Pork & Fruit Kabobs

Father's Day was great! We ate shishkabobs (not these ones, but these are our favorite). Mark was nice enough to cook them for himself :). I assemble, Mark grills. Lucky for me, he grills most nights because he's great at it and then I can have some fun with the side dishes. After all the times we've made these, I still haven't found the perfect side dish (in addition to rice). If you have suggestions there, pass them on.

Pork & Fruit Kabobs

1 lb pork tenderloin
3/4 cup apricot preserves
2/3 cup scallions, minced
1/3 cup tamari
1 tbsp. fresh ginger, peeled and minced
2 tsp. hot chili oil
4 medium boiling onions, cut in 1/2
8 1-inch cubes fresh pineapple
1 medium orange, cut into 8 parts
1 green pepper, cut into 8 parts
2 cups hot cooked long-grain rice

Trim fat from pork; cut into 16 1-inch cubes. Combine pork and next 5 ingredients (through oil) in a large zip-top plastic bag. Seal and marinate in refrigerator 2 hours. Remove pork from bag, reserve marinade. Alternating items, thread pork cubes, onion halves, bell pepper pieces, pineapple cubes and orange pieces onto 4 12-inch skewers. Place kabobs on grill. Grill 5-7 minutes on each side until pork is done, basting with reserve marinade.

I'm breaking the rules and posting 2 recipes in this post at Mark's credit. His most recent enjoyment with cooking is in simple pleasures with things like herbed butter and mayonnaise. The new favorite is Chipotle Mayonnaise on hamburgers.

Chipotle Mayonnaise

1 cup mayonnaise
1 chipotle chile in adobo sauce, minced
1 tsp. adobo sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients together and let blend at least 10 minutes.

This recipe is representative of one of the things I love about Mark. He's happy with simple things. Reminds me of the time he was so delighted with some new boots we bought him that he laced them up and slept in them the first night. We laughed together then and we still laugh together about it now.