If you’ve got the grill fired up for burgers, chickens, fish and corn, grill up some dessert as well.

Grilled fruits like pineapples, peaches and other stone fruits (e.g. apricots, nectarines, plums) are delicious and festive fare.

Grilling caramelizes the natural fruit sugars, making the fruit flavor more intense.

Marinating the fruit in advance adds more flavor, although it isn’t essential if you’re short on time.
 
 
RECIPE: GRILLED PINEAPPLE & PEACHES

Ingredients

 
For The Marinade

This marinade recipe is from the Mayo Clinic.

 
Preparation

1. PEEL the pineapple and cut slices at least 1/2″ thick; cut the peaches or other fruits in half and remove the pits.

2. COAT the fruit in the marinade and let sit for up to four hours or overnight. This is easily done by adding the sliced fruit and marinade in a plastic bag. Remove the fruit with tongs when ready to place on the grill. Spray the grill with nonstick spray to prevent the fruit from sticking.

3. GRILL the pineapple 3 to 4 minutes on one side over medium heat, basting once or twice. Double the time for the thicker halves of peaches, plums and nectarines.

Brushing the fruit with melted butter or oil during grilling will help to keep the fruit from sticking to the grill grate.

If you have citrus-infused oils (blood orange, lemon or lime, e.g.), use those for another layer of flavor. Or if you have chile-infused oil, use it to add some heat.

4. FLIP the fruit and move to a cooler part of the grill (or reduce the heat). Baste again. Grill until tender and golden, another 3 to 4 minutes.

5. REMOVE to plates. Brush with the rum and sprinkle with the lime zest. Serve hot or warm with the optional ice cream.

[1] Great sliced and grilled (photo by Tat Pixmix | SXC).

[2] Luscious California peaches (photo © Frog Hollow Farm, which sells the peaches in season).

[3] Catalina plums, halved, pitted and ready to marinate and grill (photo © Good Eggs).

If you’ve been lugging home too many bottles of soda and club soda to beat the summer heat, it may be time to consider a SodaStream soda maker.

You’ll not only save a lot of effort, but it’s an effortless way to go green.

Americans used more than 90 billion cans and bottles of soda and sparkling water last year. That’s a lot of recycling (and landfill).

You can save the environment, save gas, save money and save your back and arms with PURE from SodaStream (also known as Soda Club).

SodaStream, which has several models (PURE is the latest and sleekest), turns tap water into sparkling water or soda in 30 seconds.

No electricity or batteries are used; there’s no mess or clean-up; it’s easy to fit into in your kitchen, workplace, boat, etc. Reusable BPA-free carbonating cartridges do the carbonating.

Soda lovers can choose from 25 delicious regular and diet soda flavors and an energy drink—without high-fructose corn syrup or aspartame. The flavors, which are among the best sodas we’ve ever tasted, are certified kosher by OU.

Just about everyone who has passed through THE NIBBLE has purchased one and can’t do without it!

A key difference: Hot tea doesn’t create landfill; bottled iced tea does.

So as much as we love certain bottled teas and still enjoy them, we’ve been focusing on brewing our own.

First, the Breville One-Touch Tea Maker, our new favorite appliance, makes it a snap. This machine is so much fun—and produces such good results—we can’t say enough about it.

Second, we can brew a different type of tea each time (which in our case is two brewings a day): Earl Grey, jasmine tea (perhaps our favorite iced tea), green tea and whatever comes our way. Peach iced tea and blackberry iced tea were two recent brewings.

Home-brewing top-quality tea results in such a delicious drink that no sugar is needed. While lemon or lime adds calorie-free antioxidants, they’re not needed for flavor.

Spare the landfill: brew your own!
Photo by Spanish Alex | Dreamstime.

• See our ideas for holding an iced tea party, including recipes.
• Take the Iced Tea Trivia Quiz.

These fun decals meant for the nursery
are over our kitchen table. Photo
courtesy WeeGallery.com.

The self-adhesive, removable decals, made of eco-friendly polypropylene, can be repositioned with no damage to walls: Just peel and stick to create a fun wallscape.

While chacun à son goût, we actually prefer the happy birds with their “bon appetit” greeting to fruits, vegetables, cows, coffee pots, plump chefs and other kitchen decals we saw on various websites.

For those not into birdies, Wee Gallery offers sea turtles, flowers and other motifs.

And happy as we are with our choice, we’d love it if Wee Gallery would apply its artistic flair to create a few kitchen-specific editions.

In the interim, if you want to spruce up the kitchen—or need a baby gift—we highly recommend the Birdie Banner.

May 13th is National Fruit Cocktail Day. How about an easy “drunken fruit” dessert.

You can use winter fruits or summer fruits. More delicate summer fruits do best with a white wine marinade; winter fruits such as citrus and grapes can use either white or red.

You can do all of the prep work in advance and let the fruit marinate in the wine—overnight, if you like.

For Champagne, make an impression by pouring it into the bowls at the table. This also preserves the bubbles.

For kids and non-drinkers, use ginger ale.
 
 
RECIPE: DRUNKEN FRUIT
Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. USE a melon baller to scoop melon balls.

2. FILL wine goblets to 1″ of top with melon balls. Add wine.

3. GARNISH and serve with forks.

Here’s an even easier drunken fruit dessert recipe.
 
 
DESSERT WINES

White dessert wines include Ice Wine, Moscato d’Asti, Muscat and Sauternes.

You can also use a sweet sparkling wine, such as a demi-sec, doux or sec Champagne (see the styles below).

It’s counter-intuitive, but “sec,” which means dry in French, refers to sweeter Champagnes.

Brut designates a dry Champagne or cider. Sec Champagnes are sweeter than demi-sec.
 

[1] Who needs whipped cream when the berries are marinated in sweet Champagne (photo © DeLallo)?

[2] Adults get melon balls in wine. Here’s aversion for kids and non-drinkers (photo courtesy Diabetes.org.

Dry Champagnes are meant to be drunk with savory foods. Sweet Champagnes are dessert wines.

Either dry or sweet can be served as an apéritif.

Here’s how the sugar levels compare. The higher the percentage, the sweeter the Champagne.