Pineapple

When I saw that Central Market had pineapples on sale, I knew that I would be buying one. I didn't really have a plan but I wanted to play around with the sweet juicy fruit. When we were in Hawaii last year, we had wonderfully sweet pineapple that I haven't tasted since then. The pineapple I bought was sweet and tasty but still not the same thing as what I had in Hawaii.


Chewie and Abby with the pineapple

Bacon wrapped pineapple

1 pound Bacon
1 can Chunked Pineapple (large Chunks)
½ cups Brown Sugar

Cut the pound of bacon in half. Put the brown sugar in a shallow bowl. Take a half a slice of bacon and dredge it through the brown sugar. (I actually sprinkled the brown sugar over the pineapple in a bowl, then wrapped the bacon around the pineapple). Put a chunk of pineapple on one end of the bacon slice and roll up. Secure with a toothpick.

I cooked these on the grill, but I will warn you don't walk away for to long. I think the sugar dripped off causing a huge flame. I came back to the grill just in time to save these little guys from a charred death. The original recipe called to bake the bacon wrapped pineapple at 375 degrees, for 25 minutes. On the grill, I only cooked them for about 15 minutes.

Our overall impression of this appetizer was that it is a sweet salty goodness. The pineapple still retained it's juiciness and the bacon was nice and crisp. We will be making these again... and perhaps we might add a sliver of jalapeno for an extra kick.

Since we have so much pineapple I needed to find a different recipe to use it. I bought a couple of Halibut filet's for dinner, so I thought a fruity salsa would be good. I marinated the fish in lime juice, orange juice, olive oil, garlic, onion and a squirt or two of Sriracha sauce. I marinated the fish for about 45 minutes but there wasn't a lot of flavor to the fish. Overall the pineapple salsa was a really good addition to the fish. I think it would also go wonderfully with shrimp quesadilla’s.

For the salsa:


1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 cup finely diced pineapple
1/3 cup finely diced, seeded English cucumber
1/3 cup finely diced red onion
2 tablespoons finely diced jalapeno (didn't have this, but the slight heat would have been nice)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint leaves



In a small bowl whisk together the honey and the lime juice. Combine the pineapple, cucumber, onion, jalapeno and mint in a medium bowl, pour the dressing over and toss to combine. Set aside.