Here are some ideas, too:
When grilling burgers, grill rings of pineapple. You can put them on the burger when eating it, or have it on the side. I started this at the lake.
Sweet and sour chicken. Cut canned rings into pieces, or start with chunks. Brown chicken, larger-than-normal pieces of onion, and various colors of bell peppers. I use fresh ginger and garlic in mine, too. Add the drained pineapple, but reserve juice. Brown pineapple. Make a sauce with the juice, a bit of broth, brown sugar, some vinegar, a bit of starch, etc.
Or, skip the sauce and just make pineapple chicken.
The juice is good in a *quick* marinade, but be careful...it tenderizes meat, but it will break down meat and chicken, too, so just use it as a quick marinade.
The juice is also good when you want to use less, or no, mayonnaise in carrot salad. The kiddies will love it. Just shred carrots finely, add raisins, and perhaps pineapple tidbits, or not, then either moisten with just canned pineapple juice, or part mayo and part pineapple juice.
You can also use the juice as the base of a fruit salad sauce.
Fresh salsa for chicken and such with finely cut pineapple, jalapenos, optional cilantro, etc. You can add a little finely minced onion, some lemon or lime juice, etc. They usually served this alongside chicken at Konocti, but sometimes it was mango, sometimes pineapple. You could do both if you like.
We all know about pineapple upside down cake, but you can use pineapple in/with other cakes, too.
For example, tidbits in your carrot cake.
Or, make a tropical loaf with pineapple, dates, optional nuts, bananas blended or in pieces, etc.
Also, when you have angel food cake, or pound cake, you can serve them with pineapple, strawberries, etc. Either over the top of slices, in the middle, or with the cake chunked. Serving with whipped cream is good.
You can make pineapple frosting. For example, cream cheese frosting for carrot cake. Usually, people beat the butter and cream cheese together, then add pineapple juice, then the powdered sugar. But, if you wanted to, I don't see why you couldn't add very small pineapple bits, as well.
Pineapple makes good sorbet, ice cream, and popsicles.
I usually ate cottage cheese with canned peaches or pears, but it's good with pineapple, too.
It's also good on the side of a lot of foods, like any chicken, fried rice, or stir fry. Often, those are served with a citrus side, but pineapple can replace it.
If you grill slices, either on a bbq, or under the broiler, or in a skillet, it's good on certain sandwiches. I wonder how it would be with meatloaf? Or, a chicken sandwich with leftover chicken breast? If it seems like too much, maybe cut it up?
Save some of the above cooked rings for other meals, such as the controversial pizza topping, when making homemade pizza. I know, lines are drawn, but....!
Add it to your favorite homemade, or storebought, bbq sauce. Blend, or cut finely, add the juice, too. If grilled, even better, but not needed.
Add to homemade shakes.
Use in punches.
When making fruit sauce for chops in the pan, use pineapple sometimes, instead of apricot, apple, etc.
Well, that's all that I can think of off the top of my head.
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