How to Get Seeds Out of a Pomegranate

 

Ok, now you can go to your favorite market and get a tiny little plastic thing of pomegranate seeds that costs $7 or more, OR you could buy a whole pomegranate for $3 and spend 15 minutes to get 10x the amount of seeds as that plastic thing. You can get 4 or 5 pomegranates, watch an episode of Game of Thrones while you peel them, and have enough pomegranate seeds to last you a month.

I think a lot of people are intimidated by pomegranates because they definitely look pretty crazy on the inside, but they are super easy to deconstruct. Easy easy easy, and so worth it!

Stuff You'll need:

Pomegranates

A cutting board

a good small knife

a bowl

NOTE: As easy as this is, it can get messy, and pomegranate juice WILL stain anything. So make sure you're wearing a shirt you don't care too much about when you do this and have some paper towels nearby. 

  

(1) X Marks the spot. 

Using your knife, cut an X into the top of the pomegranate. Only go in half an inch or so. And inch tops. This is just so you can start tearing it open. If you cut in any deeper, you'll start to cut the seeds open and ruin them.

 

(2) Peel Away!

Now on the inside of the pomegranate there are two things: This easy to rip spongy material and the seeds. You want the seeds (obviously) but you definitely don't want the spongy flesh. It tastes bitter so just throw it out as you go. 

Starting at the X you made, tear away part of the pomegranate. Believe me, it rips really easily. It's like tearing a stiff sponge or cardboard.

There's not much else to say here. You peel away the sponge, take out the seeds from their little compartments in the sponge, then tear some more until you're done! 

I like to have a trashbag on hand so I just throw the spongy stuff in there as I go. Put your seeds in the bowl as you work your way through. Also make sure you're not leaving little bits of the sponge attached to the seeds. It's edible, but very sour, so if you eat a bit on accident it's very unpleasant.  

Here's a side by side comparison of the seeds that came out of ONE pomegranate and another one whole. Isn't that amazing!!! Enjoy!

Filling and Fast Beef and Noodle Stir Fry

Time for a delicious quick Asian dinner recipe! Both filling and fast! What's great about this one is that you can really put anything you want into the mix to suit your preference. I'm a steak and snow peas sort of girl, but you can substitute in any sort of meat or veggies. Let's get started!

Stuff You'll need:
Rice Noodles (we use the frozen kind)
Beef (cut into bite sized chunks)
Snow peas
Yellow bell pepper (sliced into strips)
Roasted Sesame Seeds
Ground Ginger
Garlic Powder
Soy Sauce
Corn Starch
Olive Oil

Concerning amounts, it really depends on how many people you are and how much you like to eat. In all my photos, they amounts of ingredients shown end with up with enough dinner for two. 

First thing you'll want to do is get the noodles started. Now, using rice noodles you'll have to remember that they LOVE to stick to each other. So use a sizable pot to boil these in so they have room to swim around. That being said, get yourself a big pot of water, pop in however much noodles you want and let that start boiling. I'd say medium heat. 

 

 

 (2) Stir and Fry:
Take your veggies and meat and make sure they're chopped into bite size pieces. Get a nice big pan and add a small bit of olive oil and swirl it around. Now, add the veggies and meat to the pan and let it go on medium heat. Constantly stir it up! 

NOTE: Different veggies have different cook times. The bell pepper can go right in at the beginning with the meat because it takes forever to cook. Carrots can go in early too. Onions go in about halfway through. And the snow peas and things like scallions go in near the very end because they don't take much time to cook at all.

Spice up that Stir Fry! Add in a generous amount of garlic powder and ground ginger. You'll also add enough soy sauce to wet all the ingredients and keep the pan lubricated, but don't go crazy with it. soy sauce is very salty. 


(3) Thickening the Sauce. (When the meat and veggies are halfway cooked).
Now in a separate small bowl or cup, add about 4 teaspoons HOT water, 4 teaspoons HOT soy sauce, and 2 teaspoons corn starch. Make sure you add the cornstarch to hot liquid, or it will clump, and be useless. Mix all that up well, then poor it into the stir fry while you stir so it gets evenly distributed. Fry that all up until the meat and veggies are cooked. Lower your heat to very low.

 

(3) Back to Noodles

 At this point your noodles should be nice and done. Strain them, and rinse with a little bit of cool water. Then pour them into your stir fry pan with everything else. Add the sesame seeds now! On low heat, mix it all together. The noodles should absorb all the juices from the stir fry.

Once its all mixed up nicely, you're done! Pour it onto your plates, and sprinkle a little bit of sesame seeds on top for a nice little effect. Enjoy!!!!

 

 
 

Salvaging Less Then Desirable Junk .

 
Here's a salvaged "less then desirable object" turned awesome project. I started off with a not so nice girly chalkboard, and with an easy paint job and some tape, made it a fun and trendy chalkboard. Go out and dumpster dive or yard sale and see what you can find. Don't be put off by first impressions. You can really salvage anything with some paint and tape.

What I used:
Acrylic Paint (a few colors)
Low Stick Tape (masking tape, artist tape, washi tape)
Silver Paint pen 
Black Sharpie Marker
Paintbrush
Some scrap paper (to keep the paint off my carpet)

First Bit: BASE COLOR

 

(1) Find something you want to paint. I found a chalkboard!
We're going to be painting, so put down some scrap paper so you don't mess up your carpet. Also, it's going to have to sit for several hours at a time to dry in between layers, so set up somewhere that will be left undisturbed. (Keep your cat from walking on wet paint.)

(2) Cover up the old and ugly.
If the surface you're working on isn't what you like, you'll have to cover it up. Apply your base color. I had to do white first, to cover up the doodle art on my chalkboard. After that completely dried (maybe 3 hours or so) I did a gradient green to lime paint base.

EASY PERFECTION TIP:
I didn't want to get the black writing part of my chalkboard painted on (and I don't trust myself to be 100% accurate), so I just taped it off. Make sure you cover with tape anything you don't want to accidentally get paint on.

Level Two: MASKING TAPE

(4) Masking off with Tape.

Make sure your base paint job is COMPLETELY 100% DRY before you apply any tape. 

The point of the tape is to mask off areas that you don't want to be effected by your 2nd layer of paint. I decided I wanted my 2nd layer to be silver, and the original green to show through once I removed the tape. 

Apply your tape in any design (striped, checkered, zigzags, etc) over the base paint layer.

TAPE TIP:
You don't want your tape to be too sticky. (It will rip the paint off your project when you remove it.) If you think your tape is too sticky, stick it to your jeans, or some other fabric, then apply it where you want it. It will have picked up some of the fuzzys and be about half as sticky.

(5) Paint Layer Two.
Now just paint right over everything. The tape will block off your new layer. Let this new layer dry for a few hours. I let it dry overnight at this point. 

(6) Remove the tape.
After the paint is TOTALLY WITHOUT A DOUBT dry, peel the tape off. (Be careful and slow doing this. You don't want to take off your base paint with the tape.) You'll now have a cool design! 
 

Final Round: THE LITTLE DETAILS

(6) Decorating with Pens.
Using a paint pen, draw on some details! Paint pens are amazing. They go on top of anything, and let you do details easily that would be a pain in the ass to do with a brush.

My second layer of paint was silver, and I drew on top of it with a silver paint pen.... Whaaaat?
Explanation: The acrylic paint isn't nearly as rich and saturated as the pen, so I drew on top of it and got a wonderful subtle contrast. You can try experimenting with different paint/paint-pen combinations. 

The paint pen doesn't need much time to dry. I added the last few details with a regular black sharpie. Now you're done! Go make some Pie in a Jar to celebrate!

What is Washi Tape and where to get it!

 

So what IS Washi Tape?  

Washi Tape is pretty much just Japanese paper tape. Because it's paper, it can have pretty much ANYTHING printed on it, from patterns to words to cartoons, really anything. Its amazing and lovely, and because its so unlimited in what it can have printed on it, you WILL find yourself a roll to compliment any project you're working on if you look.

Things to know:

It's pretty damn strong for being made out of paper, but its not really intended for intense holding. It's more for decoration and crafting. It's not the most adhesive of tapes, but sticks just fine to paper, glass, and even painted surfaces. It feels and functions a lot like masking tape. I wouldn't say with any confidence that its waterproof. It's paper. It's not going to be waterproof. Lastly, it comes in just so many designs, it's impossible to not find something that will suit what you're working on.

Now, Washi tape is Japanese, but it's easily obtainable here as well. You can find it in most craft stores now, but its usually a small selection and overpriced. Here's some of my favorite places to get it with HUGE selections!

CuteTape - http://www.cutetape.com/shop/japanese-washi-masking-tape.html

Definitely the best selection out there. 

Etsy - https://www.etsy.com/people/pikwahchan 

There's a million people selling this stuff on Etsy. Shop around for tons of designs. I linked my favorite seller. The picture bellow is my latest order from her!

Real Ramen. Try it!

So, if you've ever been short on cash and hungry at the same time, I'm sure you've had instant ramen. It's less then a dollar, and fills you up pretty fast. I have nothing against instant ramen, but its not even in the same dimension as real, just made, actual food ramen. Real Ramen is like Magic Soup flavored with Amazing. You HAVE to try it. 

I can't stress enough how instant ramen and actual ramen are two completely different things. Its like trying to compare a mcdonalds hamburger with one you just cooked on the grill outside.

Now where can I get some of this soup magic?

Now, I'm from the east coast, and if I want to get ramen it's not actually that easy. It's incredibly hard and time consuming to make, so most restaurants that serve it, literally serve only that, and 90% of them are in New York. I've contemplated making it myself, but it's really an entire day, maybe even two days, intense complicated task. I won't show you how to make it, but I'll show you who can teach you, and where there are some great places that make it for you.

Where can I go out to eat some of this liquid gold?

MITSUWA - http://www.mitsuwa.com/english/
Ok, this place is both an amazing supermarket, and an amazing place to eat out. Aside from ramen they have a dozen other great mini restaurants, food court style. All of the pictures in this post I took of my own ramen bowls I've eaten there. The one I go to is in Edgewater NJ, and they have a bunch more locations you can look up on their website.

IPPUDO - http://www.ippudony.com/
This restaurant is so hip and cool, and their ramen is amazing. There's a bunch of really great ramen places in the city, but Ippudo is my personal favorite. 

What wizard can teach me to make this delicious potion?

I'd try and explain it here, but it's impressively complicated, and needs some real dedication and skill to make on your own. I'll instead refer you to a real authority on japanese cooking, not just for ramen, but for a bunch of great food tutorials. Dog. Here's my plug for "Cooking with Dog." Good luck!

 

Cooking With Dog -  Ramen

I'm going to just go on and recommend googling: "Ramen restaurant (your location)." My personal favorite? Miso Pork Ramen. ENJOY!

3 Panel Self Portrait

So this is how I made one of my recent art pieces. This tutorial is assuming you already know how to use adobe photoshop. Later I'll do an actual photoshop from scratch tutorial. Anyway, here's some inspiration! My 3 panel self portrait. It took 3 weeks to finish.

d.i.y. Mix & Match Friend Blocks

Get ready for a FREE PROJECT DOWNLOAD!!!! Say What?! 

Paper d.i.y. Mix & Match Friend Blocks! Illustrated and Designed by yours truly. Just download the pages, print (preferably on heavier weight paper) and glue where indicated for a cute kid's toy. Easy for kids to make themselves also. If you decide to post / relink / reference it anywhere, please just link back to this post. Enjoy!

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