Pineapple rocks!

Stacy Rucker at designbysunzen has given us permission to use her photo of a lovely pineapple quartz and blue pearl necklace she has made. Thanks Stacy.

 “ 'Fruit Quartz' are a group of colourful, translucent materials which are known by names such as ‘cherry quartz’, ‘blueberry quartz’, ‘strawberry quartz’, ‘kiwi quartz’ and ‘pineapple quartz’. They are often made into jewellery or decorative objects.

They are synthetic materials that are essentially a form of glass.

Similar varieties of natural quartz do exist but they are very rare and expensive. Genuine pineapple quartz comes from Antsirabe, Madagascar, and is a form of citrine with an unusual growth pattern of crystals around its sides similar to pineapple fruit.”

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit_quartz

 

And this photo by Rob Lavinsky was available through Creative Commons on Wiki. Thanks Rob.

Robyn, who creates “handmade jewellery with meaning and spirit”, believes pineapple quartz has healing and metaphysical qualities. If you are interested check out her website at:

http://crystalsandjewelry.com/crystalformations1.html

Eating rocks in Kenya!

I had to include this somehow – our niece Alice, in Kenya, wrote in her blog last year about some chewable clay that pregnant women in Africa enjoy! Yum, I wonder if you can buy a pineapple flavoured variety? Anne.

http://aliceclintontravels.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/big-five-of-the-week-vii/

"Golden Circle Pineapple" The Musical !

Ruby Borrowdale’s “Golden Circle Tropical Recipe Book” has starred with Gemma Ray on “Spicks and Specks” to the tunes of “California Dreaming”, “Blue Velvet” and “Hey Big Spender”!

Fabulous!

Something dad can cook

George’s Smoko Cake

440g can Golden Circle Pineapple Pieces, 125g butter, 180g brown sugar, 1 cup water, 1 tblsp molasses, 1 tsp mixed spice, ½ lb seeded raisins, 2 eggs, 1 cup plain flour, 1 ½ cups self-raising flour, 1 tsp bi-carbonate soda, ½ tsp salt.

Drain pineapple pieces. Place butter, sugar, water, molasses, spice and raisins in a saucepan. Bring to boiling point, stirring occasionally. Cool a little. Beat in eggs. Sift and add plain flour, self-raising flour, soda and salt. Beat well. Turn into well-buttered 23cm cake pan. Press pineapple pieces into top. Bake in moderate oven 180°C about 1 hour.

We enjoyed this hot out of the Webber Q. An extra delicious addition would be hot butterscotch sauce and cream! Anne

Bill’s Brunch Scramble

440g can Golden Circle Pineapple Pieces, 1 sliced onion, 2 sliced tomatoes, ½ chopped ham, or other cooked meat or poultry from fridge, 4 eggs, 1 tblspn chopped parsley, salt and pepper, hot buttered toast.

Drain pineapple pieces. Fry sliced onion and tomato in 1 tblspn butter. Sprinkle with chopped ham. Beat eggs with fork, add salt and pepper. Pour into pan, sprinkle with pineapple pieces and parsley. Cover with lid and cook 5 minutes or until eggs are set. Serve on hot buttered toast.

“Hole-in-One”

440g can Golden Circle Crushed Pineapple, 4 thick slices bread, 4 eggs, butter, salt and pepper, 1 tblspn mustard sauce.

Drain pineapple and stir in mustard sauce. Cut a hole in each slice of bread with drinking glass or knife.  Melt sufficient butter in frypan to cover surface. Fry bread until golden-brown on underside, then turn. Break egg into centre of each, cook until starting to set. Cover with lid until eggs are set. Remove to serving plates. Heat pineapple and mustard sauce in same pan and serve with fried bread and egg.

Charlton’s Steak and Eggs

440g can Golden Circle Sliced Pineapple, 5 pieces rump or T-bone steak, 5 eggs, salt and pepper, coleslaw and crusty bread rolls, butter.

Drain pineapple slices. Pre-heat griller. Place steaks on griller and cook under high heat until brown. Lift off grilling rack. Break eggs into juices in bottom of pan. Turn steaks, brush with butter and season with salt and pepper. Grill until almost cooked. Add pineapple slices to rack and continue cooking until browned. Serve immediately with eggs and the liquid from grilling pan. Add a side dish of crisp coleslaw and crusty bread rolls.

Puppy meets Pineapple

"Sinbad" Intrepid Adventurer of the High Seas

Tropical Calypso

These glamorous cocktail glasses belong to our friends Phyl and Greg. Luckily for me they were happy to taste a Tropical Calypso which was very refreshing on a hot afternoon. However, if I make it again I will serve the sauce hot, Anne.

Tropical Calypso

Drain a 44og can Golden Circle Pineapple Pieces and reserve liquid. Prepare homemade ice cream mix, folding in pineapple pieces and one tablespoon chopped mint before freezing. At serving time, pile ice cream in sundae dish and be generous with this special sauce: Place syrup from can in small saucepan over low heat. Add 3 level tblspns cornflour blended in a little cold water, 1 dstspn lemon juice and 1 dstspn sherry. Bring to the boil and simmer for 1 minute. Serve hot or cold.

Turn up the sound! These two youtubes will definitely have you groovin’ around the kitchen!

David Hasselhoff’s Calypso style ‘Limbo Dance’

and John Denver in 1977 singing ‘Calypso’!

Meringue - Popular Worldwide!

My niece, Katrina, who is presenting living in Oxford is a wonderful cook. She presented some of her lucky work colleagues with a Pineapple Meringue Pie from the Longreach Red Cross cook book that we featured in a previous blog, Anne.

Here is a link to Katrina’s blog post

http://www.ourbigtrip.net/

Pineapple Meringue Pie

Base:

180g (6oz) plain biscuit crumb, 90g (3 oz) butter

Add melted butter to biscuit crumb. Mix well. Press into 23cm (9”) greased pie plate to form your shell. Chill.

Filling:

1 X 400g can Nestle Sweetened Condensed Milk, 1 X 440g can Golden Circle Crushed Pineapple, ½ cup lemon juice, 2 tblspns caster sugar, 3 eggs, separated

Mix egg yolks with condensed milk, pineapple syrup and lemon juice until smooth. Add crushed pineapple. Pour into pie crust. Beat egg whites until peaks form and gradually beat in the caster sugar until stiff. Spread on top of filling. Bake in a moderate oven until the meringue is golden.

Serves 8. (Hot or cold)

Solo Salad

For each serving allow 1 slice each white and brown bread, 1 lettuce leaf, 1 slice cheese, 1 slice cooked meat, 1 small tomato, 1 slice Golden Circle Tropical Pineapple, and a few slices of Golden Circle beetroot. Butter bread, and fill with the meat, cheese and lettuce. 

Cut sandwich diagonally and top each with half a pineapple slice. Serve with tomato and beetroot. You may like to prepare mayonnaise.

Ruby had a sweet tooth I suspect!!!

This may not have been the most sensible activity in this summer’s heat (ice cream melts amazingly quickly when you want to take a photograph!) but I couldn’t resist the challenge of the playful colour and flavour combinations of these desserts, Anne.

Spring Feeling

Fill a boat-shaped sundae dish to rim with Golden Circle Tropical Fruit Salad. Have ready lime jelly set ½ cm thick in shallow tray. Top fruit salad with strawberry and vanilla ice cream, sprinkle with tinted coconut and decorate with leaves cut with pastry cutter from lime jelly.

Coral Surprise

Spoon vanilla ice cream and raspberry jam into a sundae dish, taking it up the sides. Fill to rim with Golden Circle Crushed Pineapple. Top with a scoop of strawberry ice cream, dust with crushed nuts and decorate edges with leaves cut with pastry cutter from shallow-set jelly.

Note: My Aunt Joan embroidered this tablecloth for my mother's engagement in 1950.

Sun Worshipper

Fill a chilled parfait glass with alternate layers of Golden Circle Crushed Pineapple, chopped marshmallows and chopped red jelly, and chocolate ice cream. Finish with a layer of pineapple. Top with a generous swirl of whipped cream and a cherry.

Smugglers’ Surprise

Half fill a sundae dish with Golden Circle Pineapple Pieces and top with a large scoop of vanilla ice cream. Surround with chopped red jelly. Quickly press pineapple pieces on to surface of ice cream to resemble pineapple skin, dust with crushed nuts and add a pineapple top made of angelica strips (or candied spearmint leaves).

Sea Sprite

Fill a sundae dish to the rim with Golden Circle Pineapple Pieces and chopped red jelly. Add a scoop of orange ice cream topped with a button meringue and decorate with a starfish of lime jelly. Cut the star shape with a pastry cutter from shallow-set jelly.

Glass Bottom Boat

Pile Golden Circle Crushed Pineapple and blancmange (or milk jelly) into a wide-bowl sundae dish. Place a small scoop each of lime and vanilla ice cream on top and separate with chopped red jelly. Dust each scoop with hundreds and thousands and chopped angelica (I used chopped candied spearmint leaves)

Star Gazing

Line dish with Golden Circle Pineapple Pieces, making peak in centre. Place ice cream scoop either side. Garnish with crushed nuts, chopped jelly and whipped cream, and decorate each ice cream scoop with a star cut with pastry cutter from shallow-set red or green jelly.

We have decided not to make Ruby’s Pineapple Cheesecake or Pineapple Chocolate Cheesecake as we’re not keen on risking it with raw egg dishes, Ann and Anne.

Warning: Smoking is a health hazard!

“Tasty Puff. Puked Up Pineapple. Tasty Man Tasty.” The manufacturer’s words not mine!

Les acquired this over the Internet from Nimbin (of course) though it is made in the USA.The label tells us in unbelievably small print (I needed a magnifying glass):

“For a Tasty Puffing experience add a few drops to any cigar, pipe tobacco or shisha. . . This product is intended for adult consumption . . . Don’t put it in your eye. DUH! . . . Ingredients: Natural and Artificial Flavouring, Colour.”

You’ll be pleased to know it also included a health warning! Anne.

Ice Cream Chocolate Top

Golden Circle Tropical Fruit Salad topped with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce.

Just for fun

Sea Urchins

Fill a shallow sundae dish with Golden Circle Crushed Pineapple. Add a small scoop each of Vanilla and Lime Ice Cream. Top the lime scoop with crushed nuts and the vanilla scoop with green tinted coconut. Give each ‘urchin’ a quick smile with a jelly bean of contrasting colour.

Palm Island Pie

I hate to admit it but these cheeky Sulphur Crested Cockatoos preferred a shredded wheatmeal biscuit to my Palm Island Pie! The pastry was a little heavy going but it wasn’t that bad! Anne.

Palm Island Pie.

Pastry: 2 cups plain flour, ½ tspn baking powder, 2 tblspns sugar, 1 egg, ¼ cup cornflour, 110 gms butter, ½ cup lightly toasted coconut, ½ cup milk.

Filling: 440g can Golden Circle Crushed Pineapple, 2 tblspns cornflour, 1 egg, 230 gms chopped pitted dates, ½ cup water, 1 tblspn butter.

Heat pineapple till boiling. Thicken with cornflour blended in water. Remove from stove. Beat in egg and butter. Add dates.

Pastry: Sift into basin flour, cornflour and baking powder. Blend in butter. Add sugar and coconut. Beat egg in cup, add milk to half fill. Stir into dry ingredients to make firm paste. Roll out two thirds to line 18cm square layer pan. Add filling, cover with remaining pastry. Bake in moderate oven (375°F) about 25 minutes. Sprinkle with toasted coconut.

My mother-in-law, Joan, has recently taken up lawn bowls and by strange coincidence the symbol on her bowls is . . . a pineapple! Anne.