My first pineapple

Vicki of the Unusual Coleslaw blog calls them “Hedgehogs”, Ann calls them “Satellites” and My First Cook Book calls them “Spikes”!

My First Cook Book, Jennifer Fellows, illustrations Ann Rees; London 1980

Cheese and Pineapple Spike  

Tin of pineapple slices or chunks; a piece of cheese; cherries (glacé, tinned or fresh); 1 large potato; tin foil, cocktail sticks; knife, sieve, 2 plates

1 Wrap the potato in foil

2 Carefully open the tin of pineapple. Using the sieve, pour off the juice

3 and 4 Put the pineapple pieces onto a plate, and if they are not cubes, cut each slice into six or eight. On the other plate, cut the cheese into small pieces

5 Skewer chunks of cheese and pineapple on a cocktail stick and wedge into potato

6 Continue until the cheese and pineapple are finished

7 Add a few cherries to give a more colourful effect.

Thank you Darani and Bella for your expert cooking demonstration!

A favourite op shop find.

WIKI tells us that:

"A toothpick is a small stick of wood, plastic, bamboo, metal, bone or other substance used to remove detritus from the teeth, usually after a meal . . . The toothpick . . . is the oldest instrument for dental cleaning. The skulls of Neanderthals, as well as Homo sapiens, have shown clear signs of having teeth that were picked with a tool.

Toothpicks made of bronze have been found as burial objects in prehistoric graves in Northern Italy and in the East Alps. It was also well known in Mesopotamia. There are delicate, artistic examples made of silver in antiquity, as well as from mastic wood with the Romans.

In the 17th century toothpicks were luxury objects similar to jewellery items. They were formed from precious metal and set with expensive stones. Frequently they were artistically stylized and enamelled.

The first toothpick-manufacturing machine was developed in 1869, by Marc Signorello . Logs are first spiral cut into thin sheets, which are then cut, chopped, milled and bleached into the individual toothpicks."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toothpick

For a more detailed treatise on the subject of toothpicks check out this website

http://www.slate.com/articles/business_and_tech/design/2007/10/stick_figure.html

written by Henry Petrosk, professor of civil engineering and professor of history at Duke University. He is the author of a dozen books on engineering and design, the latest of which is The Toothpick: Technology and Culture.

Another favourite op shop find.