Mami's Magic Mojo

One of the more common--and more useful--mantras for people with MS is to focus on what you CAN do, as opposed to all the things you can't. Sometimes I have days where I feel the second list is much longer than the first, so it takes an effort to switch that up. Often, it's the little accomplishments that make me feel really good about how I'm living with MS. Yes, I'm raising two great kids, yes, I have my own business and wrote two books. But gosh darnit, I can make mojo criollo all by myself!!!

Let me back up a little bit. If you didn't already know, my family is from Cuba, and I'm very fond of a  marinade commonly used with Cuban dishes called mojo (pronounced MOE-hoe). It's easy to find in Florida, but not so much here in Arizona. The key ingredient is bitter orange juice, which again is found easily in a Latin supermarket in Miami. However, I came across this rarity in the strangest of places.

In front of my son's school, there are about a dozen orange trees with no less than several hundred oranges brightly dotting their green leafiness. I asked the principal the other day what they did with all the oranges, thinking they donated them to a food bank or sold the juice to raise money for the school. She told me that sadly, they weren't edible. I asked her if they were--GASP!--bitter oranges, to which she replied that they were. She must have thought I was insane when I started freaking out with joy, then tried to calmly explain how they were a key ingredient for a magical Cuban marinade called mojo criollo. She promptly made arrangements to give me a box filled with oranges, and a few days later, my wonderful husband was squeezing away to make a pitcher full of the tart and pungent juice.


A couple of days after that, I set myself up to sit on my walker in the kitchen with all the ingredients and measuring devices laid out. I used a recipe from La Caja China website that was really easy to put together, and about an hour later, I made a big mess and four containers of mojo! After it sat for 24 hours in the fridge, the aroma was amazing. Since then, we've used it for marinating Cuban steak (thin-cut top round), pork chops, and chicken. They ALL turned out incredible! Again, it was one tiny little thing, but just the fact that I was able to put this simple marinade together by myself made me--and the rest of the family--pretty happy.