Wow you guys. I can’t believe how long it’s been since I last posted!
What a month it’s been! I’m so sorry for just falling off the face of the planet like that. Right after my last post I started a “little” project in our guest room, tidying up in preparation for a visit from my mother.
We don’t really use the space we call our “guest room” for much more than a room to store paper towels, kitchen electrics, and my ever-growing blog prop hoard. It’s basically a giant closet with a bed in it, and usually the bed is so deeply buried under slow cookers and dessert plates that you wouldn’t even know a bed was under there if you weren’t looking for it. It’s basically an oversized “junk drawer”, a place where we throw random stuff when we’re trying to clean the house for company but don’t feel like putting things where they actually belong!
The guest room is the only space in our apartment that we never painted when we moved in, and for almost 5 years the space has been an embarrassing, seldom-used, neglected eyesore of a room that we do our best to keep hidden behind a constantly closed door. When overnight guests would come for a visit, we’d do our best to clean off and make the bed, but the room was always so overwhelmed by junk that there wasn’t much more we could do.
About a month ago, I thought it was finally time to do something about it.
For mother’s day this year I decided to use a little vacation time and go up to help my mom out with some projects around her house, and she offered to come down to the big city to pick me up rather than having me rent a car or take the bus. Thing is, every time my mom comes for a visit, every single time without fail, she asks when we’re going to paint in there and finally do something with that room. Since the room needed tidying anyway, I decided to bit the bullet and bust out my brushes and rollers.
I thought I’d still have time to try to squeeze in a blog post or two before my mother’s day trip, but my painting project quickly snowballed into almost two weeks of spring cleaning and household improvement projects. Before painting I thought I’d go through and toss a few things to make a little room in there, but what ended up happening was much more involved. We ended up going over every inch of the room and throwing away half of the old clothes and random junk we’ve collected over the years. Then we packed up stacks of boxes and old suitcases with even more junk to store upstate in mom’s attic. Then of course, moving all the furniture in there back and forth meant that the painting took much longer than I expected, and once I was finally done I decided to do a little redecorating too. By that point I was on a roll, and while the paint dried I decided to go all in and re-caulk my shower, install new (brighter) light fixtures in my living room, and do some cleaning and planting in the back yard too. My apartment has never looked better but I am POOPED!!!
At some point in this two week span I did find a minute to make (and photograph) these amazing mojo marinated grilled pork skewers, but by the time the dust settled and I sat down for 5 minutes, I was too exhausted to actually write the post or edit the photos.
The next thing I knew mom was here and I was whisked upstate to help her with another laundry list of projects around her house. With the best of intentions I brought my laptop along with me thinking I could edit photos at night before bed, but of course that never happened either.
Time rolled along and before I knew it a month had passed since the last time I’d spent any time with you guys. I literally can’t believe it. I don’t think I’ve ever gone so long without posting, and it felt pretty weird. I’m glad I got so much done, but boy howdy how I’ve missed you!
We’re almost in the midst of grilling season proper now though, so I suppose this recipe is coming at the right time anyway.
This citrusy cuban mojo marinade is absolutely amazing with tender chunks of grilled pork. The sweet citrus and earthy cumin and oregano pair perfectly with the delicate pork and gentle smokiness of a charcoal grill. The original sauce recipe called for the garlic to be pulverized into a paste in a mortar and pestle, but since I was using it as a marinade I decided to make things easier on myself and just crush the garlic in a garlic press. If you’d like to reserve some for later dipping, you probably won’t want chunks of garlic floating in it so the extra work is probably necessary.
I served my pork with some grilled whole red potatoes, gently smashed and covered in creme fraiche and fresh parsley. This pork would be excellent though with a bright citrusy salad, maybe something with black beans, or avocado. Maybe some grilled corn? My wheels are spinning already, and my mouth is watering!!!
Happy grilling y’all! It’s good to be back!
Grilled Mojo Pork Skewers
marinade adapted from serious eats
Mojo marinade:
8 cloves garlic, very finely minced or crushed
1/3 cup of fresh orange juice and 1/3 cup of fresh lime juice
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh oregano, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 to 4 lbs pork loin or tenderloin, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes (about 1/2 lb per serving)
1 to 2 limes, cut into segments, for serving
Directions:
Whisk all marinade ingredients together in a small bowl or measuring cup until well combined.
Add cubed pork to a large bowl with a tight fitting lid (or a leak-proof resealable bag). Add marinate and stir (or shake) to coat. Marinate for 1 to 4 hours.
If using wooden skewers, soak in a tray of water for at least 30 minutes while pork is marinating.
Discard marinade and thread pork chunks onto skewers. If desired, you can alternate with cubes of tropical fruit (citrus segments, mango, etc.) or onion. (I went for all pork)
Prepare and preheat a hot grill. Clean and lightly oil grill grate. Cook pork skewers, turning once, for 3 to 4 minutes per side. Do not overcook or they will become dry and tough.
Let rest, loosely covered in foil, for 5 minutes before serving. Serve with lime segments if desired.
Brooklyn Homemaker 
Ha Tux I am in the second year blogiversary-Giveaway going ah…where did two years go and I blog everyday on 9 web sites for the most past??? Had seem like awhile since you blogged glad you are back!!! Nice recipe!
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Thanks Cheryl! Congrats on the second year!
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Thanks!!! Have a great weekend!
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Welcome back! This looks so delicious! You have been missed, but it is good to focus on other things sometimes and most importantly spending the time with people you love. It really helps get that foodie spark of inspiration going again too. :)
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Thanks Debbie! It’s good to be back and I’m definitely feeling refreshed and ready for summer food!!!
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Welcome back – your room sounds like mine – with a clear path to the printer and that’s about it. Love this recipe. I’ve been thinking about doing a themed BBQ – all things on a stick and this would be a great addition.
Happy Birthday BTY.
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Thank you so much! Your BBQ sounds like so much fun and I’d be totally honored to have one of my recipes included! ;)
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Already pinned it for my menu my friend.
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welcome back! great recipe to get things rolling again. i’m all about my grill right now and have even been known to throw something on there in the rain (stupid may weather). this is going on my must make list for sure. yum!!
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Thank you!!! This weather is making me crazy for sure! I have a birthday bbq planned for this weekend and just looked at the forecast- cold and drizzly all weekend long! NOOOOO!!!!
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So glad you’re back and this is a killer BBQ one. One I’d gladly try, especially as I just picked up some new Mexican oregano. Beautiful photos and don’t you just love baked/grilled red potatoes? So creamy and good.
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Thanks Kevin! I’ve never tried grilling whole potatoes before, but have made them this way three times already this month!
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But are you going to show us the room?!??!!
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hahaha! Good question! I wish I’d taken some good before photos so I could do a full post about it, but I wasn’t thinking that far ahead.
Maybe I’ll put some shots up on instagram soon…
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Yum! This recipe looks perfect for breaking in my new grill :)
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Thanks! I’d be so honored to have my recipe help break in your new grill! ;)
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Glad you’re back, Tux! This recipe sounds amazing. What if I don’t have a grill? Any way I can cook this in the oven? broiler? Thanks!
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Oh! Good question!
I haven’t tried this myself, but I think these would do really well under the broiler – just be careful not to overcook them or they can easily dry out.
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Well, it was worth the wait because these skewers look absolutely incredible and perfectly crave-worthy.
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Thank you!
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What a nice thing you did for your mom! It’s sometimes nice to step back from the things we normally do and focus on the people we love in our lives. I’m excited to try this recipe and we are glad you are back in time for summer recipes. :)
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Thank you Maggie! You’re definitely right about being able to step back and do things for others!
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I love this post for so many reasons! First off, the pics are awesome and fun and summery – I love that red/pink-ish backdrop (is that a table?). It’s just perfect with the green from the limes!
Secondly, #parallellives – at any time, our guest bedroom bed has not one but TWO slow cookers on it, in addition to other random things like blog props, a sno-cone machine, mismatched socks, art supplies, you name it! In the rare event that we actually have a house guest, cleaning off the bed and finding a home for the accumulated objects is at minimum a two day affair. I can’t imagine actually renovating on top of cleaning. Kudos to you on your big achievement!
I’m adding this recipe to my “someday” list – our dumb landlord won’t let us have a grill :( Apparently I don’t look like someone that can be trusted around an open flame, but whatevs. I wonder if this would work well on a grill pan on the stove top?
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OMG Thanks! The red backdrop is a table we have in our backyard so it’s “nicely” weathered with lots of texture.
As for the guest room. The walls are a different color in there and there’s a bit more room to walk around in there since we did our big spring cleaning- but it’s only been a few weeks and the bed is already hard to see under the piles of flatware and dessert plates and sweaters and bath towels!
We’re so lucky to have a crappy landlord who doesn’t care what the hell we do in here as long as we don’t blow the place up. (even then, I think he’d be fine as long as we kept paying rent)
I bet this could work well under the broiler if your oven has one?
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I’ve used the broiler! To melt cheese on nachos :) I didn’t realize it could serve other purposes lol
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Hahaha!!!
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