Clementines

Beautiful Clementines in Season

As a food stylist and photographer there is nothing more exciting than going to your local grocer and seeing a beautiful piece of produce that looks like it was just plucked from a tree. The leaves intact make this clementine so photogenic.

This time of year the clementines are at their peak. After shooting this was suitable for eating and very juicy I might add.

A little clementine history from Produce Pete follows. Clementine's are the tiniest of the mandarins. Imported from Spain, Morocco, and other parts of North Africa, clementines are a cross between a sweet orange and a Chinese mandarin. They are small, very sweet, and usually seedless. Most people think of clementines as small tangerines, but they're a different variety entirely, with a distinctive taste. The Clementine is an excellent eating orange. Its small size and lack of seeds make it particularly popular with kids. Clementines have been available in Europe for many years, but the market for them in the United States was made only a few years ago, when a devastating freeze in Florida made domestic oranges scarce and expensive. A lot of oranges, including clementines, were imported from Europe, and clementines started to catch on. Over the past few years they've become increasingly popular, and as the demand has gone up, so has the price.

Clementines also make a nice garnish for the Thanksgiving bird. I hope you can find clementines in your neck of the woods.

Oatmeal

Oatmeal is something that ¾’s of our family enjoy. When the weather is cold hot oats hit the spot. 


This studio I work at started putting oatmeal out for breakfast and I really enjoyed it. Let’s face it if there are pastries I will eat them but having oatmeal was a healthy alternative. I felt full after eating it but in a good way.

So I started making it at home. I have this mini crock pot that came with my big crock pot. It is the perfect size for holding our morning oatmeal. When the oatmeal is just about done I put it in the crock pot and cover it. That way it stays hot but is not really cooking so when everyone gets up, all at different times, it will be hot and ready for toppings.

I like dried strawberries, brown sugar and raisins on mine. The sky is the limit with topping ideas.
How about granola, nuts, dried cherries, cream/milk, cranberries or apricots, cinnamon/nutmeg, or fresh fruit. 

The oats that I have prepared are Trader Joe's steel cut oats. How much do we love Trader Joe's products? I have found so many great products there. This one is on the top of my list. I believe it is organic as well. I add a little vanilla to the cooking water and a dash of salt always.

What I like about steel cut oats is the al dente texture. The taste is more nuttier and the texture is chewier than your regular rolled oat. Some think it has a higher nutritional content. I don't believe there is any proof to this.

The texture is due to the processing of the oats. Large steelblades are used to chop the groats into two or three pieces, leaving steel cut oats with a texture that is chewier and coarser than most other forms of oats. 

If you have oatmeal lovers in your household do give this one a try. Drop me a note I love comments. Let me know your thoughts on oatmeal. Love to hear from you all.

Pomegranate

Today is one of those rainy fall days when the leaves lose their crunch to the wet and become soggy. The light is inspiring and filtered through the clouds making the sky a giant soft box. A hot steamy cup of coffee tastes extra good and you want to put on warm socks grab a good book and snuggle under your new fall blanket. Well I may do the book thing a little later but now I have to catch up on my blog writing. So I am tethered to the computer for a good bit.

Today I am thinking about pomegranates. They are an amazingly inspiring fruit. When I first met one it was a mystery. What do you do with it? How do you eat it? What once used to be considered an exotic fruit is now commonplace in American cities.

The pomegranate is an ancient fruit originating in the Middle East. Westerners started embracing it when scientists discovered the leathery skinned reddish fruit with a crown on one end might help with heart disease, cancer and problems associated with aging. Loaded with antioxidants, vitamins, potassium, folic acid and iron. The pom is the new super food. It is replacing green tea and red wine in topping the list of anti-oxidant rich foods.

I like pomegranate fairly well but it is my daughter that is mad about them. In fact when I come into the kitchen after she has had one it looks like a crime scene from her favorite csi show. I think you know what I mean. The knife is a bloody/pinkish red and the cutting board is filled with the blood red juice dripping onto my counter staining it ever so beautifully. She is just lucky I am not a clean freak.
I tend to look at things in a real way. I like the way it looks all splattered about. Even though I wish Eva, my daughter would get a little better about clean up.

Anyway I tend to see beauty in the real and even messy parts of life. So the pomegranate crime scene can become a thing of beauty and inspiration.

On Halloween night we were at a neighbors for a little after trick or treat dining. Another neighbor Dillon and I were chatting of all things blogging and frugality. Two things I love talking about. Anyway we got talking about our favorite diy projects. I was telling him how I took a pomegranate that we had that was over ripe and browning inside and instead of throwing it into the compost I thought of the red juices that stained my cutting board and decided to take some gauzy fabric and dye it with the crushed pomegranate. Ok I do get a bit excited talking about creating something out of nothing. To me it is thrilling.

I diluted the juice from the crushed pomegarite with a little water and the cloth you see in the photo is the result. I like the color it is very subtle. Many foods are great for making natural dyes. How about beets red or orange, purple cabbage, turmeric, onionskins. What I like about natural dyes is they have a more organic feel to them.

I often dye my Easter eggs this way. Thanks to Ms. Martha Stewart.

So after I told him about my pomegranate dye he told me about a blog he saw that showed how to hit a pomegranate to get the seeds out easily. He did not remember his source or I would reference it. Anyway as in the picture you hold the half of pomegranate over a bowl and I used my meat mallet to whack it. Make sure the membrane is peeled away slightly this will help the seeds literally just fall out.

One quick whack 

hand model? I think not

Before my daughter would attack the pomegranate picking away frantically trying to get the seeds. Not anymore thanks to Dillon’s little suggestion. This method worked very well.

I saw an article on the internet on how to deseed a pom by soaking it in water to get rid of the juices and loosen the seeds. Oh such a bad idea. When you rinse the seeds you are losing all the good stuff. I also saw a piece of plastic in our local grocery that touts itself as a pomegranate deseeder. Come on you don’t need a $4.00 piece of plastic to get your seeds out. Just give it a good whack and your done.

I have to say that I get so many tips from people who are not necessarily in the “food business”.

That is why I am always very inquisitive and interested in learning how others do things. Sometimes I learn so much from unexpectant sources. If you have any tips to share about pomegranates or anything please comment. I love to hear what others are doing.