It followed me home

My husband called it ‘the year of the pomegranate’. I’m not sure how it happened - again. But, it’s been happening for several years in a row. Around Thanksgiving time I get in this food mood. I get focused on some kind of food theme and everything I’m planning to make is swirling around it. One year it was mandarin oranges. Another year it was mushrooms. This last Thanksgiving it was pomegranates.

Well, maybe I do know how it happened (this year). I was at COSTCO and they had pre-packaged, already picked out of the peel & pulp, plump, beautiful arils (pomegranate seeds). I couldn’t resist them! So, they came home with me and I set off on a journey of discovery (via the internet) to find recipes that used arils.

Along the way, I found some wonderful websites and blogs. (One of the most beautiful blogs I found was called ‘My Persian Kitchen’. I’d highly recommend that you check it out…not just for pomegranates…if you like Mediterranean food at all.) Using ideas and inspiration from the various sites & blogs, I created my own set of pomegranate recipes for our Thanksgiving menu.

My family still lives. So, the recipes must not have been too bad! And, my husband, who started the labeling (complaining?) ate right along with the rest of them. I ended up buying pomegranate vinegar, pomegranate juice, & pomegranate infused oil to go along with those arils. And, I’ve been able to use most of them up with repeat requests to bring along ‘that pomegranate thing you made’.

I suppose the question is, “Should I try to avoid themed holiday food?” Or, should I start planning now for next Thanksgiving? If you’ve read one of my other posts, you’ll know that I’ll probably be bringing along a ‘weird salad’ if we get an invite to my cousin’s place again this year. Just thinking ahead…you know, just in case.

So, here’s one of the recipes I came up with: Pomegranate Salad with Pomegranate dressing. Enjoy!

Pomegranate Salad

INGREDIENTS

Vinaigrette:

¼	cup pomegranate juice
2	T pomegranate vinegar
1	T honey
½	t kosher salt
½	t freshly ground black pepper
½	cup pomegranate infused olive oil *

Salad:

1	head butter lettuce
½	cup pomegranate arils
½	cup shelled pistachios
½	cup feta cheese

Directions

1.     For the vinaigrette, combine pomegranate juice, pomegranate vinegar, honey, salt, & pepper in a bowl.  Gradually drizzle in olive oil while whisking vigorously.  Set aside.  *Extra virgin olive oil will do just as well, if you can’t find the flavored oil.

2.     For the salad, wash butter lettuce leaves and spin dry.  Tear into bite-sized pieces and place in large salad bowl.  Sprinkle lettuce with pomegranate arils and pistachios. Crumble feta cheese over top.

3.     Dress salad with pomegranate vinaigrette.

Champagne anyone? (not that kind)

Paul's gift of a few 'champagne' mangoes has inspired a salad that I plan to take along for a picnic tomorrow at my family reunion.  More about that in a moment.  But first, a mango refresher course...

Ataulfo mangoes (aka 'champagne' or 'Philippine' mangoes) are very different from their fat cousins the Haden mangoes.  A 'Champagne' mango (on the left in the photo below) is superior is so many ways!  Besides being slimmer, having a thinner smaller pit, and being 'hairless', they just taste better.

Because I grew up in The Philippines, I've always favored the 'champagne' style mangoes.  During my teen years, when we lived in Singapore, we could get both types of mangoes.  We called the fat ones 'Indian' mangoes and the slimmer golden ones 'Philippine' mangoes.  In truth, the 'Philippine' ones we bought in the Singapore market were from Thailand.  But, the names kind of stuck.  And, I've always thought the 'Indian' variety tasted a bit like kerosene compared to a 'real' mango.

Now back to the family reunion.  My family isn't very fancy.  We don't have elaborate family reunions with identical T-Shirts and resort living for two weeks.  We just gather together somewhere in the middle of where we all live and group camp (or for the slightly more afluent or physically challenged among us, motel room it) at an inexpensive centrally located state park for a weekend in July.  In fact, we've been going to the same two or three spots for many years.

On Saturday, at noon, we have a family picnic.  It's usually hot and cloudless. There aren't many trees which turns the shady spots into prime real estate.  My aunts gather everyone's picnic tables together under the shadiest group of trees and bring out the well used (loved) tableclothes or repurposed sheets to create an extended table that they promptly overload with food.  It's not fancy fare.  Just plain 'ole home cookin'.  The rest of us add to the food madness with whatever we have.

My contribution this year is going to be a fruit salad.  Usually, I bring an entree or some kind of a one-dish wonder.  But, this year I decided to take it easy and bring my two favorites together in a cool fruit salad.  Simply raspberries and mangoes.  My secret twist is going to be the dressing.  I've tried several honey dressings before and know the taste I'm after.  I just need to find that one recipe that's right.

My search so far has gotten me about 12 dozen recipes that are basically the same.  And a couple three others that look interesting.  Tonight's project is to make the four recipes I've chosen and have my husband taste test with some of the fruit.  I may choose to take along more than one...you know...just in case I change my mind at the last minute.  I'll update this post after the reunion to let you know which one I took and what reaction it got.

The first dressing is made with equal parts water and honey, some lemon juice, cinnamon, & ginger.  You bring the water almost to a boil, add the honey and let it become syrupy.  Then add the lemon juice and spices.  The great taste tester liked it a lot.  I thought it tasted like mulled cider - not what I was after.

The second one is called Honey Orange Sauce.  It sounded interesting but turned out awful!  Orange juice, lemon juice, honey, ginger, & nutmeg.  It was bitter.  A complete waste of honey.

We didn't get to try the third one.  I may give it a go another time.  I think it would be good.  The reason we didn't try it was that my local market didn't have mint today.  Can you believe it?  Of all things to be out of when I'm experimenting!  It called for honey, lime juice, brown sugar, & mint.  Sigh.  Another time.

Here's the winner.  Got many compliments and lots of questions about it!

Honey Dressing

INGREDIENTS

⅔	cup sugar
1	t dry mustard
1	t paprika
¼	t salt
1	t celery seed
⅓	cup honey
5	T white vinegar
1	T lemon juice
1	cup vegetable oil

Directions

Blend all ingredients in blender, adding oil in a thin steady stream - whirling continually.

Smoke gets in your eyes

If you're humming the old ‘Platters’ tune, then you’re just as old as I am. Or, you like the oldies station on your car radio. But that’s not what I was thinking of when I titled this post. We just got back from our week-long camping trip to the lake. And, it strikes me that ‘camping food’ is very different from ‘regular food’.

Not us...but, smarter than us (note the swim goggles)!

At home, if smoke gets in your eyes, you know you’re in trouble and something’s going to be tasting really bad. But, on the other hand, if you’re camping and smoke gets in your eyes, you know you’re in for a treat! It’s funny, too, how there are some things that we ONLY make when we’re out camping – wouldn’t dream of making it at home. It’s like we know that there are too many calories or too much fat or some other offending ingredient/property so we don’t make it at home on a regular basis. But, since we’re camping…well, obviously camping calories and camping fat and camping ‘whatever else’ don’t count as the real deal. As my buddy Akeem says, “What happens at the lake…stays at the lake.” Kind of like a guilty pleasure.

One of my favorite guilty pleasures is something we call ‘Mexican Breakfast’. Now, I realize that there’s probably not a Mexican in the whole wide world that has had this for breakfast. But, that is the only name I know for it. Diana had this at a restaurant about 25 years ago. (No idea what the name was on the menu.) She dissected it and came up with the list of ingredients. Since then, we’ve morphed it into a very yummy breakfast item that we ONLY eat when we are camping. Partially, because when we’ve made it at home it didn’t taste right. It was missing the key camping ingredients: fresh air, pine needles, a waft of campfire smoke, and that relaxed camping aura.

I’ll give you the rough recipe for one. You can adjust it to feed as many as you want.

Mexican Breakfast

INGREDIENTS

Eggs, scrambled

Flour tortilla

Cream cheese

Butter

Cheddar cheese

Tomato, chopped

Green chilies, the kind from a can, diced

Salsa

Sour Cream

Scramble some eggs and set them aside. Heat a cast iron skillet on your camp stove. Take a flour tortilla and spread cream cheese over the whole thing (edge to edge). When it’s ready, drop a generous amount of butter into the skillet. Carefully drape the tortilla in the cast iron skillet (yes, it has to be cast iron or it doesn’t taste right!) so that half of it is in the bottom being bathed in the butter and the other half is propped up on the edge of the skillet and resting on the handle. Sprinkle with Cheddar cheese (or Pepper Jack, if you like it spicy). Add the scrambled eggs, diced green chilies, and chopped tomato. Drizzle with salsa and top with sour cream. Take the top half and fold it over the pile of ‘innards’. About that time, the bottom half of your tortilla should be golden brown and crispy. Flip the folded tortilla over and (this is the hard part) wait for the other side to brown and crisp. That’s it. Unless you’re my husband…he thinks you need to top the final product with more salsa and sour cream. I don’t agree…I think that softens up the tortilla and ruins the crispiness.

As you can see, you can only make one at a time – unless you have help and another skillet. When we make this (usually on our last day at the lake), we just keep going (slowly) until everyone has been fed. It drags out our last morning and postpones our departure time very nicely.

In case you’ve forgotten the words to the song, here they are:

Smoke gets in your eyes

They asked me how I knew,
My true love was true,
Oh, I of course replied,
Something here inside,
Cannot be denied.

They said someday you'll find,
All who love are blind,
Oh, when your heart's on fire,
You must realize,
Smoke gets in your eyes.

So I chaffed them, and I gaily laughed,
To think they could doubt our love,
Yet today, my love has flown away,
I am without my love.

Now laughing friends deride,
Tears I cannot hide,
So I smile and say,
When a lovely flame dies,
Smoke gets in your eyes.