Shake your pom poms

It’s the last installment of our POM Wonderful series: How to open a pomegranate. (After all, we all learned how not to open a pomegranate.)

Step 1: Get the attention of your students. Even if it means interrupting the football game.

Clearly, Denali was upset that he didn’t have a clear view of the Colts action.

Step 2: Gather the proper tools.

Newspaper (to help absorb splatter), a cutting board, a sharp paring knife, water-filled bowl and, of course a pomegranate.

Step 3: Score and remove the top of the pomegranate

Step 4: Score the pomegranate into wedges

Step 5: Remove the arils in a bowl of water, allowing the white pithy parts to float to the top.

By the way, this works better if you use a bigger bowl and not a dessert dish in an effort to impress manic Colts fans. It also helps if your dog isn’t staring you down, waiting for you to drop any morsel of something resembling edible fare.

After you finish removing the arils, you can pick out the pithy parts with your fingers (which I did) or use a spoon to skim them off the top (which POM Wonderful recommends).

Word of warning: This is a messy job. You can cut the mess by removing the arils in the water but a mess there still will be. But it’s a tasty one :)