Preserving My Sanity With Pineapple Jam

I am one sick puppy. I know that some of you reading this are fasting - as am I - and yet I throw this image in your face? This crispy, crunchy, ooey, gooey, melty, cheesy, sweet n salty bite of utopian pleasure?! Yup, there's a special corner of hell reserved for me. I guess I can't help myself when it comes to mind-control. Silly thing just keeps wandering back to the contents of my refrigerator, and coming up with crazy ideas about how to use, and eat, everything in it. *Sigh* Dear God, please be patient with your incorrigible servant - I just need to get through writing this blog, and then I won't even think about food till sundown! Pinkie promise.

All right, now that I've worked out my deal with The Big Guy, let's get down to the business at hand. While many of you may already have made and stored your gorgeous jams and preserves for the upcoming winter months, here is one tropical fruit that you should try squeezing in.

Meet the prickly pineapple. Her personality is akin to the sexy librarian. All prim n proper, with that tough, don't-touch-me persona on the outside. But come night-time, some dance music, maybe some alcohol, or maybe just the right kind of company, and her pointy armor comes flying off to reveal the exotic party-animal inside!

Now let me tell you, I didn't choose this pineapple. It chose me. I got it as a house-warming gift. Clearly I haven't been in the mid-west long enough, because I was told this is the tradition here. Surprising, and a little puzzling, but clearly delicious. For the longest time this pineapple sat on my kitchen counter, and waited for its fate to be revealed. I finally discovered it when I came across this recipe for Pineapple Tarts by Shirley over at Kokken 69.

I didn't make tarts out of it, and I've tweaked the recipe to give it more oomph, but I've already used this jam in a variety of ways. all of which have made me tres tres happy. So go on, take your own prickly pineapple out on a date, and you'll soon see how much fun she really is!

Pineapple Lime Jam

Makes one jar

Click here for printable recipe

Ingredients:

1 pineapple, peeled, cored and chopped into chunks

1 lime, zest and juice

1 cup sugar (or more if your fruit isn't sweet enough)

1 small cinnamon stick

2 cloves

Method: Mix all ingredients in a saucepan, and bring to a boil. Then turn down the heat and let it simmer for about an hour. Mash up the fruit and remove the cinnamon stick. Let it all cool, then pour into a jar with an airtight. Refrigerates really well for a number of months.

Verdict: One teaspoon of this tropical sunshine was wonderful with a dollop of cream cheese, all wrapped up in a puff pastry bundle. Or you could also schmear it on some freshly baked biscuits. Of course, it worked perfectly simply spread on toast in the morning.

But my favorite application by far, was sandwiching it in with some sharp cheddar and slices of turkey, then grilling it till all the flavors melded together to form one heckuva glorious anytime-sandwich.

One a side note, my heart swelled up with joy to see such a huge portion of the food blogging community rise up to support a fellow blogger, Jennie, as she is going through an unimaginably tough time. I didn't make pie, but I did buy one, and shared it with some wonderful friends. Sharing food is a universal expression of love, and I *heart* all my fellow foodies.

Summer Adventures and Strawberry Shortcake

A very happy, blessed Ramadan to my fellow patient and persevering Muslims! (especially the ones in the US and Canada, where we have especially long fasts this year) If it seems weird that I should be blogging about food at a time when I am craving it but can't have any, you are right. I guess I'm a wee bit masochistic after all. So join me, would you?!

Between all my travelling this busy summer, I managed to squeeze in what I think is an uber-essential Michigan summer activity. Berry picking. And because I was crunched for time, I went strawberry picking, cherry picking and raspberry picking, all in one day. And what a hot, sweltering day it was. Know how you can spot the newbie pickers from the rest? They're the ones wearing their "nice" clothes and pretty sandals. Personally, I didn't think my jeans were nice or anything - they were just my regular errand jeans - but apparently wearing jeans of any kind on a day when it was 95 degrees outside is a rookie mistake. The thing with jeans is that in winter they're as useless as toilet paper against the cold, and in the heat of summer they weigh you down like you're wearing a sack of potatoes on each leg. Or maybe those are just my legs, and I'm blaming the jeans for nothing. Ugh. Horrible thought. Must. Move. On.

Strawberries! Fresh, juicy, sweet, summer strawberries! Even being hot and sweaty didn't stop me from enjoying every moment of searching for and picking those ruby-red berries. It was just Baby B and me that day, us two city kids, living the country life for a few fun hours in an endless field of strawberries. The air was ripe with their aroma - just divine! Baby B and I were equally fascinated with the process of hunting for the best berries. Of course, B was much less fussy than I was. At first he let me do all the picking, but soon enough he was diving right in, plucking any red berry he could find and devouring them as quick as you please. I've got to admit, it was pretty adorable watching him happily digging around for his precious "bejjies" then smiling every time he ate one. If some dirt and a bug or two went in along the way, I don't really want to know.

Cherries were easier to pick - being that they hang down in bunches from trees - but a whole lot messier. Picture Baby B with cherry juices running down his face, and me with cherry smears all over mine. It's impossible to look grown-up and sophisticated in such a situation. Well ok, so maybe there was more eating than picking going on. And am I giving away my lack of fitness by admitting that it's easier to reach up than bend down? Probably.

Baby B was a total trooper though. He was ready to call it a day after the cherries, but I bribed him with the promise of more bejjies, and off we went to pick some raspberries! As much as I love them, little did I know that they grow on some rather prickly bushes. So I ended up keeping B out of them with one hand, picking the berries with the other, and juggling the basket in another. Wait, what? That doesn't sound right. But that's how I remember it, so go figure. Thank goodness for sun block. By the end of the day, both mama and baby were an alarming shade of red to match all the berries we picked. I loved it! It was a day I'll never forget. I want to do it again!

My head was overflowing with ideas of what to do with all the berries, and the strawberries were the first to be experimented on. I decided on a dessert that lets you enjoy the fruit in its whole, ripe sweetness, without mucking around with it too much. Meet the runner-up to Ms. Americana Dessert Of All Time - Strawberry Shortcake!

Hungry little me went straight to my staple biscuit recipe, courtesy of Monsieur Tyler Florence, his Ultimate Buttermilk Biscuits. But I made them better (Better Buttery Buttermilk Biscuits ... mmm, boyoboy), because I added some chopped fresh rosemary and thyme. That's me, living on the culinary edge! (not)

So let's throw this all together, shall we?

Summery Sweet Strawberry Shortcakes

Click here for printable recipe

Ingredients:

Freshly baked sweet biscuits, like these (with chopped fresh thyme and rosemary added to the batter if you like)

Strawberries

Sugar

Heavy cream

Chopped fresh basil (optional)

Method:

1. Sprinkle the washed, hulled berries with a tbsp of sugar plus some chopped basil and let it sit for about 15 mins.

2. Whip the cream with some sugar till it reaches soft peaks.

3. Pull apart the fresh biscuits. Pile on some strawberries on the bottom half of a biscuit. Plop a dollop of whipped cream on top. Then put the biscuit lid on the whole concoction and dig in. If you must, assemble the remaining shortcakes for the rest of your starving, free-loading friends.

Verdict: This is a fun dessert to experiment with. You can change up the flavor of the biscuits, for instance. Add some dark cocoa powder (ooo naughty). You can marinate the berries in sweet balsamic vinegar (ooo exotic). Go crazy. Just remember that the better the fruit, the better this dessert will be. And the quicker you can get this dessert from its inception to your mouth, the happier you will be.

I still had a lot of strawberries left over. So I paired them with some slowly melting vanilla ice-cream and settled in to enjoy summer's bounty. Nothing beats that.

Well, except seeing this face peeking out at you when you're blogging. Little monkey.