Island Chicken with Pineapple and Roasted Sweet Potatoes

I'm winging it again in the kitchen. (Yes, that was a bad pun, but it could be worse. Trust me.) 

The chicken features tastes of the Orient (soy and sesame) with a hint of Hawaiian pineapple and a southern barbecue favorite, roasted sweet potatoes. Everything's cooked in the oven.
Island Chicken with Pineapple and Roasted Sweet Potatoes

While getting this ready, scrub, and put two skinny sweet potatoes (about 6 oz. each) in a preheated 370-degree oven for 20 minutes. (Make sure you stab them a couple of times with a steak knife so they won't explode and place in a small pan with a small baking rack in it to let them drip without messing up the oven, but don't cover them.)

Marinate 1 1/2 pounds of thinly sliced chicken (the kind I usually pan fry): in the following marinade for 5-10 minutes.

Marinade:
1/2 a medium-sized lime, juiced
Grated lime zest, if desired (I didn't do that this time)
a few drops of sesame seed oil
3 TBSP olive oil
about two TBSP. pineapple juice from a freshly-cut pineapple. (You can buy it cored and ready to slice.)
5 sprays of Bragg Liquid Aminos (if you don't have this, you may substitute 1/2-1 tsp. of light soy sauce). Just don't include any salt in the next step.

Put the following spices on both sides of the meat: a pinch of salt, ground pepper to taste (preferably freshly-ground mixed peppercorns) and a dash of McCormick's Perfect Pinch Roasted Garlic and Red Pepper.

Mix marinade ingredients thoroughly in a 9" by 12" glass oven-safe dish; place chicken in marinade for 2 to 5 minutes; turn and marinate for 3 to 5 minutes more. It's cooked in the marinade to create a light sauce.

Cover dish with foil and place in a preheated 325-degree oven for 35 minutes or until the chicken is no longer pink in the center (check it by cutting the thickest piece in the center). 
Spoon a couple of teaspoons of sauce over chicken; serve it with the pineapple and baked sweet potato.

Next time I make this recipe, I plan to brown the chicken slightly by taking the foil off for the last three to four minutes.

Mom's Fruit Salad

Fruit salad dressed with a mixture of Cool Whip and Miracle Whip to bind it was the fruit salad of my childhood, sort of a Waldorf salad-type thing. That's really not necessary to taste good, as my mother proved with hers made for a recent family graduation party.

Mom's Fruit Salad

Serves between 30-35 people.

Mom prepares the salad the day of the party, as she doesn't like it to get a bit watery in the bottom. If you have to make it in advance, you always can drain it. (We were eating it for about four days after the party; I liked it better the second day.)

1 cantelope, cut into 1-inch squares
half a honeydew melon, diced into 1-inch squares
two center-cut pieces of a medium-sized seedless watermelon, cut into 1-inch squares
quart of strawberries, washed, hulled and each sliced in half
pint of blueberries, washed
2 C. red seedless grapes, washed and halved
1/2 of one cored, peeled pineapple, cut into 1/2-inch square pieces

Mix together into a very large mixing bowl. Additional fruit salad may be kept in the refrigerator in a large freezer bag to replenish the bowl as needed.