It’s no secret that I have a soft spot in my heart for POM Wonderful ^[1]. Not only does the company produce some excellent, high quality products using sustainable business practices, but the people behind the brand seem innovative, caring and very supportive of the food blogging community. Their recent POM Wonderful Blogger Harvest Tour ^[2] is a shining example of that. Although, due to circumstances beyond my control (United Airlines Sucks ^[3]), I didn’t actually get to attend the tour, Jeff and Andrea from POM Wonderful did everything they could to make me feel very much included in the festivities, including sending me a big package full of POM goodies afterward.

The pomegranate is an unusual, yet versatile fruit with many delicious and creative uses. Its health benefits have been touted far and wide. Pomegranate juice is loaded with antioxidants – about three times more than are found in green tea or red wine. Antioxidants help to guard the body against the substances that can cause premature aging, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, cancer, and lots of other diseases or health conditions. If that isn’t reason enough to indulge, there are scads of “wonderful” recipes using pomegranates and their juice. The arils (seeds) are perfect for tossing in salads, stirring into yogurt, sprinkling over cereal or garnishing cocktails. Pomegranate juice is ideal for glazes, cocktails and marinades.

Here are a few recipes from the SGCC archives that were inspired by pomegranates:

Just look at this fabulous Pomegranate Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream ^[4]!

Or, maybe you’d prefer this tender, moist and juicy POMegranate Glazed Pork Tenderloin ^[5].

Don’t they both look delicious?

In case you didn’t know, November happens to be National Pomegranate Month. November also officially kicks off the “Holiday Season”. What better way to highlight the unique qualities of the pomegranate than with a little healthy holiday competition? The fine folks at POM Wonderful have offered to send a case of their terrific, 100% pure pomegranate juice to three of you lucky readers. To sweeten the proverbial pot, I’m also going to pair that with three copies of Nigella Lawson’s fabulous new holiday cookbook, Nigella Christmas: Food Family Friends Festivities ^[6].

Let me tell you people, you really want one of these. This is one gorgeous book! And, it includes everything you could possibly wish for to make your holidays merry and bright. (Everything except the snow, that is. You’re on your own for that one!) Nigella’s book has recipes and suggestions for everything from from party canapés, cocktails and manageable mass catering to scrumptious Christmas cakes, cookies and puddings. There are also chapters on no-fuss brunch dishes, quick and easy homemade edible gifts and edible tree-decorations. The book also includes quite a few recipes using pomegranates!

So, how do you score one of these nifty giveaways? I’m glad you asked. All you have to do to be eligible to win is leave a comment below telling me about your favorite holiday recipe using pomegranates or pomegranate juice. If you don’t already have a recipe in mind, then tell me what kind of recipe you’d like to create using pomegranates or pomegranate juice. Please only comment once, though. Duplicate comments will not be considered. However, if you’d like an extra chance to win, I’ve got you covered.

• If you tweet this post on Twitter ^[7] or share the link on Facebook ^[8], leave another comment letting me know, with the link, and you’ll get one extra chance to win. You can do this twice, for a maximum of two (2) extra chances.

• If you have a blog and actually write a post about your recipe, leave a comment, including the link to your post, and you will get FIVE (5) extra chances. Of course, you should also put a link back to this post in yours.

The deadline to submit your comments is Saturday, November 28th, 2009, at 11:59 p.m. EST. I’ll pick the winning comments using the handy, dandy Random Number Generator ^[9] and post the results here on Sunday, November 29th. I’m purposely setting the deadline for after Thanksgiving to give you time in case you want to make your recipe for the holiday and post about it.

Good luck!!!