Easy-Peasy Pomegranate Syrup

E A T  R E A L  F O O D - Because the latest craze of eating *all natural* is actually how our ancestors lived all along!

Years Ago ...


Your mother, my mother, and their mothers first poured sweet maple syrup onto our pancakes, scones, ice cream, and anything else they could imagine.  

In the years which have passed, perhaps the familiar taste has grown common, a treat no longer unexpected.  

Well, have I got just the thing for you today!

This recipe for homemade pomegranate syrup is not only an exciting and vibrant change for your taste buds, but it is also ridiculously simple to make!  Wait for a sale on pomegranate juice (or juice a bunch of fruits yourself) and you'll be surprised at just how inexpensive it can be!

CLICK HERE for a printable version of the recipe!

• To begin, gather your ingredients.  Forgotten in the picture is a lemon - we need 1 tablespoon of juice, or approximately one half lemon, squeezed.  The pomegranate fruit is also just for show, although you could juice enough of them to get your 3 cups of juice (if you wanted to):

• Add all the ingredients to a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Up first - 3 cups pomegranate juice and 1 cup water:

• 1/2 cup sugar:

• 1 tablespoon fresh-squeezed lemon juice (approximately 1/2 lemon):

• Cook, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has completely dissolved and small bubbles begin to appear on the surface of the liquid:

• Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook the liquid until it has reduced from 4 cups (to start) to approximately 1 1/2 cups.  This should take about 30 minutes:

• It will reduce:

• And reduce some more:

• After 30 minutes of cooking, I poured the liquid into a glass measuring cup (a little worse for the wear - sorry!).  It measured a little more than 1 1/2 cups:

• Remove from the heat and allow the syrup to cool in the saucepan for 30 minutes.  Transfer to a glass jar and allow to cool completely before covering and storing in the fridge for up to 6 months (!)  Here you can see I chose a jar with fluid ounce markings.  This measures at a little above 10 ounces:

• Remember, this will stay fresh up to 6 months!  Here is the measurement after 24 hours in the fridge - it will not thicken any further once you remove it from the heat/cool it down:

Natural pomegranate juice has an natural tartness, however I find that the 1/2 cup of sugar is just enough to sweeten the syrup without being too much.  Since the original mixture reduces so much, the concentrated fruit flavor is delicious.  It does not taste at all like pomegranate juice diluted by  water. 

And there you have it!  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!!

Please let me know what you think of this recipe in the comments below.  You can also eel reach me by email at fourscorerebecca@gmail.com.

Until next time,

Rebecca

Eat Real Food - Today's Produce Picks

E A T  R E A L  F O O D - Because the latest craze of eating *all natural* is actually how our ancestors lived all along!

Years Ago ...

Source: Better Homes and Gardens (link)

To feed their families, women (and men) hunted game in their forests and gathered fruits and vegetables from their fields.  Much time, in both planning and preparation, was necessary just to feed their families and communities.  Thus, it was a main occupation of nearly every man and woman. 

Today, we have jobs like accountant, professor, police officer, etc ... and farmers are much less prevalent and far different from years past.  Most of us just don't have the time to cultivate food like our ancestors used to.  As well, many of us do not have the desire to do so.

What this has created is today's reality of over-processed, under-nutritious foods.  You know, the stuff that comes in boxes, bags, or plastic wrap with lists of ingredients too long and too foreign to study for long.

I live in an apartment.  And although I would LOVE to have my own fruit and vegetable garden and would sell a kidney to have my own chicken coop (!), that's just not possible for me and my current situation.  However, that does not mean that I cannot eat REAL food.  Delicious food.  Fruits and vegetables that are ripe with flavor and nutrients, while still NOT being a terrible burden to my wallet.

So here's where my Today's Produce Picks segment comes in.  As a habit, when I get home from the grocery store/farmer's market, I wash all of my fruit and veggies and leave them on the counter to air dry.  Once they are dry, I put them away in the fridge or elsewhere until they are ready to be eaten.

From now on, I will take a picture of the bounty and share it as a blog post, along with a breakdown of food costs for that shopping trip.  I should note that I try to buy organic when I can, however I would rather consistently eat wide varieties and great volumes of real food (non-organic as it may be) than drive myself nuts over price and availability of the really good stuff.  It's something I hope to remedy in the future, when I will be able to supplement my own garden with organic produce.

So here's what I picked up from the grocery store on November 3rd (sorry for the delay - again!) as well as how much I paid:

Lemons -                         2 pounds for $1.49 = $1.49

Bananas -                        $0.44/lb x 2 lbs (exactly!) = $0.88

Granny Smith apples -     3 pounds for $2.99 = $2.99
Blackberries -                   6 oz. for $0.99 = $0.99
Cranberries -                    12 oz. for $1.99 = $1.99
Avocado -                         $0.69/ea = $0.69

Onions -                           $1.49 for 3 pounds = $1.49

Seedless cucumber -        $0.99 ea = $0.99 

Zucchini -                         1 pound for $1.29 = $1.29

Total for all of the above = $12.80!

I hope you enjoy this and the posts to come on this subject.  Stay tuned for a new recipe using the fresh cranberries - the second installment in my Thanksgiving Thursdays series!


Until next time, 

Rebecca 

Thanksgiving Thursday - All About the FIRST Thanksgiving!

T H A N K S G I V I N G  T H U R S D A Y S - For 150 years, Americans have celebrated Thanksgiving as a federal holiday.  Let us never forget the sentiments of the Pilgrims and their first blessed feast nearly four centuries past.

Years Ago ...

President Abraham Lincoln declared a national holiday to commemorate the first Thanksgiving celebration, feted by the Pilgrims in 1621.  

This group of English emigrants had survived a treacherous Atlantic crossing and were starting a new life in a strange, new world.  

They had much to celebrate on this first holiday, and partook in three days of feasts with a group of Native Americans in the Plymouth area, the Wampanoag.

Source: Smithsonian.com (link)

Like most things or events nearly 400 years old, this holiday has greatly evolved over the years.  Even though I knew it must be different today from back then, I was greatly surprised to see just how different the menu has become!

Source: About.com (link)

So I pored through internet pages to try to paint an accurate picture of what would have made up this very special meal.  Unfortunately, nothing can be pegged down for sure, and it seems like we know more about what was not served than what was.  

But what's a little challenge to investigators such like us?  Here's what I have found ...


GIVE ME THE FACTS ~

• Dear Diary

What we know today about the first Thanksgiving is based on the memoirs written by two colonists.

• The first – Edward Winslow’s letter to a friend, dated December 1621.
• The second – Governor William Bradford's descriptions about the first autumn of the Pilgrims, written several years after the fact.

• When in Rome

Like every school-aged child has been taught, the first Thanksgiving was the reaction to the hard times the Pilgrims felt on their trip across the Atlantic, their adjustment to their new home, and a celebration of a successful harvest.  However, for the Wampanoag Indians, with whom the pilgrims shared this three-day feast, a sincere thanksgiving for one’s blessings was an every day occurrence.

"We as native people [traditionally] have thanksgivings as a daily, ongoing thing," says Linda Coombs, associate director of the Wampanoag program at Plimoth Plantation. "Every time anybody went hunting or fishing or picked a plant, they would offer a prayer or acknowledgment."

(direct quote from Christian Science Monitor (link) )

ERASE FROM YOUR IMAGINATION ~

Potatoes of any kind, prepared in any fashion - Although potatoes are native to the Americas, the colonists would not have had a crop of white or sweet potatoes available to them.  Seriously, mind blowing!

Pumpkin pie - While our ancestors might have eaten pumpkins and other squashes native to New England, they might not have had the other ingredients needed for today’s staple – butter (from a cow – where would Bessie have come from) and wheat flour (would have required a mill).  The final nail in the pumpkin pie’s coffin – they would have need an oven to bake it in. Again, not happening.

IT'S POSSIBLE THEY ATE THE FOLLOWING ... BUT IT'S ALSO POSSIBLE THEY DID NOT ~

Turkey - Believe it or not, we do not know if the pilgrims and Native Americans ate the “traditional” bird in 1621!  The earlier account mentions that hunters brought back “fowl,” however that could have meant simply duck or geese.

Stuffing – Not mentioned specifically, however both the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims were known to have occasionally stuffed other food, like herbs, onions, or oats (a tradition from the English) into their birds and fish.

Tubers - The Native Americans did commonly eat such tubers as Jerusalem artichokes and Indian turnips.  At least they had something close(ish) to potatoes.

THE STARS OF THE FEAST ~

Source: National Geographic (link)

Lobster

Mussels

Clams

Eels

Fowl – mostlikely ducks and geese, perhaps swan and turrkey

Venison

Source: National Geographic (link)

SUMPTUOUS SIDE DISHES ~

Cranberries - Forget sweet cranberry sauce!  The berries would have been served without the added sugar that we are used to today.  How many puckered faces can you imagine lining that table – cranberries sure are tart!

Grapes – both white and red

Plums – both black and red

Flint corn

Pumpkin 

Source: Almanac.com (link)

For old time's sake, CLICK HERE for a great video for making roasted pumpkin from the Hostess with the Mostest, Martha Stewart :)



Feel free to share anything you wish to share in the comments below!  You can always reach me at fourscorerebecca@gmail.com.

Until next time,

Rebecca

Resources:  Christian Science Monitor, NPR.org, Smithsonian Mag, Plimoth.org  

EAT REAL FOOD - Today's Produce Picks

E A T  R E A L  F O O D - Because the latest craze of eating *all natural* is actually how our ancestors lived all along!

Years Ago ...

 

Source: Better Homes and Gardens (link)

 
To feed their families, women (and men) hunted game in their forests and gathered fruits and vegetables from their fields.  Much time, in both planning and preparation, was necessary just to feed their families and communities.  Thus, it was a main occupation of nearly every man and woman. 

Today, we have jobs like accountant, professor, police officer, etc ... and farmers are much less prevalent and far different from years past.  Most of us just don't have the time to cultivate food like our ancestors used to.  As well, many of us do not have the desire to do so.

What this has created is today's reality of over-processed, under-nutritious foods.  You know, the stuff that comes in boxes, bags, or plastic wrap with lists of ingredients too long and too foreign to study for long.

I live in an apartment.  And although I would LOVE to have my own fruit and vegetable garden and would sell a kidney to have my own chicken coop (!), that's just not possible for me and my current situation.  However, that does not mean that I cannot eat REAL food.  Delicious food.  Fruits and vegetables that are ripe with flavor and nutrients, while still NOT being a terrible burden to my wallet.

So here's where my Today's Produce Picks segment comes in.  As a habit, when I get home from the grocery store/farmer's market, I wash all of my fruit and veggies and leave them on the counter to air dry.  Once they are dry, I put them away in the fridge or elsewhere until they are ready to be eaten.

From now on, I will take a picture of the bounty and share it as a blog post, along with a breakdown of food costs for that shopping trip.  I should note that I try to buy organic when I can, however I would rather consistently eat wide varieties and great volumes of real food (non-organic as it may be) than drive myself nuts over price and availability of the really good stuff.  It's something I hope to remedy in the future, when I will be able to supplement my own garden with organic produce.

So here's what I picked up from the grocery store on October 28th (even though this blog post will go up about a week afterward - sorry!) as well as how much I paid:

Garlic -                                  $3.49/lb x 0.23 lbs = $0.80

Orange bell pepper -             $1.50 ea = $1.50

Red bell peppers -               $1.25/2 = $1.25 (marked down due to blemishes)

Grape tomatoes -                  $1.50/pint - $1.50

Gala apples -                        $0.98/lb x 2.42 lbs = $2.37

Golden Delicious apples -  $0.98/lb x 1.49 lbs = $1.46

Pears -                                  $0.98/lb x 2.33 lbs = $2.28

Spaghetti squash -                $0.69/lb x 2.27 lbs = $1.57

Total for all of the above = $12.73.  (FYI - This shopping trip was from the grocery store, so I have indicated sale prices in bold.)  Not bad, I'd say!!

I hope you enjoy this and the posts to come on this subject.  I love real food ... and am off to eat my spaghetti squash right now!

Until next time, 

Rebecca