Cafe Rio Salad

I made this for Steve's birthday dinner. We had a baseball theme going since we had gone to the Red Sox game on Monday. This was so delicious and tasted very much like the salad at Cafe Rio. We miss going there:( Anyway, I got the dressing recipe off of a recipe blog I like looking at. Here is the blog link. The changes I made were:

• I made homemade tortillas and melted cheese on them before putting the salad on.
• I didn't use extra beans because the rice mix has them in it and that would have been too much food for two of us.
• I would maybe recommend not using a hot pepper in the dressing or being very careful how much you put in. I made it a little too spicy and I don't remember Cafe Rio's dressing being spicy at all.
• I used some chicken I had already cooked from another night. I just shredded it a little and added a little of the liquid from the rice cooking to heat it and it tasted just fine.

My recipe for tortillas is:

3 cups flour

2 tsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp. salt

Stir together then cut in 1/4 cup Crisco. Then stir in 1 cup warm water. Knead until smooth. Divide into 12 balls. Cover and let rise for 15 minutes. Roll thin into 9-10 inch circles. Fry on both sides on lightly oiled griddle.

So easy and delicious. They taste a lot better than store bought ones. Anyone who loves Cafe Rio should try this recipe!!!

Tomatillo Dressing

You will need:

1 hot pepper

2 medium tomatillo's, cut into bite size pieces

1/2 bunch fresh cilantro

Juice from 1 fresh lime

3/4 jar of Ranch dressing (Kraft Peppercorn ranch is good to use)

Salt to taste

Pour Ranch dressing in blender, add the tomatillo pieces and cilantro. Blend on high for about 1 minute, or until the sauce is smooth. Pour in the lime juice & blend again. Salt to taste. Keep any leftovers in the refrigerator.

*This dressing is better "aged" for at least 2-3 hours before serving, so the Ranch flavor has a chance to "chill out", and it also allows the tomatillo's flavor to come out.