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December 20, 2011
There are many symbols of the Christmas season, well, like the pineapple.
None other than Ananas comosus.
No one knows for certain how the pineapple became such an essential element in the Christmas decorations of Colonial Williamsburg, but a trip down pineapple lane might provides some answers.
Or not.
It does have somewhat of a racy beginning.
Since it was first named after the reproductive organs of conifers, better known as pinecones.
Spanish explorers, while plundering, stopped long enough to record finding the fruit and marveling at its sweetness.
They knew enough to hack it open.
No, it's not from Hawaii, but in reality South America.
A possible clue linking pineapples to hospitality came in 1640 when diarist John Evelyn wrote about a visit to the English Royal Court when he was served a rare fruit called the “Queen Pine, ”The first of these that I had ever seen.”
He found it quite hospitable that, “His majesty having cut it up was pleased to give me a piece from his own plate."
George Washington visited Barbados in 1751 and said that, of all the tropical pleasures, "None pleases my taste as does the pine."
It finally got the "apple" part to its name when the British, in the 18th century, compared the fruit to that of an apple, and it became "pineapple."
Around this time, noted British architect Christopher Wren began using pineapple finials on churches.
So, from a murky beginning, the pineapple found its way to the holiday season as a symbol of cheer, friendship and hospitality.
If you hang one outside your door this season, no telling whom you'll attract.
Especially nice if you have a pineapple sorbet chilling.
We had a pineapple patch in our garden in Africa. Easy to grow - just cut off the leafy end with ...
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Pineapple upside down cake.
Bring it on!
So, right from the outset, we have our favorite topic -- food.
...and now,let us travel back in time...
Deck us all with Boston Charlie,
Walla Walla, Wash., an' Kalamazoo!
Nora's freezin' on the trolley,
Swaller dollar cauliflower alley-garoo!
Don't we know archaic barrel
Lullaby Lilla Boy, Louisville Lou?
Trolley Molly don't love Harold,
Boola boola Pensacoola hullabaloo!
Bark us all bow-wows of folly,
Polly wolly cracker 'n' too-da-loo!
Donkey Bonny brays a carol,
Antelope Cantaloupe, 'lope with you!
Hunky Dory's pop is lolly gaggin' on the wagon,
Willy, folly go through!
Chollie's collie barks at Barrow,
Harum scarum five alarm bung-a-loo!
Dunk us all in bowls of barley,
Hinky dinky dink an' polly voo!
Chilly Filly's name is Chollie,
Chollie Filly's jolly chilly view halloo!
Bark us all bow-wows of folly,
Double-bubble, toyland trouble! Woof, woof, woof!
Tizzy seas on melon collie!
Dibble-dabble, scribble-scrabble! Goof, goof, goof!
There is nothing better than a little ragtime to start the
day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVPr9ZaWt9I
Lotlot and Roadyacht ~ Don't misunderstand me, I was not trying to say that
y'all aren't great day starters. Pogo and upside down cake are two of my
favorite ways to start a day. I shouldn't be up this early and I should save what follows for after the sunset.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sh-bDwi99RU.
p ~
I'm not sure about that. A little (actually, almost all of) Salma Hayek is not such a bad way to begin a day.
The other one reminded me of our mom who both modeled fashions and worked as a telephone operator.
She could never explain where that ny-un ny-un business came from though.
Very ill and cold as a little boy, I recall a pretty woman wetting my lips with her finger dipped in pineapple juice.
She emptied a small envelope of crystals into the glass of juice, I drank it and started to feel better.
You would all laugh to see a little lurch when Mikael Bloomkvist's or Lisbeth Salander's computers receive a message with the same sound as ours.
Every time.
Pretty good PPV for a buck ninety-nine although I have fast forwarded through a scene or two.
Wish I could spend the day with you opening posters...great way to start the day! I can even relate to the Selma Hayek remark as she is my "girl crush." Beauty and brains etc etc.
As for pineapple, I will go forth to the coffee, pat the cans of pineapple juice in the fridge and let the mind begin to percolate as well. Looking forward to Ivan On Pineapple.
Pina Colada salutations-Don Ho singing "Mele Kalikimaka" and having just visited Valley Forge taking a pineapple to GW fresh from Barbados. He loves the pine. I always expect the welcoming sight for sore eyes; that aloha pineapple salad with marshmallows that is great with the honey baked ham. It is a cool fruit like the coconut- Arte Johnson very interesting- having been in the wholesale florist business having the pineapple on a table centerpiece makes as much sense as making the hothouse loving delicate poinsettia the Christmas flower. Being a human means our symbols and traditions don't have to make complete sense but there better be a market because the Elf on the shelf is watching you.
TT ~
That reminded me of the best ever cole slaw served at a place on Dodge St. in Omaha in the early seventies.
Pineapple bits and the tiniest marshmallows you ever saw. I'd kill for the recipe.
My wife's late mother could keep huge poinsettias going indefinitely… looked like the Vatican over there.
CD ~
Yup, it's the brains alright.
Yep Stoney. I like the sides as much as the main. You can place a halved pineapple and banana peel slit on the grill and throw on brown sugar, cinnamon and butter while you prepare a thick chop and then serve em up as a side with Hawaiian bread. Pork or lamp with something sweet is hard to beat.
lamb or course. I only eat lamp when taking a bath~plugged in of course.
Grilled lobster tails and pineapple.........that's on the menu for the gods!
And, of course, if you're going all out for lobster, it goes without saying (but I"ll say it) the pineapple will be fresh, not canned!
Yummm, anything with lamb!! Love it! Love pineapple, too..! Once read an article that certain foods go with their counterpart blood types, and since I am AB + the article said pineapple is my "perfect food." Anyone ever hear of that correlation?
Crushed pineapple and tiny m'mallows in pistachio pudding to make "Watergate Salad," pineapple in mixed fruit for breakfast, and the ubiquitous pineapple upside down cake, as recommended by lotlot, yes!! Pineapple juice and coconut milk in pin~a coladas...oooh! Calories, but soothing tropical joy!
A pineapple symbol nailed by your front door means you are a hospitable host, and friends and visitors are welcome....I think I see a pineapple in bronze or pewter on the wall of theSepia Train there behind the bar!
Bebe - Are you out of school yet? Kids here in Cherokee County, Ga are out all week this week. However, some (like city of Atlanta) go through today and get out Wed. Hope you are out so you have time off from the kiddies, the school duties, and the early mornings for a couple of weeks....I know I used to look forward to this 2 weeks off!
RY, I'm glad you typed aaaaalll that, so I don't have to. Pogo's a favorite, and I miss him.
Visions of everything but sugarplums y'all have already filled my mind with (saw it coming, you say?). I can't visit long because we're off to Charleston to spend Christmas with friends whose children have also flown, snd too far to get home (we receive one, however, on Boxing Day, from Japan {it isn't a holiday at his university, but MLA meets in Seattle this year & he finagled travel to spend time here}), to which end I'm cooking. Right now, mincemeat tarts, roast pork for not-Christmas-Day, a few other things.
All my life I've known pineapple is the symbol for hospitality, and there's no shortage of
gifts bearing its somehow-majestic self. On beds, oh yes -- and now I've learned we've Christopher Wren to thank for its ubiquity.
Back to the stove. I love all of you, and send warm wishes for a Merry Christmas.
Tonight being the first night of Chanukah, the apple that came to mind is applesauce for our potato latkes (pancakes for those who may be wondering).
Happy Chanukah to you all.
Not to major in the minors, but ni-un and fi-yiv are from the old phoenetic alphabet used by the military. Why? So that nine and five would not be confused when calling cordinates for artillary fire over the PRC 8 and PRC 10 radioes..but I'll bet y'all knew that.
We had a pineapple patch in our garden in Africa. Easy to grow - just cut off the leafy end with 1/2 inch of flesh, let the cutting dry off for a few days, then plant it in moist compost. New pineapple plant.
more on the honor rollNot wishing to teach grandmothers/fathers to suck eggs, the way to tell a ripe pineapple is to pluck out a leaf from the centre of the spiky leaf rosette. If it pulls out easily, the fruit is ripe. Pineapple juice is a great meat tenderiser for fatty stuff such as pork products, and good to drink if you have liver/gall bladder troubles. It has the extra benefit of tasting great - I love it from the ouside in - isn't it a most beautiful fruit, full of the promise of juicy heaven? I like to eat chunks of pineapple with Cheddar Cheese - the real stuff. Must have with a gammon steak is a pineapple ring and a perfectly fried egg. Call me old fashioned, but I know what I like.
Didja know that there is a chemical in Pineapple that helps your body break down too much protein? And that you can wash a pieapple,pull off the greenery, and put the whole thing-skin and all-through a juicer to get that protein digestif aid? And let me say YUMMMMY!! (and of course, a little stimulatif poured gently and mixed in makes after dinner conversation lively...) Bromeliads (if memory servs)
Ha ha, RY~ you must have been tying at the same time as me.
I remember once in my youth getting blood poison during the Dog Days...not a good time for infection. The sweetest memory is of a beaitiful nurse in pristine starched white uniform replete with RN's hat and smelling of fresh plucked (that's PLUCKED!) lilacs giving me a shot for pain. I've always wondered what the shot was then today I realize she might have been an angel and the injection pineapple juice...and so it goes.
For Ivan and Andy http://nachista.blogspot.com/
We like to grill pineapple, chop it up and mix it with chevre and brown sugar and use it as a filling for dessert pierogi. Very very good.
Oh and let me not forget the drink I miss most from Ireland, Lilt. Grapefruit and Pineapple soda, incredibly refreshing and I don't even like soda. I make a copycat recipe and my family loves it. http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/drinks/faux-lilt/ ;
No major disasters yet today, I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed that nothing else goes wrong, or else I may just crawl under the duvet and not come out until next year.
Georgia ~
That is a nice service to provide. Knowing that friends and loved ones are all seen to, tucked up somewhere safe and happy is comforting.
Thanks and Merry Christmas right back at you.
George ~
Thanks for that info. I did not know that and I will fake anything but ignorance.
Thank you Nachista - beautiful
Had to peek in once more -- you know that Peterman Siren Call.
Oh, and at YOU, STONEY (right back)...Beauty is one very fortunate lady. I envision you two...with Ollie, while something good is warmening up on the stove. (Don't worry, all, about "warmening": private joke I can't resist.)
Have you ever considered the fact that the most wonderful foods are the hardest to get at, or into: lobsters and pineapple, for two. I mean you really really have to want to eat a pineapple to chance being impaled, and same with a lobster. Dangerous to handle, delectable once devoured.....................I will not make the obvious comparison -- it being the holidays, and the children are usually near.
One of the reasons I love hanging out at Mr. P's is the constant reminder of something new to learn. After a lifetime in the Hospitality industry I did not know that the Pineapple is a universal symbol of hospitality. I noticed today that a sign for one of our local inns has a large pineapple outline in the background although I have passed it myriad times before.
PARK4 makes a wonderful point about the wonderful foods that are hard to get into (etc!). Learning to prep pineapple for fruit salad is one of the first tasks new staff members do at my places. What a treat when the top is sliced off and the aroma wafts up!
I wonder if the protein in pineapple that RY mentioned is why if I cut up more than 8 pineapples my hands turn red and swollen (I know, gloves)... if anyone wants the world's easiest & delicious recipes for Pineapple Upside Down cake (virtual cakes on their way now to RY, LOTLOT, PAOLOS and STONEY for their very nice wake-up posts today)pls feel free to msg me....
Happy Hannukah tonight!! Latkes.....YUM!
Not too long ago (but I can't remember where) cooks/chefs were asked to disclose some of their worst mistakes. One very sheepishly wrote that she'd decided to marinate some shrimp prior to grilling and she used piniapple juice. She went into a bit of a tizz when going to remove them from the grill she found only the shells. But the worst part was she had been researching and writing about the bromeliade effects. Now wouldn't you just want to run face-first into a wall after that? Latkes are such a treat!!! I don't make them myself and rely on the hospitality of good cook friends. They're one of those foods whose aromas linger far longer than their presence on the plate---and it's hard to clear the air. Blessings to all whose celebrations begin tonight....Happy Chanukah!!!
Carol, Latkes are so easy! And they are a fun thing to make if you have helpers in the kitchen. This is my regular recipe...
http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/sidedishes/basic-latkes/
This is the zucchini garlic parmesan version
http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/sidedishes/garlic-parmesan-zucchini-latkes/
My husband likes it when I make them with shredded sweetpotatos and shredded apples mixed in together with sugar and cinnamon instead of salt and pepper. And I cheat and use frozen hashbrowns to make the recipes even easier.
Tomorrow night we're having sweet and sour brisket, roasted cabbage and carrots, latkes, kugel, and donuts.
P4- Insightful 2:46- You are digging to the core of these topical tangoes lately- I have suspected that Mr. P scrapes the surface and wants us to dig deeper for some undiscovered gems. To go along with my story Banana Pudding Soul, I have been inspired to pen Pineapple Paramour, a curious traveler finding that tasty passion can often be painful, difficult and quite dangerous...On a runaway train in search of food, love, life, and adventure. Bienvenidos, Senor Piña, indeed. Preparing my psyche for the murder mystery I'm in on New Year's Eve at our local Italian Restaurant.
ChefDeb, take a close look at almost any furniture in the "colonial" or "Williamsburg" tradition, and you'll find pineapples carved everywhere. Even on bedposts, which I think is kind of funny ha ha, but anyway, mostly on dining room furniture, pineapples pineapples pineapples. Go to Colonial Williamsburg (or their website) and to their shop, and you'll be hard-pressed to not see a pineapple motif. And napkin rings and silver toothpicks and candle snuffers, pineapples rule. Also fabrics from the "colonial" period...pine apples every where. They were a welcoming bunch, those colonists!
It's snowing here. Slow falling huge flakes. Melt when they touch the ground. I'm still dreaming of a white Christmas so it doesn't take much to make me happy.
PARK4--yes, I have always noticed a proliferation of pineapples in home decor, I just thought (or didn't think) it was because pineapples are so attractive, or in some cases, indigenous to the region. That old saying "you don't know what you don't know" was never truer than today.
Please send some snow to the N.E. There is an 11 year old arriving with his heart set on a White Christmas (I don't think I have ever had one. Ever. I know last year it snowed on Boxing Day, the 26th).
The biggest scandal of my daughter's teenage years was the night they ate slices of pineapple soaked in vodka. Oh my! Those kids were so toasted...it is still a night none of us will forget. What I learned that night is that when someone is 5 inches taller than you are and you can't get them out of the car, leave them in the car! My bones still ache from that 20 minute walk (normally 1 minute). No punishment needed---hangover did the trick. For years.
Recovering from cataract surgery and running on 200x....please excuse any typos.
Pineapple, one of my favorites!
A centerpiece including a pineapple, clove studded oranges, apples, holly and cedar is a tradition in our home.
Jezebel sauce, a Southern Favorite, is served with cream cheese or goat cheese and crackers or with grilled meats....yum. Some versions even include freshly grated ginger. Most recipes use pineapple preserves, dry mustard, fresh ground horseradish and cracked black peppercorns.
I Have some "shine" in the freezer right now, steeping with chunks of fresh pineapple.
Miss Blue- Oh shades of "Cherry Bombs" soaked in that good old Mountain Dew and the mention of medicinal pineapple chunks makes my rheumatism cry out for Rx.
I would love to eat pineapple, but alas, I am allergic to all fruit except pears. Eating pineapple hurts like what I imagine eating a cactus would be.
Miss Blue~ Recovering from catarct surgery? You kept very quiet about that. Better soon, hun. Tell me about Jezebel sauce.
Carol~ I managed to dissolve a whole chicken breast in pineapple juice, forgetting t was in the back of the fridge. Not a pretty sight.
ChefDeb~ Do you think your skin irritation from wrestling numerous pineapples could be due to those
spikey leaves and the sneaky little spikes in each section of the skin.
Nachista~ I don't like fizzy drinks much, but I do like Lilt. Heaven knows what's in the commercial version, but wheh you are desperate for a cold, refreshing drink, it certainly hits the spot.
Spring Rain~ You are not supposted to eat the skin!
Pineapple soaked in vodka. Oh that sounds rather good - I'm laughing ChefDeb, I can see how you overdid it on pineapple and got a headache. Kids do that quite often, at least around here. When I was younger it was those awful marachino/marasca cherries that used to be the downfall of the little kids, I suspect because those cherries were ever present in the drinks my parents' generation preferred - whiskey soaked cherries lay in abandoned glasses, at little kid coffee table level, easy pickins. My cousin Peter got tight one Christmas, he was the youngest, and it was funny funny funny until my aunt found him....In my home we haven't any of those cherries, but Middle Grandson managed to get loopy on a glass of champagne left alone for too long. We know to hold on to our drinks around here, or they'll get held onto by someone else with little hands and fast feet. Nothing like seeing one's Middle 4 year old Grandson with a champagne hangover (over hang, he calls it). I'm pushing root beer this year for the under aged elementary school group. I'd encourage something healthy, but that would go over like the Hindenburg. Anyway: it's Christmas, time for too much of everything for everybody.
ChefDeb: I am with you as far as not having known about the pineapple as such a symbol of festiveness and holiday. I am glad that you said it first.
Tommy T,
Not only do I have fresh pineapple chunks steeping in "squeezins" but I also have fresh peach with clove and cinnamon, and fresh pear with clove and vanilla bean in the freezer too!
I make a drink we call Liquid Pearl with fresh lemonade, a splash of POM -Cherry and a shot of Pineapple Shine with a floater of Peach/Clove/ Cinnamon shine. Of course you are welcome to hang in the kitchen with the cook and sip from the jar just out of the freezer.
Hazel,
There are many versions of Jezebel sauce....most include pineapple preserves, apple jelly, horseradish ( grated) black or white ground peppercorns and Coleman's dry mustard. Process or blend until well mixed.
Hmm, might try a little Jezebel with my Latkes n sour cream tonight. I always do dairy in Judith's honor.
In the spirit of the season
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx0WauS9Sus
KSS & ChefDeb~ The growth pattern of pineapple is somewhat.... phallic. I think that was alluded to in Mr P's introduction. As juvenille plants, they do make children giggle and maidens blush.
Nachista ~ Sounds wonderful.....enjoy!
that and a three-d Fibonacci sequence....
Miss Blue, hope you are comfortably back to a healthy 20-20 soon. Be well
Park, I always pictured your home with some kind of pineapple carving in every room. You've got the personality for it for certain.
We have an old sofa tucked away in a spare room with pineapples carved on each end but it's hospitality has abandoned it a long time ago when it comes to comfort. As for moving it, I swear it has the gravitational pull of ten planets. I think I will just saw off and keep the pineapples and sawz all the rest to the alley.
I love slicing up and juicing a fresh pineapple. Pineapple in the can....not so much. I find it to have a fishy aftertaste. Is that just me?
Georgia, it is such a pleasure to have you back on a regular basis. Thought you should know that.
Stoney and Park.....your snow is still rain on my side of the border.
Peace out and be well....
Miss Blue~ Your Jezebel sauce sounds wicked.
Miss Blue- you have captured the spirit of the season & straight from the jar reminds me of Nicholson's scene from Easy Rider when George Hanson takes a swig and starts flapping one arm like a chicken and says Neh! Neh! Neh! Fuh! Fuh! Fuh! Indians.
Nachista----I read PIoneer Woman everyday, just like Peterman.....and think Tasty Kitchen recipes are so real--usually easy and tasty and just made for the home cook. I've made Latkes in the past......just don't enjoy their 'aroma' forever. Thanks for the link....I may get brave on a day when I can open the windows and just go for it!! I'm hoping you're recovered from the bad day you had yesterday. BAH HUMBUG on everyone you met!!!! Thanks again.....Miss Blue cataract surgery????? hope everything went well......if you were reading and writing as well as you did, I'm sure it did. Continued great recovery. My daughter collects pineapple motif 'stuff'---which is nice since it's easy to find....we gave them a pineapple door knocker for Christmas several years ago and it is, indeed, a symbol of welcome........well, that and the dogs who are licking and jumping.....
It's duvet time in Wales. Nos da, dear people. x
PeterLake, why thank you suh, about me being hospitable. I hope I am. As for pineapple in a can, it's so much easier to get at than the real thing, that's the thing. I don't know how to de-pineapple a pineapple, but I imagine it involves a large kitchen knife- and it's not a good thing for me to try to operate knives over paring knife size. Stuff usually happens when I wield a big knife...unfortunate-for-me kind of stuff.
I know what I need to cut up a pineapple: a sous chef! I'm watching "Chopped" and it seems these guys all have sous chefs in their real lives, and sous chefs do the jobs of a plethora of kitchen utensils. I bet a sous chef could make mince meat out of a pineapple in no time at all. ChefDeb, have you got a sous chef? and do you find him or her terribly useful? I bet they are.
Park4----My husbands shudders when he sees me with a big knife......I am terribly accident prone.........but, that doesn't stop me from taking the big chef's knife to a fresh and luscious smelling pineapple and carving up several containers of sweet gold to eat for a few days....It's truly much easier than it appears to the naked eye....they are not that forbidding
A tribute to the pineapple would not be complete
without invoking Williams and Sonoma, Bob Dole and Psych.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udFpiTeYzng
So there you have it. Happy Hanukkah,
everyone.
Paolos---Thank you! Friday nights are not the same without Psych (and Monk)....I always enjoyed it...............And, Bob or not, there is nothing to compare to a fresh Hawaiian Dole pineapple consumed on the islands with the surf beating the beach and cool breezes drying the dripping juice on your fingers..........ahhhhh.....................Next best thing is to buy one at the airport to consume directly on your arrival home.
and I like Mangoes,too....it's bananas that are hard to eat; once you dicard the skin,and that big fleshy seed,there is not much left.....
PARK4--indeed I have a sous chef! Unfortunately my son is only visiting until next week and then I shall be sous chefless again. But over the years I have had many sous chefs and that is why you will find me at times sniffingly chopping parsley and thinking "oh where is...." when I need him/her!!
Carol, I agree with you, I hate frying anything in my home. We do latkes on our camp chef outdoor stove at my parents house...even when it is snowing. The stoves produce enough heat to keep the cooks warm and the house doesn't smell acrid afterwards. That is also how we cook our Navajo Fry Bread.
I have bookmarked over 200 recipes from other people at tasty kitchen, and I have 87 and counting of my own posted. If you want to see all of mine send me a friend request, my handle over there is "The Suzzzz". I agree about the recipes being real, I've yet to try a recipe there that hasn't been easy and turned out well. My recipes don't come from a test kitchen, I don't sit home all day making pretty food and photographing it, my recipes (the family ones aside) were born out of necessity, something I can make quick that I know is going to be filling and taste good. My "focus groups" are my husband, our families, and my co-workers...all are brutally honest. If something isn't good I'll know and I go back and change it.