Epic Chestnut Fail

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire? More like land mines exploding in our oven. Raise your hand if you knew that chestnuts explode when roasted without first scoring the casing. I am not talking the calming 'pop!' that popcorn makes. No, it sounded more like Saving Private Ryan was being re-enacted in our kitchen.

I put these puppies on a baking sheet and popped them in the oven at 450F to roast for a couple minutes. It had been a long day so I grabbed a delicious Harpoon Winter Warmer and joined Boy on the couch. Not two minutes later our heads both snapped in the direction of the kitchen when we heard a clear "BOOM". We looked at each other - both slightly puzzled - but only for a second before we heard the successive "WHAM"s and "BOOM"s coming from the kitchen. I opened the oven just a crack to find ("BOOM"!) exploded shrapnel all over only to be startled by ("BOOM!") another explosion. I turned the oven off immediately and closed it with a wooden spoon in the hinge to allow it to cool down quicker. Boy and I sat on the kitchen floor helplessly listening to chestnuts exploding over a contained fire and laughed uncontrollably for about ten minutes.

I opened the oven to find this scene and almost fell over laughing:

All those crumbs you see are pieces of chestnut. They were literally everywhere - including the two shells on the very bottom of the oven.

I will be trying this again soon - this time carefully scoring each shell before they go over the open fire. We will chock this round up to learning.

It's beginning...

... to look a lot like Christmas! Or Christmas cookies, at least. I told myself I was going to get this post up before the cookies were gone and let's just say time is quickly running out. Now, New England has yet to see its first flakes of the white stuff, but that has not kept Boy and I from decorating a tree, listening to endless Christmas music, and making cookies! (Ok, it is more me threatening to cut fingers off if he tries to change the music away from Bing Crosby or Charlie Brown's Christmas on endless repeat, but Boy sure is a trooper.)

I dig this time of year. As someone who loves to cook as much as I do, there is no better excuse to continually crank out treats than the mere fact that it is "the Holidays"!

To kick off the season, boy and I made and decorated some Christmas cookies using the super-fun cookie cutters I recently bought. (Some of my favorite ones are the crab, the mushroom, and the penguin...) Now, I am a recovering sorority girl and if there is one thing I am good at it is crafts. Give me some sprinkles and frosting and I can make you your very own Mona Lisa cookie in no time. Obviously, Boy was not a sorority girl, so it was pretty hilarious to see the cookies we both came up with.

A sampling of our best...

Boy:

A simple, yet dashingly elegant yellow polar bear.

Me:

Not quite the Mona Lisa, but a fancy pants cactus if you ask me.

As for the recipes, I simply used a great sugar cookie recipe, but followed a friend's icing recipe.  I don't like to use names, obviously, but to you, my incredibly crafty friend, here is your anonymous shout out. This icing rocks.

"Royal Icing, Slightly Altered"
1c. powdered sugar
2t. milk
2t. light corn syrup
1/4t. almond extract (or vanilla if almond isn't your style)
assorted food coloring

Stir together the powdered sugar and milk until smooth. Beat in the corn syrup and almond extract until icing is smooth and glossy. If icing is too thick, add more corn syrup.

Enjoy!

Fruit Challenge #9: Pomegranate

Pomegranates are odd little suckers. Having the serious texture aversions that I do, they have never been something that is high on my list of go-to healthy snacks. I remember as a kid I would suck on the individual seeds to eat just the pulp. I would then spit out the remaining hard seed that was left - I wanted nothing to do with the crunch of eating the whole pod. I must say it was a lot of work for not a lot of eatin'. Now that I am all 'growed' up though, it's high time I try to eat a pomegranate the right way.

I have always loved sweet salsas, but it all started with one specific Rothschild Raspberry Salsa. One taste of this and there was no turning back - I was helplessly hooked. By this logic, pomegranate salsa would have to be amazing, right? I decided to find out. I picked up two pomegranates on our next trip to the grocery store. When boy and I got home I peeled one right away to start on the salsa. I made the mistake of tasting a seed (a whole seed!) and ended up eating a majority of the bowl right then and there. Oops. Let's just say my pomegranate texture aversion is a thing of the past.

I will spare you the details of how I cried like a baby while cutting the onion or complained while peeling the second pomegranate or swore anytime I touched my eyes for the next two days because of the jalapeño and just skip to the part where I tell you that this stuff is amazing. Pomegranates are in season through February so I highly recommend adding this to your holiday list of appetizers. Very festive looking, incredibly healthy (well, aside from the whole chips thing), and I can't imagine anyone not loving it.

Pomegranate Salsa
1 pomegranate, peeled and seeded
1 tomato, finely chopped
1 small red onion, finely chopped
1 jalapeño, seeded and finely chopped
juice and zest of 2 limes
1/2 cup mint, chopped
3/4 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped
3/4 cup cilantro, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Prep all ingredients and toss together in a large bowl to combine. If you like heat, this salsa lends itself well to it. You could add a serrano or habanero pepper and the sweetness will counter it nicely. Enjoy!