Island Mousse

During the holidays, my sister, Lina makes a special dessert. It doesn't really have a name, but I call it cranberry mousse. She mixes pureed cranberries with cool whip and crushed pineapple. It's very low sugar and super yummy. However, the season for cranberries has passed, so I made a little alteration and made it with coconut instead. I think you'll like it!

Island Mousse
Makes: 4 servings

8 oz can of crushed pineapple, drained
8 oz (small) tub of cool whip
3/4 cup unsweetened coconut

• With a rubber spatula, gently fold all three ingredients together.
• Serve in individual cups.
• Garnish with a gingersnap or a single graham cracker.

American Pizza

When we were in college, Matt met his friend, Ken who was an exchange student from Finland. They became really close and Matt even went to Finland to visit Ken after his exchange program was over. While Matt was visiting, they went to a pizza place. On the menu there, they had an "American" pizza. After some discussion, Matt realized that what they called American pizza was the same thing that we would call Hawaiian pizza here in the states. Ever since then, Matt and I have always called it American pizza because we thought it was funny. And we always make American pizza with our left-over ham from Easter.

Since we're on the topic of Matt's friend, Ken, I should also tell you the story about pumpernickel. During another dining experience in Finland, Matt had some bread which he thought tasted a lot like pumpernickel. Ken had never heard of pumpernickel and the word wasn't in any English to Finnish dictionaries. After a lot of discussion they eventually found out that what they were eating was pumpernickel and they were talking about the same thing! Matt didn't know the Finnish word for it and Ken didn't know the English word for it. Matt likes to tell that story and I think it's pretty funny.

Anyhow, here's what I did with our Easter left-overs:

American Pizza

Makes: 1 large pizza

1 package of premade pizza dough

14 oz jar of pizza sauce

8 oz pizza cheese (mozzarella & cheddar blend)

2 tbsp Parmesan cheese

1 tsp garlic powder

20 oz can of crushed pineapple, drained

1 cup chopped ham

4 scallions, chopped

• On a surface coated with cornmeal, roll out the pizza dough. Transfer the dough to a baking sheet or pizza pan that has been lightly greased and coated with cornmeal. Set aside and allow the dough to rise for about 30 minutes.
• Prick the pizza dough to prevent bubbles from forming.
• Spread the pizza sauce evenly over the dough.
• Spread half of the ham and half of the pineapple over the pizza sauce.
• Sprinkle on the entire 8 oz of cheese. Then sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese and the garlic powder.
• Spread the rest of the ham and pineapple on top of the cheese.
• Bake at 375° F for 25 - 30 minutes until golden brown. Remove the pizza from the oven and sprinkle the chopped scallions on top.
• Allow to cool for five minutes before serving.

Baked Pineapple

I found a wonderful recipe for Gratineed Pineapple via Pinterest. I could immediately tell the recipe was going to be amazing. Pineapple, coconut, sweetened condensed milk, and ginger snaps. Yum! The presentation looks beautiful too, however I can tell just from looking at it that it would be a pain to eat. So I chopped up my pineapple instead. My brother-in-law and nephew were over here the night that I made this. Between those two and my little family of three, we ate the entire pan in one night. It's that good!!

Baked Pineapple
Makes: 6 servings

1 whole pineapple
12 oz can sweetened condensed milk
3/4 cup crushed ginger snaps
1 cup coconut flakes

• Chop the pineapple into bite sized pieces. See my Tips & Tricks for instructions.
• Place the pineapple pieces into a lightly greased 13" x 9" glass baking dish.
• Top the pineapple with the ginger snaps and coconut. I ground the gingersnaps into a fine powder in the food processor. But if you prefer bigger chunks, you could place them in a plastic bag and smash them with a rolling pin, meat tenderizer, or other heavy instrument.
• Pour the can of sweetened condensed milk over the entire pan of pineapple.
• Bake at 350° F for 25 - 30 minutes.

Note: this recipe calls for fresh pineapple and I really recommend using fresh. If you use the canned variety, the flavor will be somewhat sour and the texture won't be quite right.