How To- Peel a pomegranate, Cook bacon, Make kale chips and a sweet-ish snack

mmm-yoso!!! is a blog about food.  This episode will be hosted by Cathy.  Because Kirk and ed(from Yuma) are not available to host.

Hi again.  The Mister and I eat and cook at home, we don't always go out.  I thought I would show you a few ways we work around the kitchen. 
The humble pomegranate.  In season now.  You can purchase for about a dollar everywhere.  It has a thick  shell-like skin, membranes inside, which host a maze of juicy, flavorful seeds, called arils. The fruit/its juice is said to be a powerful antioxidant. However, the juice directly from the fruit stains clothes, furniture and your hands. To prevent this from happening, 
get a large bowl or pot and fill it with water at least 3/4 of the way. So that you can put your hands in the water with the fruit and water won't overflow. Start to break the shell underwater(you can score it with a knife).  Break the fruit up, without disturbing the arils/seeds. Start to peel the membrane away from the seeds, keeping the fruit-and your hands-    
underwater the whole time.  The seeds fall to the bottom. The membrane floats. It's physics. Remove shell/skin and membranes, drain and you have perfect pomegranate seeds! You eat the arils raw this way or make juice and strain the seed pulp out.  Straining the fine seeds is much more work, and why you pay dearly for pomegranate juice items. 

Bacon seems to be difficult for some people to cook. Really, it is simple and not messy.  Line a cookie sheet-the kind with all sides raised- with a piece of foil and place pieces of raw bacon, not touching, on the foil. Bake in a 350° oven.  If the bacon is thick, turn it after 20 minutes and bake about ten minutes more.  If it is thin bacon, bake without turning for about 25 minutes.

You can see the bacon shrinks, but there is no spatter in the oven (or even onto the cookie sheet).  Easy cleanup.  (It is this foamy when you first take it out of the hot oven. Our parents told us that's how you know it is done cooking.) (These are the same pieces, which have been turned during cooking, in both photos)

The Farmer's Market Bag from Specialty Produce a few weeks ago was interesting.  That yellow thing in the second photo is a citron, commonly called a Buddha's Hand. Yes, the bottom right corner of the second photo are purple potatoes.  Everything in this bag was something we liked and could use to supplement our meals at home.  Except it had been really hot and the kale (at the top in the 2nd photo) which I would normally use in a soup, was not going to happen, since we had had three days of temperatures hitting 100° out here.  Kale is said to be an antioxidant and highly nutritious also, like the pomegranate.  I decided to make kale chips.  
 

I tore the kale into bite size pieces and placed in a bowl, topping it with olive oil,salt and pepper and tossing until all the kale was coated (that bunch in the photo made two batches- both for the bowl and for the cookie sheet). Place the pieces not touching on the cookie sheet.
 
I baked at 350° for 15-20 minutes, checking that the kale is crispy before removing.

I hope everyone is having a good day. 

 Oh.  The Buddha's Hand was sliced (you can eat the pith and there is no juicy center) in about 1/4 inch pieces and boiled, on low heat,  in 2 cups of water with 2 cups of sugar for about 2 hours until the liquid was almost gone.  The pieces placed in a pan of sugar, coating on both sides and placed in the refrigerator. A tart and sweet snack treat! 

I hope everyone is having a non-hectic month!