Thanks Jurrassosaurus!

What wonderful names people have in cyberspace!

Jurrassosaurus has sent us a link to more information on the wonderful Scottish Pineapple.

http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/airth/thepineapple/index.html

Grow your own.

Our son Ky has a pet ferret called Fantamus. I now have a pet pineapple called Paloma. Growing your own pineapple is a challenge especially when you are not living in the tropics but I thought if they could grow them in the hothouses of 17^thC Europe I could have a go here in 21^stC NSW.

For instructions on how to grow your own pineapple log onto http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s1902702.htm

or for more detailed instructions
http://www.rickswoodshopcreations.com/pineapple/pineapple.htm
This website also sells great gadgets for coring and slicing pineapples with the elaborate name of the 'Stainless Steel Pineapple Easy Slicer, Corer'.

 

We started by twisting the green top off the base and peeling some of the lower leaves away to reveal the brown bumps (root primordial). I then left it in a warm dry place to dry out to prevent rot. I’ll keep you posted on Paloma’s growth (or demise as the case may be . . .) Anne.

 

 

Plantation salad.

As Ruby advised in the ‘Golden Circle Tropical Recipe Book’:   

 “Plan your salads with colour in mind – and give every salad the touch of gold with pineapple. Combine the golden flavour of pineapple with white – cottage cheese, hard boiled eggs, cucumber, onions, eschalots . . . with green – lettuce, celery, cabbage, asparagus, capsicum . . . with orange – carrots, shredded swede, oranges, matured, tasty cheese . . . with red – tomato, beetroot, radishes, red capsicum.”                                                      

Plantation salad.

Line your longest salad platter with crisp green lettuce leaves. Then arrange salad vegetables in neat rows, like a plantation. Start with a colourful flavour centre – Golden Circle’s Tropical Pineapple Pieces and tender, sweet Beetroot. Arrange rows so that each provides bright colour contrast for its neighbour, and include the ‘protein serving’ (the meat, cheese, egg or fish ingredient) in the plantation rows. You will think of many variations of this ‘fix-it-easy’ salad meal.

Imagine you’re in Hawaii.

Well, I’m afraid this casserole didn’t fool me into thinking I was on the verdant islands of Hawaii but it was quite pleasant especially with a lovely glass of white wine that our daughter, Ella, had given us produced near Orange NSW. It looked very ordinary - tossing chopped parsley on top was a good idea Ruby! Anne.

Hawaiian Steak Casserole.

440g can Golden Circle Pineapple pieces, 750g blade or chuck steak, 3 tblspns flour, ½ tspn salt, ¼ tspn pepper, 2 tspns dry mustard, ¼ tspn nutmeg, 1 large onion, 2 tblspns butter, 2 tblspns vinegar, 2 cups stock or water, 1 tblspn chopped parsley.

Trim steak. Cut into 6cm pieces. Mix flour, salt, pepper, nutmeg and mustard. Coat steak thoroughly with this mixture and brown lightly in hot butter in heavy pan. Remove meat, add sliced onion and brown lightly, then add balance of flour mixture and allow to brown. Stir in stock and vinegar, continue stirring until gravy boils, then return meat and pineapple pieces. Turn into an ovenware dish and cook in moderate oven till meat is tender, about 2 hours. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve immediately with rice or jacket potatoes.

Old favourite with a new twist.

Macaroni  Tropical from Ruby Borrowdale's Golden Circle Tropical Recipe Book.

440g can Golden Circle Sliced Pineapple, 250g macaroni, 1 ½ cups grated tasty cheese, 1 tblsp butter, ½ cup each cooked green peas, chopped onion, chopped red capsicum and chopped celery, 475ml thin white sauce, 4 rashers crisply-fried bacon, salt and cayenne pepper.

Drain pineapple slices. Chop 1 slice and add to white sauce. Lightly fry onion, capsicum and celery in butter, add to white sauce together with the peas, 1 cup of the grated cheese and chopped bacon. Cook macaroni according to directions but do not rinse. Add white sauce mixture to macaroni, stirring to blend. Turn into buttered casserole. Top with remaining cheese, bake in moderate oven (180° C) till bubbling hot. Top with remaining pineapple slices during last 5 minutes of cooking time. Serve immediately.

Instead of using one casserole I dished out the Macaroni Tropical between individual ramekins, Anne.

In praise of the pineapple

Skiourophile informed me last night that a truly delightful pineapple teacosy is on display in her skiourophillia blog:

http://skiourophilia.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/crochet.html

Pineapples appear in all kinds of surprising places, like the Jamaican coat of arms. I was recently exploring the show room of a certain extensive Scandinavian design store in Sydney when I came across a plastic pineapple in a trendy kitchen display! Sadly it wasn't for sale! Anne.

As Fran Beauman says in The Pineapple: King of Fruits
"Why is the pineapple so special? In one surprising sense it is indeed ideal. Made up of hundreds of separate fruitlets, its spirals embody the gradations of the Golden Mean - it is mathematically perfect. But it is more than that - for years a focus of traveler's tales, it is a treasure of sight and scent and taste." 

Make your own pineapple.

Needle-workers have preserved the pineapple as a symbol of hospitality in family heirlooms over the centuries. Items include pot holders, towels, drink coasters, tablecloths, decorative flags, curtain borders and welcome mats. This fabulous table setting from “Crocheting Tablecloths and Placemats” (edited by Florence Weinstein, Dover Publications NY, 1975) may remind many of you of childhood visits to great aunts and grandmothers.

Ann and I both treasure doilies made by various women in our families such as these ones from Ann’s collection.

 

 

The following website is worth a look – pineapple fashion! Socks and suncatchers, doilies and dishcloths, bags and box covers, earrings and edgings, there’s even a pattern for a pineapple monokini ! http://www.crochetpatterncentral.com/directory/pineapples.php

A basic pineapple motif incorporated into these can be made from the following instructions, partly acquired from

http://crochet.about.com/library/weekly/aa102399.htm

Step 1: Chain 4 (= first double crochet)

Step 2: Work (1 double crochet, chain 2, 2 double crochet) all in the 4th chain from the hook.

 

Step 3: Chain 4 to turn (= first treble), work 12 trebles in the chain - 2 space (13 trebles)

Step 4: Chain 4 to turn (= first treble), skip first treble, work (chain 1, treble) in each treble across, ending with the last treble worked in the top of the chain - 4.

 

Step 5: Turn. Work (chain 3, single crochet) in the first chain - 1 space, (chain 3, single crochet) in each chain - 1 space across (12 chain - 3 spaces)

Step 6: Turn. Skip the first chain - 3 space, work (chain 3, single crochet) in each chain - 3 space (11 chain - 3 spaces)

 

Step 7: Turn. Skip the first chain - 3 space, work (chain 3, single crochet) in each chain - 3 space across (You will have 1 less chain - 3 space at the end of each row)

 

Repeat Step 7: Continue to repeat Step 7; eventually you will have a row with only one chain - 3 in that row.

 

Step 9: Working around the motif, make 4 chain, 1 single crochet into each single crochet, 4 chain.

 

Step 10: Into each 4 chain loop work 1 double crochet, 1 treble, 1 double treble, 1 treble, 1 double crochet until you return to where you started, tie off.