Pickles and Pineapple

 

Or what do we do with the leftover ham after Easter?

We had a really good ham for Easter this year—flavorful but mild, the kind that doesn’t need mustard or horseradish sauce or any disguise. But even with twelve people, we had a ton left over. Jordan has been telling me she doesn’t like ham, which cuts me out of ham dishes on our menus. But now, trying to avoid carbs, she and I are both eating ham for lunch. Still a bunch leftover. I can make myself ham salad, which I like a lot—it makes terrific sandwiches. And tonight I made a ham cheeseball, which was pretty good. Online recipes sources are full of ways to use that ham, but most just don’t intrigue me. Like mac and cheese with ham—I’m just not a mac and cheese person. Scalloped potatoes with ham sounds a lot better to me, but if Jordan wants a cleansing diet, she’s not going to eat that. I will end up freezing some of my portion of the leftovers.

Another thing online recipes sources are full of lately is pineapple. The controversy over pineapple topping on pizza has been around for a while, but it seems to have taken on new life lately. I’m not a pizza fan and definitely not a pineapple pizza fan. But the recipe that most puzzles me is pineapple casserole, which is all over the place this season. I cannot fathom it, so today I look at the Southern Living version, because I really have confidence in that magazine’s recipes. What I found was basically a white sauce made with pineapple juice instead of milk or cream, added sugar (in case, heaven help us, the pineapple wasn’t sweet enough) and grated cheddar, because according to the recipe the strength of cheddar will “hold up against” the sweetness of the pineapple. I remain unconvinced. I do remember, with pleasure, that my mom made a Jell-O salad—that scourge of the fifties—with pineapple, julienned carrots, pineapple chunks, and orange Jell-O. It wasn’t half as bad as it sounds. I also remember upside down cakes with pineapple that came out on the top. Think I liked those. Mom also occasionally cooked a ham steak—a good bargain I’ve learned these days—with a sauce of pineapple juice, brown sugar, and maybe onion or bacon. It was pretty good, though I feel no urgency to try it again.

I’m not sure what pickled pickles have to do with Easter except that watermelon pickles seem common on some tables. My mom used to fix a pickle/vegetable tray for big dinners—celery sticks, carrots, etc.—but nine times out of ten she found it, after the meal, still in the back porch cooler where she’d stashed it. But, pickles too have been all over the internet. I recently started getting emails from a web site called Olive My Pickle. They not only try to sell their products, they try to educate on the benefits of fermented food. Apparently there was an article in Time Magazine recently about fermented foods as probiotics. and this site was recommended. They sell not only pickles but an array of olives, kimchi, etc. Fort Worth is home to Best Maid Pickles, and that company has opened a retail store, the Best Maid Pickle Emporium, on Vickery Boulevard where they sell  pickles, pickle juice (supposedly great for brining chicken), Bloody Mary mix, condiments and even T-shirts. I confess I want to go there just to browse. I grew up thinking I didn’t like pickles—it took marriage to a Jewish man and kosher dills to teach me how good they are. My mom grew up hating sauerkraut—in a German household she had to eat it, so I never tasted that either until I was grown. But now I love it. For some reason, I’ve shied away from kimchi, though it is the kind of thing I usually like. Have you tried it?

And perhaps the ultimate pickle news: the Clausson folks, who make great pickles, have introduced a pickle jelly bean. Where are you, Ronald Reagan?

The popularity of pineapple and pickles is testimony to the power of social media. I’m quite sure we would not pay inordinate attention to these two foods if we weren’t bombarded with them on the net. Then again, maybe I’m just more aware because I’m a foodie and spend time every day on food sites.

If you try a pineapple casserole, please let me know about it.