Let's talk about pineapples. Again. Because I've talked about them before... when I decided to grow one. For the record, the pineapple is still alive and well. He got a bit sunburned after I put him back outside on the first hot day of the year, and that's my fault. I should have put him under an umbrella or lathered him with sunscreen. But he's alright. Just kind of crispy in spots.
Pineapple has been on my mind for a couple of weeks now. Mainly because I'm nearing the end of my pregnancy and I keep hearing that eating pineapple will induce labor. I don't believe that. I believe Sofia will come when she's darn well ready, regardless of what I eat. Plus, I'm not a fan of home induction methods. One, some of them are ridiculous, and frankly, doing something to push the baby out before its ready is just a recipe for disaster. It can be bad for the baby and make you sick. I read about a girl on my birth board (because being on bed rest for weeks now allows me to watch the Casey Anthony murder trial and also spend countless hours on Babycenter.com) who ate like 7 pineapples over the course of two days. All she did was get a mouthful of canker sores and her baby was still 3 days overdue. Then there's the thing with people drinking castor oil. Seriously? Sorry, but I don't need to crap my brains out. It's my firm belief that the only reason that works on occasion is because it dehydrates you and if you do it close to your due date, it'll push you over the edge and out comes baby. But sometimes doing this to yourself can shock the baby, then the baby poops in the womb, and then you have meconium in the lungs....it's just not worth it. Be patient.
In any case, I'll eat pineapple in moderation just like any other food (except for Nutella, which I do not eat in moderation), and it will make no difference.
Today for lunch I made a pineapple grilled cheese sandwich. Don't knock it until you try it. It's really good and my grandma used to make them.
I also decided to make pineapple upside-down cake for July 4th. Some people seem to think that this cake is some sort of Hawaiian thing, but it's not. Not culturally anyway. It's purely American Housewife cake and it originated in the 1920s when the Hawaiian Pineapple Company asked people for unique recipes using pineapple. They received about 2500 recipes, many of which included different variations of this cake recipe. I'm pretty sure traditionally, you use a cast iron skillet (hence, also called 'skillet cake). You put the skillet on the stove, caramelize brown sugar and butter, put pineapple slices on it, then pour homemade butter cake mix over it and bake it, then flip it over onto a serving platter and have a mouth orgasm. I've had it that way and different ways and that's my favorite. But I don't have time for that. So I do it the way lots of other people do it. And that's with a cake pan.
On a side note, I need to emphasize that plain yellow cake baked in a sheet pan topped with pineapples is not pineapple upside down cake. It's yellow cake with pineapples on top of it, and calling that pineapple upside down cake is about as asinine as making lasagna using cottage cheese and calling it Italian. I've seen both of these things done at my church potlucks, and because I'm a Christian woman, I did not cause a scene. But I wanted to. Don't even get me started on this.
I am too lazy to make homemade cake mix, so I used a box of Betty Crocker Yellow cake mix. Sue me. I'm 9 months pregnant, it's July, and I don't have central air in my house.
Here is what I did today. Husband helped. :)
1 box yellow cake mix
2 sticks of butter
Brown sugar (enough to cover the bottom of the pan)
2 cans of pineapple rings (you won't use them all, but you will use most of them)
1 jar maraschino cherries
Prepare the cake mix as directed on the box, with one variation. It will call for 1 and 1/4 cup of water. First, drain the pineapple reserving the liquid. Use the pineapple juice from the can and top it off with water if necessary to have 1 and 1/4 cup of liquid. Put this in your cake mix instead of just plain water.
If you are using two round pans (or a round pan and a square pan like me, since I didn't have two matching round pans), melt two sticks of butter separately and put one in each of the pans. Sprinkle the butter with brown sugar. I didn't measure. I put a lot though because I wanted it to be extra caramelly. Put pineapple rings on top and place the cherries like so. Before you do the cherries, put them on a paper towel to drain most of the juice from them.
Equally divide the cake batter into each pan.
Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes.
Remove from the oven and run a knife around the edges.
After about 5-7 minutes or so, flip each over onto a serving platter. Like this!
You can eat this warm if you want....with ice cream or whipped cream... or let it cool and get all crunchy on the edges. Super good. I could eat this all by myself. Look how excited Husband is!!
No comments:
Post a Comment