Last summer, my husband and I finally got to do the unthinkable. After six years of living with our kitchen full of crooked cabinets, mismatched floorboards, chipped paint and more, we got to tear out our well-worn kitchen and put in a new one! To say that we were excited, it the understatement of the year. We were ecstatic – and nervous too.

Aside from the costs involved, we had two young children and two impish setters, and we had to figure out how we were going to eat throughout the renovation. I had no intentions of ordering take out for every meal, so we had to plan ahead. We had an extra refrigerator out in the garage (truth be told, it’s our beer fridge), so we knew that we would be able to have fresh groceries during the construction period. We also had a barbecue and a crockpot, so we planned to make as many meals as possible with those two heating sources.

I spent a lot of time on Pinterest looking up camping meals because that was most suited to our upcoming lifestyle. I was able to modify many of the found recipes to suit our own lifestyle and came up with a few new recipes of my own too. Dinners were easy because we barbecue all summer long, but weekend breakfasts and desserts were a pinch harder to come by.

One of my favorite desserts that came out of this kitchen renovation was this super simple barbecued pineapple. Previously, I had only grilled pineapple with dinner as a topping for fish tacos, so I wasn’t quite sure if it would translate well as a dessert. I knew that in order to keep the rings together, I would need to cut them fairly thick – almost like pineapple steaks – and even though that visual is kind of gross, now you know how thick to cut them, eh?

I also knew that I wanted char marks on them, so I had to make sure the grill was well greased so they didn’t stick to the grates. (Note: Never spray cooking oil directly into the barbecue. Spray your grates before lighting the grill!) I also wanted to make sure that they stayed nice and sweet, so I drizzled a bit of honey over them first. It was some seriously sticky business, but man-oh-man was it worth it.

The end result is a refreshingly sweet grilled dessert that is best served warm with plain Jane vanilla ice cream. It became a fast family favorite for both kids and adults — and even though our new kitchen is finally done, we still love making this grilled pineapple dessert! Make sure you save the leftovers; the barbecued pineapple is also fantastic over pancakes, yogurt or slow cooked oats in the morning!

SUMMER GRILLED PINEAPPLE DESSERT RECIPE WITH HONEY

Ingredients:

1 ripe pineapple, cut into half inch slices
1/4 cup honey (you really need to eyeball this – if your pineapple is on the small side, use less; on the big side, use more)
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 pint Vanilla ice cream (I like this recipe; I just omit the cookies when I want plain Vanilla!)

Directions:

Step 1: Spray the grill with cooking oil or brush grates with olive oil. Light the barbecue on low and wait for it to heat up.

Step 2: Peel and core pineapple. Or, if you’re pressed for time, or space (hello kitchen renovation) buy pre-cut and cored pineapple in the fresh fruit section of your grocery store.

Step 3: Place all pineapple on a large tray or bowl and drizzle honey and olive oil over the pineapple. Using your hands, toss to coat evenly.

Step 4: Using barbecue tongs, carefully arrange pineapple slices on the preheated grill. Allow pineapple slices to heat for 3-5 minutes (just enough to brown) and flip it over. Heat for 3-5 minutes more until slightly charred. Remove from heat.

Step 5: Place a slice of pineapple in the middle of a pretty plate and using an ice cream scoop, place a nice dollop of vanilla ice cream in the center of the grilled pineapple. Drizzle with some more honey, if desired.

Who knew that we would ever need a recipe for grilled pineapple? LOL!

Thanks for reading,

Denine

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