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Mexican Pineapple

It’s picnic time again. The weather is getting amazing around here and that always calls for a good picnic and lots of fun in the sun. My mom and Doug came out for the weekend from California. The weather report told us it was going to be eighty-five degrees. We planned lots of outdoor activities. My cousin Alex suggested a picnic at Spring Mountain Park. This park is located only twenty minutes from our house. When you’re there, you have no idea you are still in Las Vegas or in the dessert. It is lush and green, surrounded by trees and beautiful red mountains. There is even a lake. A house sits on the property, which was once owned by Howard Hughes. In the summer, they have a series of outdoor plays. It is a lovely place to visit. So, we planned a picnic there for our Sunday family day. This was a special Sunday family day since my mom and Doug would be with us.

On Saturday, we heated the pool for their arrival and invited the usual suspects over for a pool day. I made potato salad, chicken sandwiches, salmon, quinoa salad, and Mexican pineapple. I learned about the Mexican pineapple dish from my friend Robert. He was dating a woman who made this for him a few weeks ago. He brought me the leftovers. I loved this so much. I am pretty sure I ate the entire bowl that day. I knew I would be making this dish from now on.

The key to this dish is to have Tajin seasoning. If your local market doesn’t carry it, you can buy it online. It is a Mexican seasoning that tastes amazing on fruit. You can make Mexican corn with it too. You cook the corn, slather it with butter and mayonnaise and sprinkle on this chili seasoning. I know, this type of corn isn’t healthy, but you won’t believe how delicious this tastes. When we used to live in California, we had a man who traveled around on his bike selling corn made this way. We occasionally bought the Mexican corn from him. It was such a treat.

The Mexican pineapple requires an entire pineapple and about a dozen limes. Once the pineapple chunks are soaking in the limejuice, you sprinkle on the seasoning. That is all you do. It is so simple but the flavor is amazing. It’s a mixture of sweet, tangy and spicy. The best thing to do is to prepare it the night before to let the flavors really marinate into the pineapple. You can make it an hour ahead of time too and it is still very good. I put this dish out for everyone to enjoy by the pool. The pineapple disappeared really quickly. I knew everyone would love this. I whipped up another batch to bring to the picnic the following day.

The next day, we headed downtown to walk through the antique stores. We ate an amazing lunch at a tapas restaurant. I love tapas because you get to try small portions of everything. We thought this was a good idea because we were having a picnic in a short time. We just wanted a little snack. I ordered the baked truffle macaroni and cheese and the wedge salad with a tangy and spicy dressing. We also had deviled eggs, beet salad, gyro tacos, a beef burger and a turkey burger. This turned out to be more than a light snack. We were stuffed. We left the restaurant to prepare for a picnic we had planned.

I picked up a dozen of my favorite cupcakes on the way. I couldn’t resist the cupcakes. By the time we arrived to the picnic, we were supposed to feast on another meal. I didn’t know how we could possible eat again. The table was covered in delicious treats. We had mushroom risotto, pesto pasta, rotisserie chicken, Greek salad, cheeses, French bread, salami, and my Mexican pineapple. I had to eat the Mexican pineapple, knowing it had been marinating all night. The flavor was so much better. I also ate a carrot cake cupcake. After eating all of this, all I could do was lay out a blanket and lie in the sun. I couldn’t believe how much I ate.

Soon, everyone wanted to take a walk. I thought this was a great idea since I needed to work off some of these calories. We walked up to a lake, visited a friendly cow, and chatted with everyone. I was so happy to spend time with my mom. All we do is talk and laugh. Oh, we eat too. Soon, the wind picked up and we decided it was time to head back to our pool. We gathered together all of the food and headed back to civilization. Claud said we should get out of the wind and go to where we have four walls and a roof. We agreed. It was so nice to get out to the park and enjoy the open air but it is always nice to get back home too. In no time, we were getting the food back out for another round. Luckily, I found a few more pieces of the pineapple.

Mexican Pineapple:

Time: 15 minutes

Serves: 4

1 pineapple, cut into bite sized pieces

juice of twelve limes

2 tablespoons Tajin seasoning

Place the pieces of pineapple in a shallow container. Sprinkle with Tajin seasoning. Pour limejuice over the top. Cover and place into the refrigerator for at least an hour.

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