Hello and welcome to Pineapple and Coconut. A 16+ year old recipe blog with all kinds of fun things to make from breakfasts, dinners, cocktails, lots of baked goods and everything in between. You will find recipes here for beginners to more advanced cooks and bakers. My recipes will help you become a better cook, baker and mixologist.
I am so happy you are all here to make my recipes!
A little about me first:
I am a wife and a mom. My husband and my daughters are every thing to me, they are my official taste testers, dishwashers and occasional hand models. I am a photographer first, cook and baker second. Photography my main passion. A friend urged me to get into blogging years ago because of my photos of my baked goods. I also love photographing my travels, landscapes and hummingbirds. I was in the medical field for a long time in radiology, so some form of photography or another has always been a part of my life. I no longer work in medicine, devoting all my time now to my children and husband, photography and this blog.
I am a self taught baker and cook. I have taken a few baking and cooking classes to sharpen my skills and learn trickier techniques, but no official culinary or pastry schooling. I highly recommend taking a knife skills class, it will help you save so much time with recipe prep work.
I have been cooking and baking most of my life, helping my mom in the kitchen when I was very young, watching my grandma make her famous Austrian apple strudel and many other German and Austrian recipes from her family as well as my grandpa's. I was lucky enough to inherit their recipe box full of amazing German, Austrian and Bavarian recipes, some I have already added to my blog, many more to come.
About Pineapple and Coconut:
The title of my blog comes from my love of the fruits as well as they were the nicknames of my girls' when I was pregnant with them before we came up with their actual names. There are these funny charts in doctors offices that equate fetus sizes to different fruits, and since I love all things tropical I figured why not a pineapple for the first baby and went with coconut for the second. And that is the story behind the name.
I believe in only using the freshest most natural ingredients available, sticking to locally sourced as much as possible, via farmers markets and our food c0-op when I can. Using produce when it is at the peak of its season for best flavor, but also knowing how to enhance flavor off off-season produce as well. I love to make a tomato sauce from scratch, whip up from scratch waffles for a weekend breakfast, squeeze my own juices for a cocktail. This is a from scratch as much as possible recipe blog. I do use convenience items from time to time such as canned tomatoes when tomatoes aren't in season but for the most part I love from scratch recipes.
What kind of recipes are on Pineapple and Coconut?
My recipes are heavily influenced by Hawaiian and Polynesian cuisines from my many travels. I love to try to recreate meals at home that I had on holidays. I am originally from Southern California so you will also see a lot of recipes influenced from my life growing up on the beach, lots of seafood, fresh ingredients, produce from California shows up a lot in my recipes. You will also find recipes from my Austrian heritage as well as from my husband's Italian and German heritages. I also have a love of Australian and New Zealand pastries and desserts so you will find my versions of many of those here as well. This blog is a a hodge-podge of many cultures and cuisines that I love.
I am constantly testing recipes. Some never make it to the blog, some eventually do years later. I am a huge believer in testing recipes many times before releasing into the wild so readers will have recipe success.
I don't jump ahead of seasons and start posting fall recipes in mid summer (Just say no to pumpkin in August!). I fully embrace summertime until the very last second. My dream is a year round summer, so that reflects in a lot of my recipes. But near the end of summer when I am very much over the Vegas heat you will see more fall recipes start to creep in such as apple and squash, lots more baked goods and towards the end of the year holidays I bake a ton of cookies. I love to bake Christmas cookies.
Often times I will go on a kick of a single ingredient such as avocado, passionfruit or Meyer lemon and do a series of those ingredients as the star of the recipe until I am ready to move on. I do like to work around seasonal produce.
Tell me more about your recipes, how do you explain them best for recipe success?
Each recipe is broken down in the body of the post. I will include historical context and cultural origins for recipes from around the world. I feel it is very important to know the background and cultural context of many recipes. Recipes are borrowed and adapted through time and location. Ingredients change based on what is available. I think it is best to acknowledge a recipe's origins when applicable and always give credit to origins. And never ever ever add pineapple to a dish just to call it "Hawaiian". Pineapples aren't even from Hawaii!!
I also include a breakdown of ingredients and their uses, why I use what I use and I also include any substitutions that I have tested. I will tag brands I use to show you what I like best, you don't have to use what I use, but I show what the recipes have been tested with.
I also include techniques and terms useful to home cooks and bakers for every day cooking along with any special equipment needed for recipe success such as a digital food scale, a candy thermometer, specific storage containers, baking equipment and more. The proper tools help for better recipe success.
I also have several frequently asked questions about a specific ingredient or technique with the best answers I can offer to help achieve recipe success. My goal is for you all to keep coming back for recipes you like to make time and time again as well as try my newest recipes.
Thanks again for stopping by, hope you stay a while and check out my recipes and maybe even try some! Let me know if you have any questions about any of these recipes. I try to answer emails, blog comments as quickly as I can.
Aloha!
Shanna
All recipes and photographs are mine (Shanna Schad/Pineapple and Coconut) unless otherwise stated. My photographs are rights protected. Copying, borrowing, recipe adapting, is not allowed without permission and only with attribution to my site as well as links back to my site. No permission is given to copy my recipes in their entirety on any other website or social media. Any copying of pictures of my children is strictly prohibited.
All blog comments and emails are filtered and need to be approved by me. Anything inappropriate, rude, calling me names, telling me to "just shut up and give me the recipe" will be deleted and your IP address will be added to the block list immediately, let's keep it nice!
Anion says
Hi there,
I followed the link here from your old blog A Cup Full of Cake, which I found while hunting for a recipe for guava curd. However, two links down from yours is a site called "CookingHawaiianStyle.com," and someone called "Leilani" has posted not just your recipe (with a few slight alterations in wording), but your picture of a slice of the cake you made.
Here's the link: http://www.cookinghawaiianstyle.com/hawaiian-recipes/recipes/detail/1465/coconut-cake-w-guava-curd-meringue-buttercream
Perhaps you both simply got the recipe from the same source, in which case no harm no foul, of course, but I am certain that's your picture being used, and I see no link back to you or photo credit. I thought I ought to let you know.
(Of course, you may also have posted there as "Leilani," in which case feel free to delete this comment; again, I just thought I should let you know if you weren't already aware.)
Nancy Brown says
Hi Shannon, just saw My family rocks! And loved the episode! How can I follow you? Facebook, Instagram? How can I subscribe to your blog?
Shanna says
Hi!! I have a subscribe to my blog on the right hand of the screen on my blog front page. You can also see all of my social icons on the top - the pineapples. And each one leads to my different social pages. Let me know if you have any troubles. So glad you have you as a new follower!
Rekha Menon says
"I am a wife and a mom. My husband and my two young daughters are every thing to me" - This line is very touching. I appreciate what you are doing now..! God Bless You..!
Shanna says
Thank you!
Maggie says
I am in love with your kitchen. So invitation get, bright and just a kitchen I can cook in and just have fun in. You did a great job!!!!!
Christopher Regan says
Link at top to FP (icon) is incorrect: https://facebook.com/https://www.facebook.com/PineappleAndCoconut/ is the link, FYI. Great native content te Pa steamed clams article -- I mean, outstanding.
Heather Killeen says
Hi Shanna!
Just wasted a whole bunch of time reading that historian's complaint tweet about food blogs...uuuggghh. But! Because I love food, and writing, reading, and especially pineapples (I'm looking at one right now on my dining room table-yum!), I thought I'd check out your recipes. Wow! Making the Meyer lemon cookies today. I make a smoothie daily with frozen pineapple, frozen avocado, fresh ginger and vanilla Greek yogurt. Heavenly. One day, I tried the smoothie without the yogurt, and it was the best sorbet I's ever tasted. The avo blends in and just makes the texture slightly creamy. So good! Anyway, thanks for what you do, and I personally enjoy your stories. Good luck to hubby on his nursing career! Aloha to you and yours!
Shanna says
Thank you so much! Please let me know if you have any questions about my recipes. Or if you make an adaptation of them. I love adding in reader's versions into my recipe notes. Your smoothie sounds good. I am going to have to try it soon. Aloha!
Praveen says
Nice Blog.Thank you for sharing Pineapple recipes. I appreciate you to say this "My husband and my daughters are everything to me" You consider your family every time. God bless you, Good luck for more recipes makes.
Karen Barker says
First time on your site and I Love it---found the best recipe ever for my Lemon Loving family---with your "Jumbo Bakery Style Meyer Lemon Crumb Muffins".
I plan to come back to your site many times over---
Thank You---p.s. I, also, love citrus fruit and photography!
Shanna says
Thank you so much!
Kristie Cohn says
Hoping to get your chicken, sausage, and shrimp jambalaya recipe!! First saw it on the World Market website. It was delicious and can’t seem to find it anywhere anymore!
Shanna says
I saw your message on instagram. I am working on updating that recipe - send me your email address and I can send you the recipe copy.
Sally Wagner says
Found your lilikoi chiffon pie recipe and puzzled that you would top it with a 7 minute boiled frosting made for cakes. This pie has such a light feeling I would think a meringue would be more appropriate (also meringue has half the amount of sugar and more than double the egg whites!)
Shanna says
Hi. I made this pie this way because I like the marshmallowy meringue of a 7 minute frosting rather than an actual meringue which can be a lot trickier for some people to get just right. It often weeps and I didn't want that. You can feel free to make it however you like to your preferences and tastes. This just so happens to be MY version that is why I blogged it that way. 7 min frosting is for anything you want it to be for, not just cakes.
Sarah says
I didn’t realize you were self taught in baking and photography. That’s amazing, you’re so talented!
Shanna says
Thank you!
Jenn says
Hi! I just found your popcorn recipes on Pinterest. They’re amazing. No corn syrup!! Thanks so much for sharing!
Kindly,
Jennifer
Shanna says
So glad you like them!
Joanna Moseley says
Hi I was wondering how do I make the Kalua pork in the instant pot I was reading what you wrote about how to make it in the oven and smoker and was just wondering if the cooking time and temperature are the same as the slow cooker instructions
Shanna says
I would use the instant pot with the slow cooker setting unless you want it done faster with the pressure cooker setting. Depending on how much pork you are using, I would go with 90 minutes for 5-7 pounds at high pressure. After 90 minutes once the pressure is released, check to see if it is tender, falls apart easily when shredded with a fork. If not, go for another 5-10 minutes or until it is ready. Then keep in the pot at the keep warm setting. Hope this helps!