Happy Monday and welcome to a new week!  I was unsure what to share with you today because I have so much in the hopper and ready to go and there is so much going on in the coming weeks.  As you know from last week, September 1st marks the start of HELP THE STUDENTS event and I cannot wait.  It will be a one month series, featuring simple, quick meals that anyone can prepare with simple everyday ingredients.  They will also focus on being cost effective as well as packing lots o’ flavor.

Before we get into today’s recipe which I pretty much love – I want to share some feedback I have heard over the blog in the last few months both positive and negative.  The positive feedback just reassures me that I am doing something I love and will continue to do.  The negative feedback is what I really love.  Sound bizarre?  Not really.  I find the negative information drives me to deliver a better blog, add more value for you the reader and an enhanced experience for all to enjoy.

Positive Feedback

• Amazing Photography
• Tasty recipes that I can actually make
• Love the Zesty Tips
• Fun to read

Negative Feedback

• Not enough Vegetarian recipes
• Want more posts each week
• More pictures of zesty and his family
• Would love to see more E-books of recipes

On to the Food

Ever need an idea oh how to use up a fresh summer pineapple in a different way?  I know myself I have the hamsters moving in my head all the time to come up with innovative ideas to use fruit in the summer to impress both my palette and yours.

Most recently I had a gorgeous fresh pineapple from the farmers market and I knew I wanted to grill it.  By grilling fruit, the sugars inside caramelize so well and give you that sweet warm texture as you bite into them.  For this quick recipe all you need are a few ingredients and about 10 minutes to whip it up.  I have tried this twice now, so far and it has been a hit each time.

Ingredients

• 1 Whole Pineapple ( sliced and cored)
• Vanilla Ice cream
• Pink Peppercorns (optional)
• 1 Tbsp. Butter
• 1 Tbsp. Brown sugar
• Orange zest

Method

1. In a bowl add butter and brown sugar and microwave for 30 seconds.
2. Preheat grill to medium heat
3. Coat the pineapple in the borwn sugar butter glaze and place on grill.  Stay close as it will cook quickly and you do not want it to burn
4. Once golden brown, remove from heat and top with Vanilla ice cream, a few pink peppercorns for a bite and some fresh orange zest.
5. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: For a little crunch, try adding some toasted walnuts, peanuts or even pecans to elevate the flavor and texture combination even more.

I hope you enjoyed this quick spin on fresh fruit.  See you on Wednesday for the Help the Students event kick-off.

Take care
zesty

In honor of the weirdest sandwich post on Wednesday and reading the comments I was inspired to do something a little off the wall so to speak.  I had some fresh pineapple in the fridge and a loaf of homemade bread from the local bakery.  I thought what the heck let’s give it a grill.  It has been raining cats and dogs here as of late so I decided just to do the grilling on the George Foreman grill.

I was unsure of how the pineapple would hold up so I did a quick grill of that first and set it aside as I assembled the sandwich.

Ingredients

• 2 slices of thick whole wheat bread
• Sliced fresh pineapple
• Drizzle of honey
• Bunch of parsley
• Dash of hot sauce
• Mozzarella

Method

1. Preheat the grill to medium high heat and grill off the pineapple and set aside
2. Take the two slices of bread and drizzle honey on one side.
3. Place a thick slice of pineapple on top.
4. Add hot sauce, parsley and cheese
5. Set the second slice of bread on top and grill until golden brown and melted.
6. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: Make it crunchy!  The pineapple has a lot of natural juice in the slice so grilling it before hand was a great idea.  Keep the cheese heavy as it will lock the juice in the pineapple and keep the bread crunchy.

The sandwich was actually quite tasty.  The one thing I did notice about it was the sweetness… duh right?  But I found the little shot of hot sauce definitely help balance all the sugars from both the pineapple and the honey.  I would try this again but I think over the open flame of the barbecue for more flavor.

Have a terrific Friday and wish me luck tomorrow as I put forth my handy man skills and donate some time to the habitat for humanity for the annual “Baby Barn Blitz”.  Hopefully it is sunny where you are.

Take care

zesty