

Serve on tortillas with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes or your other favorite taco toppings.

Yeilds 8 servings (We actually served 4 adults for two meals, plus had enough leftovers for our family of 5 to have an additional dinner.) The recommended 8 servings must be HUGE because I felt like each time we served it everyone ate nice size helpings.

**We served it in both hard and soft shell tacos and both were great.

Make it meal and serve it with Cafe Rio Lime Rice, Cafe Rio Pico de Gallo, and Tomatillo Cream Cafe Rio Dressing (Awesome dressing!) if making it into a salad instead of a taco, but we also like the dressing drizzled on our tacos.

Cafe Rio Chicken (2 different recipes here)

My good friend Sharla served this at a surprise birthday lunch she hosted in my behalf. Everyone loved the recipe so of course I had to ask her a copy. And of course I had know idea about the surprise, so there is no picture. Doesn't a soft shell taco all wrapped up look the same anyway? It isn't hard to imagine it is it. YUM!

Cafe Rio Pork or Chicken (Sharla P. family recipe)

4 lbs. Pork Roast or Chicken

2 cups brown sugar

1 (12-14 oz) jar Salsa

2 cans Coke (24 oz or 2 1/2 cups)

FOR PORK:

Place roast in crock pot, fill half way with water and cook for 6-8 hours on low. Disgard water. Shred meat with forks and return to crock pot. Combine sugar, salsa, and coke in a separate bowl. Add to crock pot. Cook about 3 hours more on low. Stir Occasionally

FOR CHICKEN

Simply add chicken to crock pot. Combine sugar, salsa, and coke in a separate bowl; add to crock pot. Cook 5-6 hours on low (or until chicken is done I have several crock pots and they all cook at different rates). Stir occasionally.

Place in a warm tortilla on a plate. Top with Rice, Black beans, pork/chicken, lettuce, and top with plenty of Creamy Tomatillo Cilantro Dressing.

Cafe Rio Chicken (www.365daysofcrockpot.com)

5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thawed

1 small bottle Kraft Zesty Italian Dressing

1 Tablespoon Chili powder

1 Tablespoon Cumin

3 Cloves Garlic, minced

Mix all ingredients except the chicken in a bowl. Place chicken on bottom of a greased crock pot.

Pour mixture in a bowl over the top of Chicken. Cook on high 5-7 hours. Shred chicken with a fork and reserve juice to pour over chicken when serving.

Cafe Rio Lime Rice

This rice is a nice savory flavored compliment to off set the sweetness of the Cafe Rio pork/chicken.

Cafe Rio Lime Rice

2 Tablespoons butter

1 yellow onion, chopped

4 cloves minced garlic

6 2/3 cup water

7-8 bullion cubes

1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped

2 teaspoons cumin

1 Tablespoon lime juice

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 cups long grain rice

Saute butter, onions, and garlic. Boil everything else excepted rice in a large pot. Add onion and garlic--then rice. Cover and simmer.

Tomatillo Creamy Cilantro Dressing (Cafe Rio)

Simply stated, this dressing is awesome. I love homemade dressings that beat anything that you can purchase in the stores.

Tomatillo Creamy Cilantro Dressing

1 pkg. Hidden Valley Buttermilk Ranch Dressing mix

1 cup Buttermilk

1 cup Mayo

2 Tomatillos (peel outer skin)

1 clove minced garlic or 1 tsp. minced jarred garlic

1/2-1/3 bunch of cilantro, chopped

1/2 teaspoon lime juice

1 small jalapeno (seeds removed)

Put all ingredients into a blender. Add extra mayo if dressing is too thin. Refrigerate.

Cilantro Lime Rice

I got this rice from Jamie Cook's it Up blog. It is a sweet rice. We enjoyed this recipe but I wouldn't serve it with the sweet chicken or pork recipe.

Cilantro Lime Rice

2 cups uncooked rice

1 Tablespoon butter

2 cloves garlic minced

4 chicken bullion cubes

1 teaspoon lime zest

4 cups water

2 Tablespoon lime juice

1 Tablespoon sugar

3 Tablespoon fresh cilantro, chopped

In a large skillet combine rice, butter, garlic, lime zest, bullion cubes, and water. Bring to a boil and stir well. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes. In a small bowl combine lime juice, sugar, and cilantro. Pour over the top of the hot cooked rice, and stir to incorporate. Enjoy!

Chocolate Banana Cream Trifle

I was looking through my cook books and noticed I made this back in April 2009 and I hadn't posted it yet. So I thought that I would post it just for the sake of posting something. I haven't had anything that I have wanted to blog about lately. Haven't been in the "oh lets try something new mode" lately it has been more of a "survival mode" and doing the quick easy family favorites a.k.a comfort foods that I know my kids will gobble down. My picture doesn't look even close to the cookbook photo--I think my trifle dish was too big, making all the layers seem more like one. But regardless of how it looks it's a dessert so we had enjoyed eating it anyway!

Chocolate Banana Cream Trifle

18 whole graham crackers, divided

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 (12 oz) container frozen whipped topping, thawed and divided

1 pkg. (3.4 oz) banana cream instant pudding and pie filling (I used my Family's Banana Cream Pie recipe)

1 cup milk

1 lemon

4 large bananas

Finely chop half of a graham crackers; set aside. Coarsely crumble remaining crackers into a 2-qt. mixing bowl.

For ganache, place chocolate morsels and 1 1/2 cups of the whipped topping into a small bowl. Microwave on high 45-60 seconds or until melted smooth, stirring every 15 seconds. Combine the pudding mix and the milk; whisk until mixture begins to thicken. Fold in remaining whipped topping ; set aside.

Juice lemon to measure 2 Tablespoons juice. Peel bananas and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces. Slice banana sections with egg slicer if desired. Add lemon juice and toss gently. Set aside 12 slices for garnish.

To assemble trifle, place half of the crumbled graham crackers over the bottom of trifle bowl. Place half of the bananas over the crackers, arranging some of the bananas against sides of the bowl, and top with one-third of the ganache. Spread half of the banana filling over ganache spreading to edges. Repeat layers one time. Decorate with remaining ganache. Sprinkle top of trifle with chopped graham cracker. Arrange reserved banana slices around edges of trifle.

Yeilds 16 servings (Recipe taken from Pampered Chef Spring/Summer 2009 Seasons Best booklet)

** The chocolate was a little dark for my taste. Next time I will try it with a milk chocolate.