Our Official POM Dinner Party Recap!

The night of November 14, 2010, we hosted our Chef Tom Cooks POM Wonderful dinner party. As the guests arrived, they were greeted with the sweet scent of pomegranate oil permeating through the stairwell. Upon entry into the kitchen the appetizer aromas were aplenty – our guests could not stop raving about how good the food smelled.

To start the night off, the guests were presented with our first specialty drink of the evening, the Pomojito. To make this drink extra special, we used heart shaped ice cubes with pomegranate arils frozen inside. This drink was a hit, especially with the rum drinkers. One guest asked to be replenished a couple of times. Shortly after we set up the table with our appetizers – the Bruschetta with Pomegranate & Mint and the Pomegranate Guacamole. The flavors of these two dishes were like a party in your mouth. One guest remarked that she would be making these two starters at her all appetizers Christmas Eve party she is hosting this year. She is an avid guacamole fan and loved the twist on this guacamole. Instead of mashing the avocado with the mortar and pestle like we normally do, this version is chopped and mixed with the sweet pomegranate arils. These dishes went so fast, we had to replenish them a couple of times.

After our guests enjoyed these delicious pomegranate appetizers, we commenced the beer tasting portion of the evening. The first sample was a Pomegranate Wheat beer by Saranac brewed in Utica, NY. This sample was well received – when poured into a glass, the color appears slightly cloudy with a brown tinge but the taste is sweet and light. Although a hit with our fruity beer drinkers, overall the pomegranate flavor could have been stronger. Our second sample was the drink of the evening! Not all who attended this party are big beer drinkers but this beverage really shined. The second beer offering was a taste of Delirium Tremens brewed by Huyghe Brewery in Belgium. This brew is delicious on its own but when mixed with freshly made pomegranate syrup – it was like all the stars aligned. We cannot even express the sentiments of the guests who tried this beverage but everyone wanted more.

Music is very important to Katie and I, so at this point we should mention the playlist to our dinner party included a mix of fruit and friend themed songs.  Katie compiled this playlist and as anyone knows, the perfect soundtrack is an important part of any event.

• Blueberry Hill – Fats Domino
• (Day-O) Banana Boat Song – Harry Belafonte
• Strawberry Fields Forever – The Beatles
• I Heard It Through The Grapevine – Marvin Gaye
• Tutti Frutti – Little Richard
• Kiwi – Maroon 5
• Big Black Horse & The Cherry Tree – KT Tunstall
• Lady Marmalade – Patty LaBelle
• Peachy – Missy Higgins
• Tempted – Squeeze
• Come Together – The Beatles
• One Of These Days – Neil Young
• With A Little Help From My Friends – The Beatles
• Kind & Generous – Natalie Merchant
• Carry On – Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young
• Our House – Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young
• In My Life – The Beatles
• You’ve Got A Friend – James Taylor
• Wildflowers – Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
• Thank You – Dido
• Wish You Were Here – Pink Floyd
• The Best Of What’s Around – Dave Mathews Band
• Home – Fio!
• You’ve Got The Love – Florence And The Machine
• The Joker – Steve Miller Band
• Are You In? – Incubus
• Hey Kind Friend – Indigo Girls
• Mona Lisa’s & Mad Hatter’s – Indigo Girls
• You Are The Best Thing – Ray LaMontagne

We also played an informative and illustrative video (compiled and edited by Thomas) on our television about pomegranates including facts and a how to video demonstrating an easy way to open a pomegranate. This really kept an upbeat mood going all night. Our guests were singing and moving to the songs – the smiles were continuous and contagious! The video often sparked conversation and questions; almost all of which we were able to answer from the reading and research we did before we hosted the party.

The time neared for our main course to be presented. We set the table with our baby spinach and pear salad with a champagne vinaigrette, garnished with fresh pomegranate arils. We also served POM-marinated steak fajitas. Thomas marinated skirt steak overnight in fresh pomegranate juice and Lagunitas Imperial Stout beer along with fresh seasonings. This steak dish was the hit of the party. Everyone could not stop raving about how tender and flavorful this steak was.

After dinner, Thomas did a live demonstration for our guests on how to easily open a pomegranate and he invited our guests to jump in and try for themselves. All of our guests had never handled a fresh pomegranate before and many of them never even tasted one or its juice.

After the demonstration, we served our dessert. For dessert we prepared some fudgy cupcakes topped with fresh pomegranate icing. We also served pomegranate gelatin hearts drizzled with a pomegranate glaze.

We were extremely pleased with how this dinner party turned out. We put a lot of thought and work into the planning and preparation of this event and it was great to see how it all came together perfectly. It was great that everyone enjoyed the food but it was even better to see how interested everyone was in pomegranates and how much they enjoyed the whole theme of the party. In the end, we had a bunch of pomegranates left, so we made sure to send a couple home with each guest along with their POM gift bag. After the guests left, Katie and I enjoyed one last pomegranate cocktail while we reminisced about the evening’s festivities. We would like to truly thank POM Wonderful for allowing us this opportunity and providing the pomegranates for our dinner.

View all the photos from our POM Dinner Party on Flickr!
View our informative and instructional Pomegranate video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufMG0VgSkkU