Tag: pineapple

We have been getting wonderful baskets of fruit and vegetables from Bountiful Baskets.  In these baskets comes the best of the freshest in season ingredients. For several weeks we have been getting the best pineapples.  We have been enjoying eating them cut in chunks for a snack, side dish, or fun addition to salad.  

This week I was determined to do more with our pineapple.  Fresh pineapple upside down cake seemed to be in order. In looking for recipes I came across a wonderful recipe for Fresh Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes.  I did make two slight changes to the recipe. For a slightly richer carmel sauce I used dark brown sugar.  I didn't have pineapple juice on hand so I used apple juice in place of the pineapple juice.  These came out wonderfully and I will continue to make them using my variations. 

Hawaiian night has come and gone.  And so now I must post about the adventure.  Here is how finding a recipe for Hawaiian night went.  Hrm, well this recipe says it is Hawaiian, but that doesn't mean it really is Hawaiian.  Maybe they just put some coconut and pineapple in it and now they "believe" it is Hawaiian. Really, there are a lot of recipes like that.  So, I spent much time researching via the internet.  I found several plan a luau sites that were full of all sorts of recipes.  They proved to be very useful for finding ideas.

For my dish I chose Butter Mochi.  I love mochi ice cream balls. (Oooh! I just found a recipe for making your own at home.  I so have to try this. Sorry, back to this post now.)  So I thought that baked Mochi would probably be just as yummy.  The first hurdle to hop over was what recipe to use for Butter Mochi.  There are about 100 different ways to make Baked Mochi including recipes that add  flaked coconut or chocolate, not to mention the varying versions of just a Butter Mochi recipe.  Some recipes were calling for blocks of butter while others were only calling for 1 stick (or 1/2 cup butter).  I have only this evening come to conclude that when these people wrote their recipes they really weren't speaking of 1lb blocks of butter but simply 1/4lb sticks.  This is where being specific in writing a recipe comes in handy :)

And now for the recipe I choose after many, many hours of reading recipe after recipe.   Sumocat's Butter Mochi.  I did not stray from his recipe except in the pan I baked it in which means the temperature had to be adjusted accordingly. I used a glass baking dish and not a metal pan so I reduced the oven temperature to 325 degrees.  I chose to use a high quality butter (vs choosing a store brand) since butter is playing a star role in this recipe.    

I loved the end result this produced.  It has a wonderful butter flavor to it.  I was worried about over cooking.  I could have left it in the oven for about 5 minutes longer allowing the center to cook more without any threat of burning.  

The interesting part of this dish is that everyone bites into it expecting something completely different than what it is.  Mochi is a chewy product. People think it is going to be cakey or brownie like and it is not that at all.  So many will be confused by the texture and then be turned off of the dish all together, which really is a shame because I find it to be super delicious.  Ah well, more for me!

This Cranberry Salad recipe is another passed on from my aunt. I have been making it for several years now and always get excellent reviews. It is a great dish for the summer time as well.

Start this dish the evening before you are serving it. In the morning stir in the remaining ingredients and the dish will be ready when you need it. A great make-ahead dish.

Be sure to buy cranberries in November and store them in your freezer (they keep for 1 year that way). Cranberries are not available the rest of the year.

Cranberry Salad

• 1 bag (12 oz) cranberries
• 2 cups sugar

Grind the cranberries using a food processor. Put into a bowl and combine with the sugar. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

• 1 1/2 cups walnuts
• 1 bag (10.5 oz) marshmallows
• 1 pint whipping cream
• 1 can (20 oz) crushed pineapple, drained

In a large bowl, add the remaining ingredients to the cranberry mixture, stir. Refrigerate for at least one our before serving.

I was at a baby shower yesterday and they had this great pink dip to go along with some fresh fruit (strawberries, raspberries, etc) and I had to know what it was. The answer I got was "It's Fluff!". Well okay, "But, what is Fluff?" Are you ready for this? It is 2 ingredients combined together...a jar of marshmallow cream and a small tub of strawberry cream cheese. And it is excellent.

Fluff

1 7oz jar Marshmallow Cream
1 8oz Strawberry Cream Cheese Spread

Combine the ingredients and serve with fresh fruit or graham cracker sticks.

While verifying the sizes of containers for you I found this site with an entire list of different ways to make a "cream cheese fruit dip". Here are two of them that I will have to try. They sound so good! (Note: The recipes below did not originally have names, these are just the names I have assigned them. Thanks.)

Coconut Fluff
8 oz. cream cheese
1 sm. jar marshmallow cream
1/2 can cream of coconut

Blend cream cheese until fluffy; add cream of coconut (be sure and stir the can up well before using). Beat in marshmallow cream.

Pineapple Fluff 1 8oz pkg cream cheese
1 small can crushed pineapple w/juice
1 small jar marshmallow fluff

Mix all and chill.