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 :)

 

Sweet success

The most awesome sundae. Ever.

• Double Chocolate POM Brownie
• Pomegranate Caramel Sauce (which looks like orange highlighter)
• Homemade Pistachio Bark (made with Wonderful Pistachios)
• Vanilla ice cream (from Kroger)
• Pomegranate aril garnish

 

Healthy Strides’ tips for party success

Stay hydrated. Mark tried to sneak bites of guacamole, and I stuck with Diet Pomegranate 7Up and a delightful Pomegranate Cooler.

Pick a theme. I started to build my menu with the help of POM Wonderful's recipe section. So many of the recipes appealed to me, and I had a list the length of a pomegranate orchard. I had started the editing process when I invited Mark's friend, R.

"It's on a Sunday?" he asked. "We better be watchin' some football. Who's playing that day?"

And so the game-day menu was born.

Details matter. To say I was a bit obsessed with wedding planning would be the understatement of the century. I thought about everything from name cards to labels on wine bottles to a Scrabble game in the parlor (Mark proposed using the game board). And though we were eating chicken legs and watching football, I wanted the details to matter. I drew inspiration from pomegranate orchards – the wide dirt rows separating green trees. I imagined pomegranates just falling off the trees in a beautiful, organic way. I put a green cloth on  the table and used burlap that I found at the fabric store as a runner. I made menu cards, which I put in a homemade burlap napkin (which matched the runner). I hung the POM Wonderful gift bags on the chairs. I even managed to create a pomegranate candle holder.

Have a plan. I made a list of things I needed to do and put them in order of when I could do them. Brownies and pistachio bark could be made Saturday. The barbecue and caramel sauces could be made in the morning. Marinate the steak and then eat lunch (preferably not the raw steak). Take a nap on the couch while watching “Harry Potter.” Get up at 3 p.m. and make the dips. Clean. Gouge out the center of a pomegranate to make a candle. Preheat the oven. Have a drink … of 7Up. Well, you get the drift. I was never once stressed or acting manic and all because I had a plan.

Enjoy. Sit on the couch with your guests and watch the game. Eat a brownie. Or two. Laugh as your dog goes from person-to-person as if the living room is a love buffet. Put your feet up and let your husband clear plates.

Main event

Gather round, gather round. It's time to eat!

Spinach Pomegranate Salad with Pears and Hazelnuts
(I used macadamia nuts because I couldn't find hazelnuts.)

Rice Pilaf with POM and Pine Nuts
(I used slivered almonds.)

POM Bourbon Marinated Steak Skewers

Game-day Barbecue Chicken Legs

Pomegranate-Feta Sliders

Up next: The Grand Finale and parting thoughts

A fresh start

• Easy Red-Pepper Dip, featuring POM Wonderful juice reduced to a syrup and blended with roasted red peppers (duh!), walnuts, spices and olive oil. Served with pita bread.
• Guacamole, with pomegranate arils threatening to outshine my beloved avocado
  
• Chickpea and Mint Crostini, packing a ton of flavor with chickpeas, mint, scallions and more arils
  

Three. It's such a great number. I really feel like life is better when things come in threes - unless it's anything to do with traffic violations or bathroom stops in a race.

For my POM Wonderful party, I knew I wanted to have some munchies for the guests to nosh on while I prepared the game-time eats. I nearly went with just two - the Easy Red-Pepper Dip and POM Wonderful's recipe for Pan-Toasted Brie but the brie seemed a bit fussy for football and our crowd. Three dips would be better. For the guests and my time.

And, between you and me, I made it even easier on myself by using pre-made guac, stirring in the arils before setting out the bowls. Sue me. Of course, Mark had to tell me just how great the guac was and then snub his nose at the chickpea crostini. He's lucky he got to sleep anywhere but the couch last night.

Up next: Side kicks and the main event.

Let's get this party started

Pre-workout fuel: Too Healthy Pumpkin Muffin and a banana
Workout: Ran 4.75 miles in 41 minutes, 18 seconds; average pace, 8:41.

You could say that I was a bit antsy this morning. I was up at 6 a.m. I was eating breakfast at 6:20.

At 6:45, I was a bit surprised that Mark wasn't awake so I decided to open (successfully!) two pomegranates. By 7:15, I almost woke him and had he not strolled out of the bedroom at 7:30, he would have gotten a nice wake-up call from Denali.

Why so harried so early in the morning?

Well, I wanted to get in my run, eat a real breakfast and get to work preparing for my oh so Wonderful day.

Yes. Today is the day. The day of my POM Wonderful dinner party. I was supplied two cases of pomegranates, coupons for POM Wonderful juice, an apron, cutting board and gift bags for my guests as part of my selection as one of 100 hosts.

My party tonight will showcase the wonderful versatility of that stain-creating monster superfruit we know as the pomegranate. And football. It is Sunday, after all.

Pomegranate barbecue sauce, left, and pomegranate caramel sauce

Game-day barbecue chicken legs
Adapted from Fotocusisine

1 cup POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate juice
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 ounces tomato paste (half a small can)
1 1/2 tablespoons molasses
1 1/2 teaspoons dry mustard
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin powder
2 tablespoons honey
1 lemon, juiced
Salt and pepper to taste
2 pounds chicken legs

Pour POM Wonderful juice into a large saucepan. Add garlic, tomato paste, molasses, mustard powder, cumin and honey. Whisk together and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Continue to let the sauce simmer until it thickens and reduces by a about a third to a half. Remove from heat and add lemon juice.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Rinse chicken in cold water and pat dry. Season chicken with salt and pepper and put chicken on cookie sheet. bake for 15 minutes. Turn chicken and cover each piece with barbecue sauce. Bake another 15 to 20 minutes.

Some kind of Wonderful

Remember when I told you that I had something wonderful going on this weekend. Yeah. You do. Well, I can tell you this much. It involves me and a pomegranate.


Before our relationship can begin, though, I need to figure out how to open the dern thing.

The mind is a powerful thing but apparently mine isn't that powerful.

A sumo wrestler, I am not. A throw down between me and the pomegranate did not happen.

My blender is awesome for smoothies and, err, margaritas but the pomegranate was too big to get near the blades.

Warning: Don't try this at home. A hot pomegranate isn't all that hot. Or edible.

I call my bike the Green Envy but its superpowers are only good for looks. No pomegranate-opening here.

I decided to let Denali give it a go. After all, he's eaten everything for an entire corn cob to a half-tub of margarine.

He gave up but decided to keep the pomegranate. He thought it complemented his coloring.

I guess I - well, we - have figured out all the ways not to open a pomegranate. Now, we must work on doing it the right way.

Have a Wonderful Saturday!

Friday love

Pre-workout breakfast: Mish-mash of cereal with skim milk and a banana
Workout: Ran 3.62 miles (average pace, 8:33) and 30 minutes of yoga

This morning, I got out of bed, stretched and prepared to hobble to the bathroom. Much to my surprise, I really didn't have to hobble. My legs were nearly pain-free - the first time in a week! It was so glorious to walk around the house, pouring my bowl of cereal (my newest obsession) and making my cup of coffee without creaking and crying.

Of course, the day's workout plan - run and Jackie Warner - threatened to make that glory just a thing of the past. So I made a decision. A good decision. I decided to take it easy. I did a short run and stretched out my legs with yoga.

Oh, rest. I love you. Almost as much as Friday.


Food. I have something wonderful going on. Very, very wonderful going on. Too bad I'm not going to give it away just yet ;)


Fitness. I complained about my blister. I've complained about sore legs. However, I have to say that things could have been a lot worse after the W.O.O.F. Who do I have to thank? The folks at Recovery Socks. I bought the pair at the RnR Chicago expo and since then, the pair have been a post-long run recovery miracle. I rarely gimp around after big runs and only complain that my "butt" hurts. (It's really the very top of my hamstring where my thigh meets my booty.) If you don't have these - or other compression socks - you need them.


Life. You might hate me when I tell you this. Really, you might. I don't do laundry - at least not often. I also do about a third of the dishes and touch the vacuum once every other month. Why? Because I don't have to. Mark picks up a huge amount of my slack around the house as long as I provide him with tasty, tasty meals. This morning, for instance, he unloaded the dishwasher and started a load of laundry. He did ask me to put the wash in the dryer but it's a small price to pay for such a lovely husband.

To thank him, I'm going to drag myself (ha!) to "Due Date" this weekend and possibly the Indian buffet. Whose doing something fun?