Poppin Open a Pomegranate

work pants beware...because when those seeds land they stain!

There is a ton of information out there about how healthy Pomegranates are for you! Whether it be the seeds or the juice they tend to pack a punch when it comes to nutrition. Now of course it would be easy to just buy Pom juice and drink or add to Soda water for a refreshing cocktail...but then what would there be to blog about!

One of my favorite things to do when i go to the grocery store is see what produce is on it's final leg and pick it up...I happened to find two pomegranates just waiting to be seeded on the Johnny Cart (this is the cart located in the produce section that normally has reduced, on it's last leg, produce. I call it the Johnny cart after erin's late uncle who used to Love doing his shopping there!).

I had learned from a friend of mine that when you open the Pom you just have to pull out the seeds. easier said than done! It can be quite messy and that juice stains. Just a disclaimer for those of you wanting to try it.

I sucessfully deseeded two pom's using the "traditional method" show on that link, but perhaps the other ones would be worth a try as well. I also recalled that the Foodie Blogroll was holding a contest for the most creative/tasty recipe incorporating Pomegranates...but i think the deseeding was enough work for one day.

Now I have a bowl of seeds with no where to go...except in my mouth. YUM.
(oh and by the way you can eat the whole seed, crunchy inside and all!)

Pumpkin Bread...just the beginning of Thanksgiving Cooking

If you can recall that Pumpkin puree I made last post (that I froze for future use)...I decided instead of adding it to oatmeal every morning (which is also a great option) that I wanted to try to use it in as many recipes as I could this Thanksgiving season. I mean hey, it was a large Pumpkin!

Sure enough, as I assumed, the blogs and emails were full of uses for Pumpkins. Most of them were the typical pie recipes, breads, etc. My old stand by hungry girl promised a bread recipe that can't be beat. I'll give it a try!

As usual with HG recipes I already had the ingredients on hand. Here's the link for HG's Cranberry Pumpkin Bread! One of the things I love about HG is that she shows you how much you are actually saving yourself in calories and fat when you change up a recipe. Again, as usual, I realized mid way through prep that i couldn't find my bread pans anywhere! Now I know that i had them when we moved...but they must have gotten lost in transition :(. thankfully they tell you how to make this delightful dish into muffins! I also didn't have any cranberries and since erin isn't a huge fan of raisins i just decided to omit that ingredient altogether.

I thought they came out great, very similar to my pumpkin cookies that I make! The recipe says that it serves 8, but i was able to scoop out 18 muffins!! Which only means the servings were even lower in WW points! After taking these things out of the pan erin and i both agreed that they were the perfect size AND you don't feel guilty if you want to have 2!! They don't rise much in the oven so keep that in mind when you are portioning your pan out.

**ADDENDUM a few days later because erin and i are attending a book club tonight and many of the ladies attending are WW followers such as myself! I wanted to bring something festive to the party and thought that making the bread would be perfect. I had just finished my Thanksgiving shopping so I now had disposable bread pans and I had picked up a package of dried cranberries as well. The mix looked so festive and yummy I thought it called for a picture! As noted in the recipe this took a solid 55 mins of baking. Although I wanted to save it for the party i couldn't let the loaf leave without a tiny sample...what if it was awful...:)
Never fear hungry girl delivered again.
AND I must say I think the cranberries really added a great element, I don't think I would omit them again!

Now lets hope the ladies of book club will feel the same way.

Yet another night of Autumn Beer Drinking...#4

So there are only a few more weeks of Autumn/Pumpkin beer tasting...and if you all recall I still have not tried Pumking....:(. I better get a move on it too because I am about to leave for a week long business trip, AND I am already seeing the Winter Flavors in the stores. I guess that just means plenty of tastings over Thanksgiving. Now that's something to be thankful for!

Our most recent tasting was for Blue Moon Harvest. Erin had tried this flavor previously and did not seem to care for it. So there it sat in the fridge...five unopened Blue Moon Harvests just waiting to be...harvested up! It didn't take much to encourage her to give it another try. I just told her that sometimes the harvest gets better with time. Okay enough puns already.



I really liked this one. It had an amber color and a definite pumpkin flavoring with little to no bitterness. I was thinking it would be like a blue moon, with pumpkin...and it sorta was.
To be honest they all seem to be welding together in my head. I would have to say that i would buy this again!
And just to clear it up...erin liked it the 2nd time around too!

First Meal in the New Apartment...

Could it be anything other than Mexican?! erin and i have spent the last two weeks moving into our new apartment. We have have painting, carrying, decorating and unpacking for two weeks straight and we were in dire need of normalcy. Last night i really wanted to cook in my new kitchen...but i knew that my exhaustion called for something quick and delicious...HOMEMADE NACHOS!!

Our friends Molly and Nick introduced us to how simple it is to make your own nachos. you don't have to use that liquid cheese... or drizzle it on if you like! You simply add chips, whatever topping your heart desires and bake at 375 degrees until the cheese is melted. Normally erin and i each choose different chips. I love the Guiltless Gourmet chips but erin not so much. She is also a huge fan of jalapenos (I use maybe 2) and I love to add sauteed peppers and onions to my side!

We start off with a cookie sheet covered in foil (no pans to wash!) add our chips (i found a bag of Lays Light Rest. style tortilla chips that I have wanted to try), then we add 99% fat free vegetarian chili. We use to use turkey chili but for some reason it had a sweetness to it that erin didn't really care for, the veggie kinda was more to her liking. We added some canned seasoned tomatoes (they were seasoned with green chilies and mexican spices) added our own toppings and finish it off with reduced fat mexican cheese. Unlike fat free cheese the reduce fat actually melts rather well! Molly and nick make layers with theirs so that you get toppings through out the whole pile. we were far too hungry to be that careful!

They only took about 10-15 mins to melt up and we devoured them in approximately the same amount of time :).

Pumpkin Puree 101

I love using pumpkin in recipes, but I always forget to cook the pumpkin, as they make for lovely decorations, and before you know it...rotten :(. This year I made a point to buy a smaller pumpkin so i could cut it up and freeze puree to use in a homemade pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving! I also have a great recipe for squash bread where you can use any squash that you'd like!

One day while getting ready for work I thought: if a pumpkin takes an hour to cook and I take an hour to get ready...why not both get "ready" at the same time! I started by cutting the pumpkin into fourths and then scooping out the stringy insides and pulling out the seeds (for a later roasting job). I then lined a pan with foil and threw them all in the oven on 400 for 45 mins. The pumpkin ended up cooking over an hour before the flesh felt soft enough to take out (it should be soft to the touch). I later read on alot of blogs/sites that you can also season the pumpkin prior to cooking it (salt and pepper was the popular season of choice).

Once I took it out and let it cool for about thirty mins. I started pulling the skin off. It was really simple and the pumpkin just easily fell off. I recently read that many skins of fruits and veggies that we all throw away are actually edible and good for you. Most of us shy away from it due to the texture (can you imagine biting into a banana without peeling it :(. BUT I thought I would try the pumpkin skin because I have eaten acorn squash with the skin and I loved it. It was similar to that experience. No harm done, don't know if I would make a recipe on it. As you can see here there was plenty of skin that did not land in my mouth.

I had to rush off to work so I threw the pumpkin in a container and into the freezer it went...right now it's currently defrosting so that I can puree for use in about a week!!!

Countdown to cooking bonanza!

Bluegrass and Brews fest!

Erin and I recently (and by recent I literally mean this past weekend) signed for a new apartment. We are really excited about the move and what makes it even more exciting is one of our favorite discoveries since moving back to New England is located just five mins. away.

The Nashoba Valley Winery!

This past weekend they held a bluegrass and brews festival. Although they are are winery they also have a micro-brewery as well. We tasted some of their beer earlier this summer when we discovered the place and we vowed to make it back for this festival. It did not disappoint. I thought it was only appropriate with all the beer tasting we have been doing to add this to the blog!

When we came for the winery tour we were also offered taste of their beers for free!

Um..yes please!!! Erin strongly remembered like their Wattaquadock Wheat and I of course wanted to sample their seasonal brew, Oakotberfest! The darker of the two is the Oakotberfest. I really loved how light it was for being such an ambered colored beer. They were both really really good!

We went back for 2nds and decided to get another Wheat and a Bolt 117 Lager this time. I made erin drink most of these because I was driving! (that's my oakotberfest on the far left still not finished...I milked it!)

The day was amazing! The weather was warm but crisp and although I never thought I would like Bluegrass music it completely fit with the crowd and vibe of the festival. Erin and I were able to snag a great tall table on the winery porch which made for great people watching. I can't wait for more of their festivals!

Third Round of Pumpkin beer tasting...

So for our third pumpkin beer tasting (1st-Shipyard Pumpkin, 2nd-Smuttynose Pumpkin) we decided to try DogFish Pumpkin Ale. I have been wanting to try Pumking (brewed by Southern Tier Brewing Company,) for the longest time because I have heard great things about it...sadly our local amazing liquor store is always out!! (I guess that just proves how amazing it is).

There are so many seasonal/pumpkin beers to choose from that i assume not all of them are as tasty as the rest. One of our trips to the store a gentlemen felt highly compelled to let us know that DogFish Pumpkin was "the best pumpkin beer out there". We were familiar with this one as I often saw it in NYC on trips to WholeFoods. It comes in a four-pack and typically runs the same price as six-packs...hence why we normally skipped over that selection. Needless to say after attempting to find Pumking again, and failing, we opted to try the DogFish. (the picture is quite literal to that sentance!) I wasn't a huge fan (although obviously in the picture I am fine taking a big gulp :). It was good, and definitely had spice in it, but more of a fall spice than a pumpkin flavor. Erin agreed. She liked it as well but thought it was a bit "heavier" than some of the previous tries.

We drink our fair share of beer and always love to try new ones! I also believe "to each his own". what may taste like pumpkin to me may taste like fall foliage to erin...who knows.

Honestly...keep your fingers crossed we get to try pumking soon! Even BeerAdvocate rated it #1 pumpkin beer, who can argue with a beer advocate? :)