Just for fun

I’m not sure why, but several times I’ve been asked for advice on how to cut a pineapple.  Sometimes by total strangers.  I don’t know if I just look like someone who should know, or what.

Well, I may not be an expert pineapple-slicer.  But strangely enough, I used to work at a golf and country club, and the chef there did indeed teach me how to do it right.  So the last time I had the opportunity, I took these pictures so that you too can learn to cut pineapples the way the elite do it. 🙂  Please remember that this is really only one way to slice it.  It’s good any way you slice it, especially if you buy it fresh from a market in Mexico…

The pineapple originated in South America.  It eventually became popular in the Caribbean and there became known to the Europeans when Christopher Columbus and his crew visited.

Pineapples are difficult to ripen at home (I’ve heard it said that you should turn them upside down to ripen them), so it’s best to find them fairly ripe at the market.  A good pineapple will have deep green leaves, and will smell sweet.  It should be free of bruises and very soft spots.

First, slice off the top and bottom of the pineapple, as shown.

Now you’re going to slice off the skin, using a knife, from top to bottom.  You can see that I’ve already done one slice here.  Now I’m going to look on the side and use that as a guide for my next slice.  At this point, I just want to cut off the skin, but I’m not worried about all the eyes.  After a few slices I’ll be all the away around the pineapple.

You’ll see that I happened to peel this pineapple in seven slices, so it is now septagon.  This will give the slices a nice look when we’re done.  At least, in theory.

Now we’re going to remove the eyes – here’s how we do it.  We’re going to take the knife and put it at an angle to the pineapple.  We’ll make two slices at an angle to take out each eye.  You’ll see what I mean in the next picture (I hope) – this is the hard part to describe.

You may have been tempted to stick the point of your knife into the pineapple and twist out the eyes.  You might save a bit more of the pineapple, but you might also mangle it, and you won’t have the cool look that I almost succeeded in getting at they end (hey, nobody said I was actually good at this!).

Now you can see what I meant by cutting at angles – there are cuts all around the pineapple, all at the same angle.  It looks almost like a screw, except of course the grooves are short and don’t go all the way around.

It’s time to actually slice the pineapple.  Try to slice it nice and evenly.  If you cut out the eyes properly, you might get a nice pinwheel effect in the final slices.  It worked for me a couple times, but of course I didn’t take a picture of those slices, so too bad for me.

I simply sliced out the core at an angle on each half slice, but another nice way to do it is with a round metal cookie-cutter, if you have one the right size.  Eating the core won’t kill you, but it’s a little hard.

There they are, in all their glory!  Serve them however you want, don’t let me intrude upon your creativity.  They’ll even keep in the fridge for a couple of days – but who wants to wait that long?

Now your family and friends can sit down and enjoy the fruit of your labours.  There’s nothing like fresh pineapple!

If you don’t believe a word I said and want a second opinion, take it from Tony Tantillo.  He has a good overview of pineapples here. 😎

It’s the time of year for chocolate again.  Actually, any time is the right time, but with Christmas just past, Valentine’s Day coming and then Easter, it’s a perfect time right now.

Have you ever noticed how, at this time of year, all kinds of studies come out to tell you that chocolate is good for you?  Have you ever wondered if it’s true?  Well, to some extent, it is.  But there’s a catch.  Most of the studies focus on the actual cocoa bean – meaning that the chocolate you’re probably getting in your supermarket grocery store just won’t cut it.  In fact, there’s quite a large movement of people saying that milk chocolate shouldn’t be called “chocolate” at all – there simply isn’t enough chocolate in it!

So if you want real chocolate, where do you go?  Well, you need to look for something that is at least 70% cocoa.  Thanks to the publicity, there are more and more chocolates that fulfill this standard.  But even they aren’t created equal.  Some are delicious, others aren’t quite as good.

If you really want to give really good chocolate a try, check out some Galler chocolate.  Galler Chocolate Noir is one of the best chocolate bars in the world.  Galler is a family company – a Belgian family.  But not only is this a Belgian company, this is the company that supplies chocolate to the Belgian court!  So if you really want to experience the chocolate culture, you’ll have to pay a little extra, but you might as well try the best.

If you want something for the kids, Galler even has something for them.  Try their famous Cat's Tongues.  This is a box of individually wrapped chocolates.

Wondering about some of the health benefits?  You may have heard that chocolate is an antioxidant.  It’s a good source of magnesium and folic acid.  It’s being investigated for its use as a treatment for coughs.  And it tastes pretty good too.  Just remember, eat it in moderation!

Chocolate, of course, originates in Mexico.  Where would we be without the Mexicans? 🙂

The last week or two have been pretty difficult around here.  Sickness did its spin around the house, so far with only Nathanael escaping.  We had the thought that if we could teach him to do the cooking, cleaning, phoning, paperwork and all the other things that need to be done, that we’d be all set!  But we decided to let him be a kid for a while.

Even today I’m trying to do some work in short bursts, because I’m having trouble sitting up for too long a period of time.  Hannah seems to be more or less better, and Shari is getting there.

We’ve been very busy with ministry related things, and also have had some challenges with the children – I’ll leave it at that rather than taking 12 pages to explain!  But I will tell you about one of the more dramatic yet less serious mini-disasters from the last few days.

On Friday, Shari and I were both not feeling well.  We ended up having a busy day anyway, and by the evening we were both very tired.  I decided I was going to get Hannah to bed early so that we could all get to bed early.  I thought I would motivate Hannah to get ready quickly by making a simple JELLO recipe with her.  She likes to cook.

Everything was going great.  We were right on schedule, until we got to the Tupperware JELLO mold.  I had forgotten that this particular recipe used Coca-Cola.  Did I get all the fizz out of the Coke before I put it in a sealed Tupperware JELLO mold, you ask?  Well…er…in my weakened condition it wasn’t until the next day that I actually made the connection.

I wouldn’t say it was an explosion.  Basically, the bottom fell out of the JELLO mold.  Yes, it would be an exaggeration to say that purple JELLO was everywhere.  But it was under the sink, on the kitchen floor, on the hall carpet, on my pants, sweater, socks and shirt, on the stove and fridge, in the fridge, on the counter, on food cannisters, on cupboards, and under appliances.

So my late evening was spent scrubbing out clothes (thank you, Shout), mopping several times (it’s still a little sticky down there), scrubbing various things in the kitchen, and cleaning our carpet (pour club soda on the stains – it works wonders.  This is a Queen of Clean tip.)  Needless to say, this was not an early night for us!

On another note, the next day we finally made the JELLO.  It turned out very well, after we learned not to seal it in a JELLO mold.  If you want to try it, check out the recipe I’ve included in the extended text…