Pomegranates.....not yarn!

What do you do with six large pomegranates when you are not particularly fond of eating the seeds?  I love the taste of pomegranates, don't get me wrong.  Years ago, I chipped a tooth on one and have been leery since then.  Why six pomegranates?  We do not grow these things!  Mark was at the store and saw some lovely ones so home they came with him.  I pondered the fact of how to "deseed" these fine fruits.  Michael and I sat down at the table and did the usual "underwater" trick and granted that did get rid of the white pith but those seeds were still inside that jewel-tone colored flesh.  Hmmm?  I thought I might make a bit of jelly with the things!  Since we had a full basket of apples begging to be used, the two were combined to make jelly. The seedy pomegranates were cooked down and run through the jelly sieve before returning them to the pot.  Six apples were cored and ground.  These were added to the pot and let simmer for quite some time until they were fully cooked.  Now my fruit was ready to go!  Since we are on this kick of getting healthier, I decided to forego the sugar.  Another hmmm?  Was this going to work?  Fruit pectin was added even though those apples were in the pot.  Sure enough, after a good bit more simmering, a delightful batch of sugar free jelly was made!  The taste test proved that it was just as wonderful without all those added calories. The fruit was sweet enough on its own.  The stuff did not set like jelly and has more the consistency of applesauce but that is quite alright by me! This morning's breakfast consisted of coffee, toast and apple/pomegranate jelly or sauce!  This was the most delicious way to start the morning!

Now about those pomegranates and Mark's shopping.  I have this horrible hate of going shopping so, bless his heart, Mark does it for me.  I have learned to expect the unexpected when unpacking those bags.  He always manages to slip something special in there and usually waits for me to "find" my surprise.  It is not unusual for me to find "out of season" strawberries, my favorite white chocolate cocoa or even bags full of sweet potatoes!  All of these are favorites and how he always remembers is beyond me.  But the pomegranates go deeper than that.  Years ago, when Darling Daughter, Elizabeth, and I would be working on some project, we would send him on errands!  He was so great about finding special yarns for cat costumes, unusual paint colors for ornaments and clear but permanent glass glue!  He has an knack for finding the "unfindable"!  Once we were working on the aforementioned cat costumes for the local production of "CATS" and we needed yarn..lots of yarn!  On a whim, Elizabeth also wrote pomegranates on the list.  Well, needless to say, we received a phone call from Mark.  "What do you mean by pomegranates? I am not at the grocery store!"  She started to giggle and told him that she did not want pomegranates from the grocery store but ones from the craft store!  He was confused, to say the least!  He was good natured about it all and just bought her more yarn!  The cat costumes turned out well, the production was fantastic and Mark, still to this day, laughs about his daughter's craft pomegranates.

So while making the pomegranate jelly, I had to giggle a bit.  It is funny how memories slip in to brighten our days.