Foodie Friday: Summer Fruit Salad

One of my favorite things about summer is the fresh fruit. Some evenings a fruit salad is our dinner because there's such a plethora of fruit. Here are a few tips on creating a delicious summer fruit salad.

Ingredients:
Fresh pineapple
1 pound of strawberries
Pint of blueberries
3 bananas (optional)
1/2 bunch seedless grapes (optional)
1 orange
Honey (optional)

If you've not yet read my May 28th post on preparing a fresh pineapple, be sure to go back and take a look! Cut up your pineapple and put it in a bowl. Cap and cut your strawberries and add them. Rinse and pick through the blueberries taking out the bad berries and stems and add them as well. You can also cut up and add several bananas and some green seedless grapes as well.

Now here's the key to a little extra bit of sweetness. Cut an orange in half and juice it. This is an easy task if you have an old fashioned reamer! Pour that juice over the top of the fruit mixture along with several Tablespoons of honey. Toss the whole thing so the honey and orange juice mix with the fruit. Put it all in a pretty bowl and serve!

Foodie Friday: Cutting up a fresh pineapple

This post is compliments of Mama who believes that many people waste a lot of their pineapple and wanted to pass along a couple tricks.

First you should cut up the top and bottom of the fruit. Then, you should start cutting the skin just past the green part - making sure to get all the green off. What should be left is lots of yellow with little bits of brown that are called pineapple eyes. I've read that these eyes were once flowers that bloomed on the pineapple spike!

Many people cut the fruit skin beyond these eyes, but that wastes quite a bit of the fruit. By cutting just beyond the green and then scooping out the eyes, you get more yummy goodness. So to get rid of those pesky eyes, pull out your potato peeler. The end of the peeler should have a pointed end. Dig that end into the side of one eye and rotate it so that you scoop out the entire eye.

Continue removing the eyes until they're all gone. Give the pineapple a quick rinse to clear all the little seeds and eyes from the fruit.

Then cut the entire fruit down the center from the top. Cut the remaining halves into quarters. Now it's time to get rid of the core. Hold the quarter piece in your hand and cutting away from yourself cut out the hard center of the fruit and discard it.









All that's left is to cut the remaining fruit into cubes and eat... or you can invite some friends over to share this traditional symbol of hospitality!