Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Snow and Cold and Gloom vs. Sweet Potato Pomegranate Goodness

I can't believe I haven't shared this recipe here before. I really thought I did. It's sooooo delicious.
So, since pomegranate season is drawing to a close, today seems like the perfect time.

But first -

Just because it's been so gloomy and cold and I stumbled across these photos while I was looking for my sweet potato - pomegranate bake;

Spring will eventually come back.



And then summer. Ahhhhh, the warmth.

Early morning waves.


Okay, back to reality.
Snow. Cold. Gloom.

Maybe a touch of sun.

We can hope.

But in the meantime, does all that cold have you craving citrus?

Here's a great filling side dish that is sooooo good. Did I say that already.

My daughter found the recipe several years ago on this website - Keepin' It Kind.
I wouldn't want to steal credit for her recipe, so I'll just show you two quick photos of our batch in progress and then refer you  back to her for the glorious finished photos.

Ingredients:
 three large sweet potatoes cut into medallions, pomegranate arils, orange juice, maple syrup, sea salt, chopped pecans, coconut sugar or brown sugar, and ground cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg.

You may notice in the picture that my daughter chose an assortment of colored sweet potatoes. Who knew there were purple ones?
 Sprinkle with pomegranate arils and shopped pecans.


Bake.

Enjoy.

Okay, go on over to the site and look at the glorious after photos taken by her husband. Pomegranate Orange Sweet Potato Bake.   Kristy tells a lovely story too about getting recipes from her grandma. I love family stories like this, so I was sold even before I tasted the deliciousness.

But please come back. I'll give you more summer waves and flowers.


Fenway loves the beach.


So, how are you dealing with the cold? Snuggled up with a good book? So many releases this month - Jan's released yesterday and Ruthy has one on the shelf too.


















I spent a cozy weekend snuggled in on the sofa with the cute dog, hot tea, scones and a great story. It was perfectly fitting for the snowy cold weather.



So help yourself to a cup of coffee or tea and let's chat.



22 comments:

  1. We have our first snow. It's January 20th, and yesterday was the first day our nice plow man had to come and plow the driveway for parents bringing kids..... And spring is but 7 weeks away, so that's cool, right?????

    I love mixing things up with sweet potatoes! This looks marvelous and I always keep real maple syrup in the house. I like the dark amber, it's got a more robust flavor than the lighter, first run syrups. Now you've inspired me to buy some sweet potatoes this week because I've run out!

    Great idea, and the nuts will make me so happy, Cate!!!!

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    1. Yes, the nuts make me happy too. :)

      Actually, everything about this makes me happy. I think I need to make it again.

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  2. Oh, and thank you for the shout of "An Unexpected Groom"!!!! I love that sweet story! And Hannah's Choice arrived at my door from Amazon yesterday, and that is my February reward for getting the current book in on time!

    What a wonderful path we walk!

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    1. You're welcome. I have both in my TBR pile. Can't wait.

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  4. Oh, this looks yummy! Pomegranates are in the stores here right now and I have a lot of pecans. I'll have to try it!
    And it's been raining and 34F for the last week. UGH. Too warm to snow, too cold to really enjoy the rain. Gloomy, indeed!

    I've been on a reading kick the past few weeks. It helps relax my brain for revisions. I read The Monk Downstairs (so great, read it twice in a week), The Paper Magicians (YA) series (also great!), the Poldark series (LOVING the BBC series AND the books, I'd never heard of the books before the TV show) and House of Thieves by Charles Belfoure (good!). Oh, also a Dean Koontz (What the Night Knows) that was WAY too scary for me, and another Dean Koontz that was more my speed (Ashley Belle). Oh, also The Martian which was okay (I didn't bother to write a review because it has 24,000 reviews. LOL.

    I finally got around to reading Q&A by Vikas Swarup (inspired the movie Slumdog Millionaire). So good! I picked up Frank McCourt's Teacher Man and Tina Feys' autobiography BossyPants, the biography Alan Turing: Enigma (which The Imitation Game was based on), and The Revenant, The Man in High Castle at the library tonight.
    And now this list is making me feel like all my books are movies. Or all my movies are books. Creepy.
    I'll read Jan and Ruthy's soooooon!

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    1. Thanks for these great recommendations, Virginia!!

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    2. That list is exhausting me just reading through it. Are you a very fast reader, Virginia? My daughter is, but I'm really kind of slow. Though I prefer to say I'm savoring them. :)

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    3. I'm not sure if I'm a fast reader or not. My girls seem to read even faster than I do. I once read that speed readers have lower comprehension, and there even "slow reading clubs" out there, so I try to be mindful as I read and not rush. :)

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    4. Welcome, Missy! You write historicals, right? I'd read Poldark first. It was really such a wonderfully written story. And very funny in several parts!

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  5. Morning Cate, I saw the ingredients in the title and just knew it had to be you. chuckle. You have fun with different ingredients and come up with stuff I never think of to try. Thanks. My brother planted a pomegranite tree in our yard and I really didn't know what to do with the fruit as it is a pain to just eat. This sounds fun. Will try it.

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    1. Oops, I've got a reputation. :)

      Hope it works out well for you, Sandra. I love your tree.

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  6. This sounds exotic and yummy and might just convince me to tackle a pomegranate. My daughter will love it too.

    We've had really cold days so that means sunshine at least but I'm sighing in anticipation over your springish/summerish pictures. This is the time I get all antsy to garden and start making grandiose plans that I can neither afford or carry out but it makes me happy! :-)

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    1. Me too, Kav, but I have no garden since we're on the top 2 floors. :(

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  7. Cold? What cold? We've had very little in Texas. Only a handful of nights have we dropped below freezing. The poor plants are so confused. Roses are in full bloom. In January! That's crazy even in our neck of the woods. And it's making me very sad.

    This recipe looks absolutely divine, Mary Cate. Great flavors and textures. Can't wait to try it.

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    1. Mindy, that was us before the year turned. The trees were starting to have new buds.
      #itwasallajoke!

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  8. Thanks for sharing, Mary/Cate! We're having a cold snap right now here in GA. No fun!

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    1. I don't know why the cold is bothering me more than usual this year, Missy. Maybe because it was warm for so long. I feel duped!

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  9. This looks so good! And wouldn't it look beautiful on the Christmas dinner table next year?

    I mentally went through my cupboard as I read the ingredients list - I have everything except the pomegranate. I'll have to see if our stores still have them.

    Thanks for the shout out for our books! I read "Unexpected Groom" last week and LOVED it! What a great beginning to a new series!

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    1. That's exactly when we had it, Jan. Although I think it was also on the menu for Thanksgiving the previous year.

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  10. Sorry to be MIA all day. I had a magical mystery tour on the subway.

    I never take the M line, but I had to take it to Queens for a workshop. Take the Queensbound M, the directions said.

    What they forgot to say was that the M line is like a sideways U that both begins and ends in Queens. I was supposed to take the Queensbound one that goes through Brooklyn first. OOOPS. I discovered that after I was almost to the end of the line in the other direction. A total of 3 hours on one subway trip.

    On the other hand, I got almost 1300 words written on my iPod. So not a complete loss.

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  11. HAHAHA! Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry you had a 3 hour subway trip.... unplanned. I tried to take my girls to a town about an hour away because they had a bookstore (Barnes and Noble). I kept looking for the exit. Finally, I noticed a sign for YAKIMA... which is fours hours from us. I had driven almost two hours farther than I needed. Sounds ridiculous but honestly, I kept waiting for that exit to pop up.

    I'm glad you got good words in!

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