Upside Down

Summer time is great for cool drinks and fruity desserts. I had a jar of canned currents left over from a cooking class and a pineapple that we never grilled up over the week. So I guess it was kind of enevitable. They were canned with sugar, cloves, and a bit of vinager to make them sweet and tangy.

The carmalized pineapple is a favorite of ours to make either sliced on the grill and served as a side to steaks or brushed with sugar and used as a topping on ice cream. Of course everything on the grill is a favorite. In the summer if we aren't grilling it's because it's raining out.

Some cool rain wouldn't be bad right now. It's in the 90's in Minnesota, full into the humid summers that contrast to the freezing winters. Maddie has gotten better about the heat. We used to wrap ice in a towl and lay it on the floor for her to sleep on. She was also a fan of snoozing directly over the vents behind the couches. Now she tolerates the walks and runs outside, but still has trouble with the really hot days. Her fur coat is made for the winter and she loves season, oh boy does she love it!



Pineapple Upside Down Cake
1 pineapple, sliced into hollowed circles
maraschino cherries or tart currents
2 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp butter

1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 egg
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup milk

Heat butter and brown sugar in a sauce pan till slightly carmalized. Add pineapples and heat through. Remove from heat, let cool, place in a pan and pour remaining carmalized sugar over top. Fill the hollow of the pineapple with cherries or currents.

Combine remaining ingredients in a bowl and beat 1 minute. Pour batter over pineapples. Bake at 350°F for 20-40 min depending on pan size until a toothpick tested in the center is clean.

Let cool. Slice the top of the cake flat and flip over so that the pineapple is on top.