Pineapple

Peach-pineapple ketchup Total time: 1½ hours plus cooling times Servings: This makes about 2 quarts ketchup Note: This recipe requires the use of a kitchen scale. 4 pounds yellow peaches 1 pound peeled and cored pineapple, about ¾ of 1 standard (3¾ pound) pineapple Scant 1½ cups (10 ounces) granulated sugar About 1 cup (7 ounces) light brown sugar 2 cups cider vinegar 1 tablespoon dry English mustard powder 2 tablespoons onion powder 1 tablespoon ginger powder 1 teaspoon grated nutmeg 1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt 1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

  Total time: 20 minutes, plus macerating time Servings: 1 Note: From Peter Birmingham at Norman's, where the drink is made with Ron Matusalem Platino rum. Birmingham also recommends Bacardi Silver or Cruzan Estate Light rum. You'll have enough simple syrup and candied kumquats for up to 12 drinks. Candied kumquats 1 cup boiling water 1 cup sugar 12 kumquats, whole 1 stalk lemongrass, ends trimmed and two outer layers removed, slightly smashed with the side of a chef's knife 1/2 teaspoon orange blossom water 1. Add the boiling water to the sugar.

Caramelized pineapple confit Total time: 50 minutes Servings: Makes about 6 cups confit Note: Long peppers are available at select gourmet markets and cooking stores, as well as online. 1 pineapple 1/2 cup dark rum, divided 1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar, divided 3/4 cup water 2 long peppers (1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns can be substituted) 2 (3-inch long) cinnamon sticks 3 star anise 1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped (save the pod)

Sometimes a cocktail is as good as a meal. That's certainly the case with a big, bold summer drink called the Horchata Colada. Created by Paul Sofsky for the new Mexican restaurant El Corazon de Costa Mesa at the Triangle in Costa Mesa, the concoction serves up gooey pineapple chunks in a creamy base of smooth coconut rum, tangy lime and spiced horchata rice milk. The rim of the glass is an experiment in layering with crushed pretzels clinging to a sticky layer of sweet caramel sauce.

  Dear SOS: While having a lovely lunch at Akasha , I tried their cucumber, pineapple juice and ginger agua fresca . What a refreshing fabulous drink. Just what you want on a hot summer afternoon. Scott Grant Los Angeles Dear Scott: This agua fresca from Akasha combines the refreshing flavors of pineapple and cucumber, lightened with a little seltzer and finished with a punch of bright ginger flavor. Served in a tall glass, it's a perfect counterpoint to these sweltering summer days.

  Grilled pineapple with rum and long pepper glaze Total time: 30 minutes Servings: 4 to 8 Note: Dried long peppers are available at Surfas in Culver City, Nicole's in Pasadena and Cube in Los Angeles, as well as select Indian and Asian markets. Also online at salttraders.com and le-sanctuaire.com. If any glaze is unused, it will keep for a week, refrigerated, and makes a great topping for ice cream; rewarm before using. 1 large ripe pineapple 1 or 2 dried long peppers (to yield 1/2 to 1 teaspoon ground pepper)

Ask '80s pop-rock superstar Huey Lewis how he wound up recording the title song for the highly anticipated stoner action-comedy "Pineapple Express," due in theaters Wednesday, and he'll basically shrug. "They e-mailed, 'Would I write a song for a Seth Rogen movie?' I said, 'Why not?' " Lewis, 58, recalled in a telephone interview from his Montana vacation home. "I don't consider career moves. I just answer the phone. I'm flattered at my ripe old age to even be considered. It was all about fun."

Sometimes a cocktail is as good as a meal. That's certainly the case with a big, bold summer drink called the Horchata Colada. Created by Paul Sofsky for the new Mexican restaurant El Corazon de Costa Mesa at the Triangle in Costa Mesa, the concoction serves up gooey pineapple chunks in a creamy base of smooth coconut rum, tangy lime and spiced horchata rice milk. The rim of the glass is an experiment in layering with crushed pretzels clinging to a sticky layer of sweet caramel sauce.

Question: Do you have the recipe for the starter for Friendship Fruitcake? I have two recipes, but one calls for the fruit from the starter and the other a starter liquid. I've tasted the cake and it was moist and delicious. A friend said she once was given the starter to make a cake but she couldn't trace the starter recipe as everyone just seemed to have been given the starter. The starter, she said, could be increased by adding more sugar and more canned fruit.

  Wheat beer just cries out for fruit flavors. Citrus and raspberry are traditional in Germany, and we've seen a couple of fine American apricot wheat beers. Now a Hawaiian brewery has taken the obvious step, throwing in locally grown pineapple. The combination works so well you might wonder why nobody seems to have tried it before. The beer pours medium gold and cloudy with a high though not terribly persistent head. At first all you're likely to detect in the nose is a nice bright Hefeweizen aroma of bananas and clove.

Alec Baldwin and his wife, Hilaria Baldwin, have a paparazzi problem again, one that on Monday had him running to the store - literally - and her pulling out of teaching yoga classes for a week. Baldwin on Sunday reportedly had an incident with a New York Post reporter and photographer that ended with the actor and photographer both going to the police to file harassment claims against each other. Baldwin's publicist Matthew Hiltzik said in a statement to CNN and other outlets Monday that the photog's claims of racist and otherwise disparaging comments, detailed in a Post story , were "absolutely false," specifically noting that the claim of racist remarks was "one of the most outrageous things I've heard in my life.'" The Post had initially approached Baldwin to ask about a lawsuit filed against Hilaria by a former participant in one of her yoga classes.

PARK CITY, Utah - “It's been awhile,” director David Gordon Green said as we shook hands on Sunday. Indeed it had. It was, in fact, 10 years almost to the day since I'd interviewed Green at the Sundance Film Festival, and the trajectory of his career had been little short of unprecedented. In 2003, Green was in Park City with “All the Real Girls,” one of a series of small, contemplative films that had some people thinking of him as the next Terrence Malick. Instead, he became celebrated as the director of the big-budget stoner action comedy “Pineapple Express.” SUNDANCE: Full coverage Back then, Green expected he would direct an independent version of John Kennedy Toole's “A Confederacy of Dunces”; instead, he ended up with the Jonah Hill comedy “The Sitter,” the James Franco-starring “Your Highness” and a thriving business directing commercials.

Nancy Howell has been at Ocean View Farms community garden in Mar Vista since it opened in 1977. She grows crops common to many plots -- artichokes, squash and beans. However, one neat planting box contains something strikingly exotic: pineapple. When she planted a cut-off crown of a Costco pineapple from Costa Rica and stuck it in the ground, everyone laughed at her, Howell said. Now she's the one laughing. “Two years later I had a pineapple,” she says, grinning.

Peach-pineapple ketchup Total time: 1½ hours plus cooling times Servings: This makes about 2 quarts ketchup Note: This recipe requires the use of a kitchen scale. 4 pounds yellow peaches 1 pound peeled and cored pineapple, about ¾ of 1 standard (3¾ pound) pineapple Scant 1½ cups (10 ounces) granulated sugar About 1 cup (7 ounces) light brown sugar 2 cups cider vinegar 1 tablespoon dry English mustard powder 2 tablespoons onion powder 1 tablespoon ginger powder 1 teaspoon grated nutmeg 1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt 1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Caramelized pineapple confit Total time: 50 minutes Servings: Makes about 6 cups confit Note: Long peppers are available at select gourmet markets and cooking stores, as well as online. 1 pineapple 1/2 cup dark rum, divided 1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar, divided 3/4 cup water 2 long peppers (1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns can be substituted) 2 (3-inch long) cinnamon sticks 3 star anise 1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped (save the pod)

  Dear SOS: Have you tried the roasted veggie burger at Upper West in Santa Monica? If you haven't, you must. It is hands down the best veggie burger on the planet. Would love to see if the Los Angeles Times Test Kitchen can come up with the recipe. Carly Irion Santa Monica carlyirion@gmail.com Dear Carly: Upper West's version of the veggie burger is a wildly flavorful combination of ingredients, packed into a generous patty and grilled to perfection. Served topped with a thick, smoky tomato aioli, roasted piquillo peppers, sliced avocado and a chunky, sweet-tart pineapple relish, this is one burger that might even make a convert out of the most ardent meat lover (at least temporarily)

THE plant commonly called sage (scientific name Salvia) is so popular as a landscape plant in Southern California these days -- more than 60 species are grown here -- that we sometimes forget its value as a kitchen garden stalwart. Not only is it beautiful, with different varieties blooming at different times of the year, but nurseries offer a wonderful range of culinary sages that have unusual fragrances and flavors. S. officinalis, common sage, has the familiar gray-green leaves, but there are also culinary varieties with variegated, purple and other colors of leaves.

Weather does not affect my appetite. If ice cream is good enough, I'll eat it in a blizzard; if the soup is something special, I'll drink it in the desert sun. This makes me peculiar, I know, because it's getting to be that time of year when guests approach the table warily, moaning that it's too hot to eat. No one complains, though, when the main course is salad, especially this one, which, combining rice, yogurt and nuts, qualifies as a complete meal.

  Wheat beer just cries out for fruit flavors. Citrus and raspberry are traditional in Germany, and we've seen a couple of fine American apricot wheat beers. Now a Hawaiian brewery has taken the obvious step, throwing in locally grown pineapple. The combination works so well you might wonder why nobody seems to have tried it before. The beer pours medium gold and cloudy with a high though not terribly persistent head. At first all you're likely to detect in the nose is a nice bright Hefeweizen aroma of bananas and clove.

Snooki's in, Snooki's out, Snooki's in again ... but in New Jersey. Maybe. That's pretty much how the news went this month for the diminutive Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi of MTV's "Jersey Shore," who supposedly was going to be inside the New Year's Eve ball drop in Times Square. Except organizers said that was never going to happen. So Snooki will be in a ball drop of her own in Seaside Heights, N.J., according to People magazine. Whatev. There are plenty of quirkier things than Snooki to drop from on high on New Year's Eve. Here are my favorites, in no particular order, that might make a great travel destination for next year.