Holiday Guest Post Round-Up, Shabtai Review, and Giveaway

Holiday Guest Post Round-Up, Shabtai Review, and Giveaway

December 22, 2010 Leave a comment

The holidays are flying by at lightning speed.

Again.

Just like they always do.

YIKES!

But this year I decided I was going to be prepared. I actually started making my Christmas presents in September. That’s right! September! If you read my post about homemade limoncello and other presents to make, you will know I had to start that early to get the limoncello ready in time. (By the way, it’s amazing!)

I also decided that I was going to do my first-ever guest post series. The theme was gluten-free holidays. Well, due to my own crazy life, as well as the crazy lives of my wonderful guest bloggers, the posts were a bit sporadic. But I kind of liked it that way. Like a dash of seasoning here and there. So, I have decided to do a round-up of the lovely recipes that they were gracious enough to offer to my readers in case you are looking for any last-minute holiday ideas. They had some great ones. (And I will throw in a couple of my own, just because I can. It’s my blog!)

In addition, this post will contain a review of the new Shabtai Swiss Chocolate Roll. The lovely people at Shabtai were so sweet to send me one for review. But, not only did they send me one to review, they have offered a “sweet” giveaway to you. But, you will have to keep reading to find out what and how…

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How to Peel a Pomegranate in 5 Easy Steps?

How to Peel a Pomegranate in 5 Easy Steps?

December 4, 2010 Leave a comment

Pomegranates are probably my favorite food. I could live on them. But, they have one major flaw. Peeling them.

They have this tough skin that gets hard as a rock if, God forbid, you leave them too long before getting around to peeling them. Try to peel that thing off without popping a bunch of the little packet of sweet, juicy flavor around the seeds. Thus, staining anything it touches. Good luck!

And, speaking of stains. The stains my fingers get from trying to peel these things drives me nuts. My fingers dry up and turns a pale, orangey color. Um, why?

I know I could get the seeds in a little container in the store, but that just seems so lazy and wrong.

And, I have heard several times that you just cut it in half and hit it with a wooden spoon. Then, all of the little seeds pop out like beautiful, red, magic rainfall. I’ve even seen Nigella do it on her show. I tried it, and I just ended up mashing the pomegranate and having little red dots all over my kitchen. It was a pomegranate massacre. Should have had a white chalk outline around it and called CSI. Not really the outcome I was looking for.

So, if you are not a pomegranate whisperer, like I am not, I am going to share with you my technique for getting those pesky, but oh-so-tasty seeds out with as little hassle as possible. And, hopefully, as little stains as possible. Either red or orange.

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