Cinnamon Roasted Pineapple with Macadamia Nut Cream

I love free samples. When I was a kid and we'd go to Costco, my brother and I would try to sidle in to get second and thirds of samples we really liked, not realizing it's okay to take more than one. It was pretty funny and we thought we were so sneaky.

I got this recipe from a free sample at Whole Foods. It's pretty easy and without the macadamia cream, is universally popular. Try it on a cooler day this summer (or modify it for the grill).

Cinnamon Roasted Pineapple with Macadamia Nut Cream via Whole Foods:

Serves 4

¾ c. raw unsalted macadamia nuts or cashews

1/3 c. chopped pitted dates

1 c. boiling water

1 fresh pineapple, peeled, cored, and cut into ½-inch-thick slices

½ tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/8 tsp. sea salt

In a small bowl, combine the nuts and dates with boiling water and let soak 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Arrange pineapple in a single layer over the paper and sprinkle with cinnamon. Roast until pineapple is very tender and lightly browned, about 30 minutes.

Pour nuts, dates, and soaking water into a blender and add vanilla and salt. Blend until very smooth, about 1 minute, stopping to scrape down the sides of the blender once or twice. Serve drizzled over the warm pineapple.

This recipe hits all the key diet trends: vegan, wheat free. Don't worry about all of that. No matter what your diet consists of, there is only one word for this and that word is delicious.

30 Before 30: Pineapple Cake (Pastel de Pina) (#4)

Aaron and I have gotten into fajitas lately. It's probably because I bought him this book for his birthday (look for it in an upcoming post) and we've been trying a lot of different recipes from it. Due to the 30 before 30 nature of this month, I wanted to make a dessert to go with our fajitas. My first thought was flan, but surprisingly my Mexican cookbook does not have a recipe for basic flan. It has pumpkin flan, coconut flan, coffee flan, and chocolate flan, but not your regular, caramel flan. I knew I could find a recipe for it online, but that is not part of the challenge. So I dug deeper and found this fast and easy cake. I think it would be better for brunch than after dinner and could use some more pineapple, but overall, a tasty way to end a fajita dinner.

Pineapple Cake (Pastel de Pina) via 1,000 Mexican Recipes:

Makes 1 8-inch square cake, about 9 servings

1 c. all-purpose flour

1/2 c. plus 2 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 c. canned crushed pineapple with juice

1 large egg, beaten

1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan and dust with flour. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. In a medium bowl, mix the pinapple, egg, and vanilla. Add to the dry ingredients and mix well.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. It's a little on the thick side, so you'll need to push it around evenly. A spatula really helped me with this. Bake until dark golden brown on top and a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Remove the cake from the oven to a rack and cool completely in the pan. Cut the cake into squares and serve directly from the pan. The recommendation is to top it with ice cream or whipped cream. Do it.

Store, covered, at room temperature up to 3 days.

This is a very moist and easy cake. I think it would be even better if you mixed in some pineapple juice and some of the crushed pineapple with the whipped cream before topping it.

Recipes Complete: 4

Recipes to Go: 26

Pineapple Sangria

Finally! The last party post from my birthday party that was over a week ago.

What party would be complete without some sort of fabulous cocktail? I first made this sangria blanca last summer and it was so delicious, I had to do it again for my birthday party. Because I knew I was making pineapple salsa, I decided buying a whole pineapple was the way to go. Half for the salsa and the other half for the sangria. Perfect. This is fairly easy to throw together, especially if you just buy pineapple chunks, but even with a whole pineapple it’s not too difficult and the results are well worth it.

The original recipe, found here, calls for pineapple soda. I took a hint from the comments on said recipe and went for lemon-lime soda instead because I don’t know if I’ve ever seen pineapple soda and if I have, it was probably in Europe, which is not exactly helpful. If there isn’t enough fruit in here for you, find some other melon or something tropical and toss it in. Last summer saw the addition of watermelon along with the orange and pineapple. Go crazy! It’s sangria!

Pineapple Sangria from Cookie via epicurious.com:

Makes 8 servings and some very happy people

3 c. pineapple juice
1 bottle dry white wine, such as Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc
1 c. brandy (pear brandy is nice but not required)
½ ripe pineapple, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 cup lemon-lime soda
1 bunch fresh mint, roughly chopped
1 orange, sliced



In a pitcher, combine the juice, wine, brandy, pineapple, and soda with ice and stir. Pour into large wineglasses and garnish with the mint and orange.

Fruit Salsas

Just like I did for Aaron’s birthday, I made a bunch of snack for mine. However, unlike Aaron’s birthday, I didn’t want to be cooking just before or during the party, so I needed to come up with stuff that could be made ahead of time. The first thing that came to mind was salsa. Fresh, homemade salsas are delicious and taste even better if the flavors can mingle for a bit before serving. The two recipes I have listed here are more from my big old list and from my fabulous Mexican cookbook. Breaking down a pineapple isn’t the most fun thing it the world, but the results are so worth it. Plus, it’s something fabulous to snack on while making your salsa. Okay, so maybe that’s not in the official directions, but that’s how I do it. Same with the mango.

So here we got with part 1 of snacks from my birthday party!

Mango-Avocado Salsa from 1000 Mexican Recipes:

Makes about 1½ cups

1 large mango, peeled and finely diced
1 ripe avocado, peeled and finely diced
2 green onions, very finely chopped
1 jalapeño chile, finely chopped
2 Tb. fresh lime juice (I didn’t actually measure this, I just used the juice from one whole small lime)
¼ tsp. salt (kosher), or to taste
A bunch of cilantro, chopped (this is my addition)



Put all of the ingredients into a medium bowl, and stir gently to mix. Serve cold. Since I prepared this about 4 hours ahead of time, I waited to add the avocado until just before serving. This was such a delicious salsa. Oh my gosh, I never wanted to stop eating it. The flavors are clear and meld perfectly. I cannot wait to try this with fish or chicken.

Pineapple Salsa from 1000 Mexican Recipes:

Makes about 2½ cups

½ fresh pineapple, about 1½ lb.
½ medium red bell pepper, finely chopped
2 jalapeño chiles, seeded, veins removed, and minced
1 scallion, minced (I like that in the previous recipe, which is 2 pages away from this one, they call for green onions but in this one it’s scallion)
1 Tb. white wine vinegar
1 tsp. sugar
½ tsp. salt (kosher), or to taste
2 Tb. chopped fresh cilantro (I didn’t even eyeball this, I just put in a bunch)

Cut off both ends of the pineapple and then cut off the hard thorny skin all the way around the pineapple. Cut out the “eyes.” Cut the pineapple in half lengthwise and cut out the center core from each half. Cut the pineapple in 1/2 –inch pieces and put them in a large bowl.



Add the remaining ingredients and stir gently to combine. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 6 hours. Serve cold.

This one was also super delicious. But what did we eat the salsa with? That, my friends, is for the next post. Ooooh! Mystery. (Not really.)

Fried Rice and Teriyaki Chicken

The other night Aaron and I had our friends over for dinner. Earlier in the day Aaron had asked me what I wanted to make so as to run it by our friends before we went shopping and got started on the whole thing. I panicked and couldn’t think of anything, even though I was staring at my huge to-cook list. Fortunately for me, Aaron stepped in and he decided that he would cook dinner. Tasty dinner made by Aaron and I only have to do prep? Brilliant!

Aaron has done fried rice before and, as he puts it, he improvises as he goes along, so it might be a little inexact. There was some help from a few epicurious recipes, past experience, and our 1000 Chinese Recipes cookbook. The teriyaki has an actual recipe though. Initially we had the fried rice and the chicken separate, but the chicken got mixed into the leftovers, which is what you see as the final picture. I was so hungry that I didn’t even take a photo of the food before I ate it Wednesday night. It was quite tasty too! My leftovers got a bit of extra pineapple, but that’s because I’m pineapple obsessed.

Vegetable Fried Rice and Teriyaki Chicken from Aaron’s brain, 1000 Chinese Recipes, and epicurious.com:

Serves at least 6

For the teriyaki:
1/3 c. soy sauce
2 Tb. mirin (Aaron subbed in citrus sake)
2½ Tb. cider vinegar
2 Tb. sugar
1½ Tb. chopped peeled fresh gingerroot

4 chicken breasts, roughly chopped

For the rice:
5-6 c. cooked rice (eyeballed by Aaron)
3 eggs, whisked
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 carrot, finely chopped
½ sweet onion, finely chopped
3 small heads of broccoli, chopped
6 pineapple rings, chopped
½-¾ c. scallions
Decent splash of soy sauce
Oil



For the teriyaki sauce, simmer sauce ingredients, stirring until sugar is dissolved, until reduced to about 1/2 cup. This simmered and reduced for forever, but didn’t quite get thick enough. We will have to try it again. It was still quite good. Strain out the gingerroot and set aside.

Heat a wok and oil over high heat. Throw in chicken and cook through, about 5 minutes or so. Set aside.

In a separate pan, cook eggs over high heat and scramble into small pieces. Set aside.



(look at how gorgeous my broccoli was!)



Heat oil in the wok again and add garlic. Cook until brown or fragrant, less than 1 minute. Add the rice and then the veggies. Cook for about 5 minutes, turning frequently. Aaron eyeballed this whole process. The more you do it, the easier it is to tell when it’s ready. Add soy sauce, cook for about 1 minute to add flavor and color. Throw in scallions and egg at last minute and toss thoroughly.



Toss chicken with teriyaki sauce. Serve rice and chicken immediately. This whole meal was super tasty and quite filling. We’ve had it for lunch a few times as well. This makes a ton and is quite the crowd pleaser.

Grilled Chicken with Grilled Pineapple, Apples, and Pineapple-Citrus Reduction

I love it when Aaron cooks. The other night, after a plethora of my vegetarian dishes, Aaron wanted some chicken and fruit. We used the apple recipe from this dish and invented the rest. One of my very favorite things in the world is pineapple. I could eat it all day long. While Aaron was prepping everything, I ate the rest of the pineapple rings from the can. Mmm. Now I wish I had more.

Anyway, this is what Aaron did:

2 chicken breasts
4 pineapple rings (reserve juice from can)
Favorite herb/chop rub for chicken (A used TJ’s Steak and Chop Mix)
Juice from lemon, lime and ½ tangelo (orange would be fine)
Zest from above three
Cooked pasta (with a bit of butter)
Apples from Chicken with Apples and Cider



Heat grill (we have any awesome Panini press that works for this, but Mr. Foreman’s grill and the like are also fine). Rub herb mix on both sides of chicken and place on grill with pineapple rings.



In the meantime, mix juice from lemon, lime, tangelo, and pineapple with zest and bring to a boil in a pot. Reduce to a simmer and cook until thick. We started this a little too late and as a result it was still a little liquidy. It was still very tasty though.



One chicken is cooked and pineapples are grilled, place chicken over pasta, cover with sauce, and surround with apples. Place grilled pineapple on top and enjoy.

I love the tropical flavor. Plus, an excuse to eat tons of pineapple? I’m in!