Nov 9, 2010

From Linda's Lips: Pomegranate Season

I have always enjoyed pomegranates, but remember as a youth trying to pick out all of those fruit bits while staining my fingers and tiring of the work. As an adult I have walked past the pomegranates every year remembering the painstaking efforts of eating the darn things and avoided buying the fruits for that very reason.

And then, I saw it! I don't remember where, and perhaps you already know the secret, but this year I am back to buying the miracle (as some say) fruit! I was really excited to introduce pomegranates to the kids and 2 out of 4 gave it a thumbs up.

Here's the trick I saw and stashed in my brain:

Slice your pomegranate in half. Have a bowl of water at the ready. Using a large spoon, spoon out your fruit, white pulp and all. Once the fruit is out of its skin use your fingers to loosen the fruit from the pulp. The white pulp floats while the fruit sinks to the bottom. After separating the two, you can easily remove the white flesh with a slotted spoon and strain the fruit from the water! Yay! I love this method, and while you still have to work a little, this is sooooo do-able and takes only a few minutes. 
Enjoy pomegranate season friends!

Nov 4, 2010

From Linda's Lips: Mixing it in.

I've tried to post this a couple of times, but blogger keeps freezing on me and I lose my work. Ugh! I'm trying again...

(If you don't like the look of raw ground beef avoid the picture below!)

I was given a recipe for blue cheese bacon burgers several years ago and really enjoyed the taste of the blue cheese and bacon mixed into the burger. I have since tried mixing ingredients in my meat and have found I LOVE this way of cooking burgers. I thought I'd share with you a few of the things I have learned over time.
  • raw veggies stay pretty crunchy after the burger is still cooked. Best to saute your veggies first. Ones I like are sauteed mushrooms, onions, and peppers.
  • Cheese is divine mixed in a burger. Cheddar and bacon--yum!
  • absolutely cook your bacon before mixing it in your meat.
  • Raw jalapenos are a little to crunchy for my liking, but I have since discovered jarred jalapenos and they are perfect mixed in the meat!
Try out different mix ins next time you make burgers. The kids love picking their mix-ins and we have much less burger mess with fewer toppings falling out of our buns.

p.s. We still like our pickles and lettuce on top of the burger :)

This ground beef has jalapenos and steak seasoning mixed in before grilling.
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