Tropical Recipes

Lots of people love fruit trays. You could step it up by doing one that has "tropical fruit." Think pineapple, mangos, kiwi.... Also, you could set out bowls of banana chips, nuts, and cranberries. I don't have a particular dip, but if you go to allrecipes.com and look for tropical dips you'll probably find something good. Hope I helped you some.

Mostly fruits, I'd say (pineapple, mango, bananas). You can make your own yummy fruit dip with 8 oz. cream cheese, 15 oz. (lg jar) marshmallow cream. You can add 1/2 tsp. vanilla or 1 Tbsp. Marichino cherry juice or chop up a cherry in it.

Take pineapple put it on skewers place them on a medium-low grill and lightly grill them. As they are grilling baste them with an already prepared mixture of water and dark brown sugar. To prepare that just boil water and mix in some dark brown sugar it needs to be thick so dont dissolve the sugar and there needs to not be too much water to sugar. Does that make since. I dont really have a recipe I just make it. This is a big hit at all my BBQ's and if I dont make it I get fussed at by friends LOL

Here's a recipe for a cheeseball that would be yummy for your get together. You use a block of cream cheese, cup of shredded cheddar, small can crused pineapple drained very well. Mix the cream cheese, cheddar & pineapple, form into a ball & chill for at least 3 hours.

You can use the pineapple juice you drain off to make a fruit punch.

Anything with pineapple! --
-Something easy would just be canned pineapple chunks with toothpicks
-You can make a pineapple-y cheese ball (check out recipes, but it would have cream cheese, crushed pineapple, then maybe add something like bacon bits, onion powder, garlic powder, and/or sauteed chopped jalapeno)
-fruit slices with fruit dip (my sister makes a delicious one, and I think she just mixes together cream cheese and marshmallow creme; she might add some sugar, if that's not sweet enough), and you can dip apples, pineapples, strawberries, grapes, etc.
-ham roll-ups (really simple to use honey-glazed ham slices, and just roll up one slice and pierce with a toothpick; or to make it a little more jazzy, you could roll it around a pineapple chunk; or, one of my favorites, is to spread the ham slice with some sort of creamy pineapple something [like the cheese ball] and then roll that up - yum!)
-fruit salad -- my family's recipe is pineapple chunks, bananas, grapes, flaked coconut (optional if you have people who don't like coconut), chopped nuts (optional), and a spoonful or two of orange juice concentrate
-lemonade/punch - the juice of 3 lemons (fresh is so much better, but bottled is fine), 2 c. sugar, 1/2 can of orange juice concentrate, 1/2 can of pineapple juice, water to make 1 gallon (may need to adjust ingredients to taste; or you can use sprite or something like that instead of water to make it fizzy)
-a tray with chunks of ham, various types of cheese, and pineapple for people to choose their own; or you could use bamboo skewers to make shishkabobs, alternating a cube of ham with a cube of cheese and pineapple

Check out the recipes on my website. There are some yummy layered trifle cakes with fresh fruit and almond pound cake, mango salsa, guacomole and a grapefruit cheeseball that's yummy! Let me know if you need more help and I can find some more specific for you. Good luck!

www.tastefullysimple.com/web/mross

A couple of years ago my friend had a tropical themed b-day party; she bought a pineapple, cut the top off, scooped out the fruit w/ a melon baller, and we filled it with a mix of this: strawberry glaze, 1 can crushed pineapple, 1 can sweetened condensed milk, & 1 large container of cool whip. We put the pineapple "bowl" of dip in the middle of a serving tray with different kinds of fruit (pineapple, watermelon, cantaloupe, strawberries, etc.) all around it. It was cute, and you could customize it with your own fave fruits or glaze in the dip.

Hello RS,

Try Paula Deen's recipe for Polynesian Chicken Wings. They are a great hit at my house. You can get the recipe online. Enjoy!!!

Steph.

Mango salsa! It's so good. There's a Pampered Chef cookbook that has a ton of tropical recipes in it that I like.
Food with coconut, like cook rice with coconut milk instead of water, put pineapple slices on chicken, veggie kabobs with pineapple or mango, etc. Search Carribean recipes online, those are tropicalish.

How about a fruit platter with pineapple,mango and kiwi with a fruit dip. You could also put the fruit on skewers. You could put meat and veggis on skewers also. Good Luck

Here is a link to Sweet & sour Meatballs, my only suggestion is to use all pork or 1/2 pork 1/2 turkey or beef. Pork is a more traditional island meat. I have not used this exact recipe, but it looks a lot like one I have used before.

http://southernfood.about.com/od/crockpotmeatballs/r/bl90...

If you dont want to make them in a crock pot, roll balls to about an inch, bake on parchment on a sheet pan for about 20 minutes at 350. You can make these ahead & re-heat for the party. Make the sauce in a pan, add a small can of crushed pineapple, cook in saucepan til thickened.

Also, if you are in need of a good cocktail, here is a really good one (I recommend Coconut Rum)

P.'s Planter’s Punch

2 ozs of Rum
Dash of Cointrou
1 ½ ozs Orange Juice (Fresh is best)
1 ½ ozs Pineapple Juice (fresh is best)
½ oz Lime Juice (fresh is best)
½ oz Simple Syrup
Grenadine (float on top if making individual drinks) otherwise about 1/2 - 1 oz
Orange Slice & Cherry

Serve over Ice

Use at least fresh lime & orange, this will put this drink over the top! Don't forget the paper umbrellas!

Have fun!

P

For the kids I saw in a mag that you can put blue jello in a see through plastic cup and while pouring the jello, you put a gummie fish in the middle and let it chill. Really cute and looks like an aquarium. Goldfish for the kids too.

Anything with a pineapple is tropical. umbrellas with the drinks. lays for everyone as they arrive. Tiki torches around the porch outside. mangos, shrimp, roast pork, ham with pineapple slices on it, daquiries, beachy music in the background....Jimmy Buffet. Cocunuts for decoration, grass skirts around the tables. cream cheese with marshmallow puff is a good fruit dip. You can dip pineapples, grapes, apples, etc in it and it is really good! You can do a cheese ball with crushed pineapple in it and maybe even shape it in some sort of themed shape.

Have fun!