Homemade Grenadine

A lady at the Farmer's Market was selling bags of pomegranates for $5. So I grabbed a bag! I couldn't pass it up. There were 6-7 in each bag, so I figured I would make pomegranate juice, marinade (since we were eating chicken at the time), and put the fruit on our salads.

The first night, I peeled the pomegranate to put the seeds on our salad. The salad was very tasty, but I really hated chewing and swallowing the actual seed part. That idea was out.

I knew Christmas was coming up and I didn't know what to get the friends and family. We don't have a huge budget for Christmas since we have to spend at least $100 on our Secret Santa (thanks MIL- I don't have a job)!  For hubby's co-workers, family friends, and neighbors, I decided to Googled what I could do with all those leftover pomegranates. Homemade Grenadine! Sorry the pictures aren't that great. They were taken with my sad little Android (never buy an Android).

Bag of pomegranates

Slice open the top. Then quarter it. This will prevent the seeds from bursting open. Cut along the inside skin.

Place in a bowl of water and discard the skins.

Some seeds will float. They are still good. Just watch out for and discard old brown seeds.

Place in blender.

Blend just enough to get the seeds out of the membranes. If you blend too much, you will blend the hard seeds into the juice.

I don't have a cheesecloth, so I used a rubber band to hold a rag onto the top of a glass measuring cup. Make sure you're rag is thin to let most of the juice go through.

Squeeze the juice through the rag with a spoon like above. Discard the seeds.

Heat 2 cups pomegranate juice with 1 3/4 cups sugar. You can add more sugar to make sweeter.

Let cool, store or jar, and viola! Homemade Grenadine

I can't find the actual blog I used to make this, but here is a similar blog: http://www.reclaimingprovincial.com/2011/12/10/homemade-grenadine/

Let me know your results. Another website for this is allrecipes (no pictures though)