Thinking of Sunshine

Has the gloom of winter gotten you down? Then check out the island-inspired desserts in the Tropical Escapes feature in this month’s “Everyday Food.”

I decided to try the grilled pineapple with coconut sorbet recipe this afternoon.

Instead of cutting the pineapple into four thick pieces as the recipe suggested, I used my AWESOME pineapple slicer from Crate and Barrel, which automatically cuts the slices thinner (while it cores and peels!!) Check this out! It leaves the “shell” of the pineapple intact in case you want to serve a fruity drink in it later:

In all honesty, the pineapple I bought was not the greatest. The pineapple slicer would ordinarily leave me with complete rings, but this time the rings were falling apart. I don’t know if it’s just not prime pineapple season or if I simply picked a bad one.

The rings further disintegrated when I tossed them with the honey and cayenne pepper. Here they are grilling on my griddle:

Since my pineapple was all broken up, I decided to make it more of a sorbet topping rather than the star of the dish (with a little sorbet on the side). The finished product was tasty, though it probably would have been better with a superior pineapple. My husband said it “tasted like Hawaii.”

I’ve grilled pineapple au naturale before and it was good, so I don’t know that the honey and cayenne were really necessary. Also, cleaning my griddle is a big pain, so I’m not sure the results were worth that. Oh well – The recipe brought a bit of sunshine to our otherwise murky afternoon!

How do you like to spend a lazy gray day?