gimme some oven

It’s finally pomegranate season again!  Hallelujah!!!

One of my pomegranate-obsessed coworkers and I have been anxiously waiting and watching the stores for their arrival this fall.  And…just about jumped for joy when they finally arrived.  :)  I absolutely love pomegranates!  Not only are they ridiculously rich in vitamins and nutrients, but I think the seeds just look like little miraculous, little, sparkling jewels.  Lovely!

Of course, these little gems – 840 per fruit, to be exact – literally are “buried” treasure inside of the thick, outer peel.  Unfortunately, I still hear so many stories of people trying to de-seed pomegranates and ending up with red-stained everything before they’re done – eeks!!  So here’s a quick tutorial on how to peel pomegranates “gimmesomeoven style”.  :)

Basically, it’s all about one word: underwater. Everything underwater.

see recipe for how to: open and de-seed a pomegranate

Mmmm…butternut squash.

Even the name just sounds delicious.  Well, the butternut part that is.  :)  Still think it’s a tragedy that this beautiful fruit variety has to share its name with a raquetball sport, and the method I use for bidding adios to spiders!  (Way to write an appetizing post….yes?)

Still, I’m crazy about butternut squash and always look forward to its arrival at the farmers’ market each autumn.  Its deep, sweet, nutty flavor always brings so much richness to a dish, and I tend to get a little too excited about the gorgeous color it adds as well!  Love roasting it, adding it to pastas or salads, pureeing it into soups and sauces, or whatever other creative recipes I may find.

Since butternut squash can be somewhat difficult to break into, though, thought I’d pop in a quick post on my favorite way to safely peel, seed and cut them.  Hope this is helpful!  :)

see recipe for how to: peel, seed and cut butternut squash

I realized the other day that it’s been awhile since I’ve made a basic, classic pesto.  Most of the time I love experimenting with random ingredients, and enjoy seeing what creative deliciousness can result.  But with a (still!) overflowing basil plant, and a jar of pine nuts in the pantry, I decided this week that it was time to revisit a classic.  :)

That said, making pesto is undoubtedly more about the method than the recipe.  So I thought this would be a fun post to offer the basics for proportions for pesto ingredients.  And then you can either make the classic recipe, or do some of your own mixing and matching and creative experimenting.  The joy of pesto is that it’s very hard to go wrong here.  Most ingredients blend pretty well together.  And if by chance you do end up adding a little too much of this or that, you can always just add more of the other ingredients and overpower whatever was too strong.

And while pesto is traditionally regarded as a “summer” recipe, I’ve included some year-round ingredient substitution ideas below as well.  Enjoy!!

see recipe for how to: make pesto

Somehow I got in a conversation with some friends the other day about roasted garlic, and was intrigued to find out that many people have still never tried making this camelized deliciousness!  So alas, I felt compelled to present a quick “how to” on the simple technique.

Being that I have a tendency to go overboard on garlic and throw it in just about everything I cook (I sympathize with Monica on “Friends!), this technique is something I’m quite familiar with.  The joy of it is that the process is super simple, takes about 2 seconds to prepare, and the roasted garlic can be used in a myriad of ways (see notes in recipe).  But the best part is that it makes your kitchen smell hea-ven-ly.

So if you’ve never given this a try, you must!!  It’s a roastin’, toastin’, deliciously good time.  :)

see recipe for how to: roast a head of garlic

Ok, for all of you out there who are obsessed with the peanut-butter-making machine at Whole Foods, I offer you a brilliant new alternative — making your PB at home!!! Seriously, it is ridiculously simple!  And, for people like me who take a little too much delight in experimenting with the food processor, it’s also quite entertaining.  :)

Below is the recipe for my favorite kind of peanut butter — creamy, not too oily, and not too sweet.  But you can create yours however you’d like!  If you’re a fan of chunky peanut butter, simply add in a few tablespoons of (whole) peanuts at the end of the process, and pulse the machine a few times until they are roughly chopped and mixed in.  If you want to control the salt, use unsalted peanuts and then add in your own salt to taste.  If you’d rather not mess with oil, use spanish peanuts since they are naturally quite oily.  If you want some actual sugar in your peanut butter, use honey-roasted peanuts or add in some brown or white sugar.  And if you’re really feeling creative, you can always substitute in some other fun nuts for the chunks (like macadamia, sunflower seeds, etc.).

Since homemade peanut butter is truly “natural” and preservative-free, it needs to be refridgerated and will only have up to a 2 month shelf life.  But if you’re like me (or my good friend, Cass, who recently got me addicted to the simple toasted bagel + peanut butter breakfast combo), quickly using up a small batch will be no problemo.  :)

Seriously.  Give this one a try!

see recipe for how to: homemade peanut butter