Okay, so this dish sounded a little weird the first time we saw it, crafted right in our kitchen by our friend Linda visiting from Oregon, but it was love at first bite and now we make it every New Year’s Day and Easter as a side dish with our traditional oven roasted ham and Yukon Stuffed Potato Skins. 

I don’t know what we were eating as the main dish that first time we enjoyed this wonderful creation, but “Pineapple Devine”, as it was first introduced to us, was likely prepared as a side for one of our famous Alaskan Salmon Bake potlucks during the fishing season when she was visiting with her husband John in the summer of 2004, who incidentally helped me land the biggest King I’ve ever had the pleasure of fighting on our boat.  But I digress…it’s also been called “Scalloped Pineapple” among other things, but we’ve dubbed it “Alaska Aloha Pineapple Paradise”, and we hope to enjoy it someday on a Maui beach at sunset along side fresh grilled Ono or Mahi Mahi!  In Hawaiian, Aloha means love, so join us in Alaska and you’ll love Pineapple Paradise as much as you’ll love Alaska.  Aloha!

Ingredients:

2 Cans Pineapple, chunks or tidbits, strained with juice reserved
6 Tbsp Flour
1/2 C Pineapple Juice
1/2 C Sugar
2 C Tillamook Cheddar or Colby-Jack Cheese, shredded
1 Roll of Ritz Crackers, smashed and mixed well with 1 Stick melted butter

Preparation:

 

Harvest a pineapple, turn it into tidbits ;), and assemble ingredients.

Crush those Ritz, melt some butter!
No skimping please.

Mix together pineapple tidbits, flour, sugar and pineapple juice.

Add shredded cheese and spread out in a baking
dish (9X13, oval, or any ole’ dish you want to mix,
bake and serve it in!  One of the beautiful simplicities of this tasty dish!).

Mix the Ritz and melted butter well.

Spread the topping evenly from edge to edge.

Bake for 30 minutes at 350 F or until bubbly and slightly browned.

Say Aloha…because this dish won’t last long!