I'm Finicky, I know

Last night, after Stuart come home from fishing and the boys had gone to bed (boo to Daylight Savings), we were talking about this and that. Mainly about how to cook fish next time he catches some and pondering how to cook venison (he's going hunting next week). My food fears immediately went into overdrive and thus I thought to share with you some of my ahem, tastes.

Enjoy!

1. I do not like condiments. Really. I don't. Plain and dry.
2. I do, however, really like chicken salad. But PLEASE don't remind me there's mayonnaise in it. Ewww.
3. I'm really particular about bread and dough being cooked. I would rather have an almost burnt cookie than one that's slightly underdone. This drives my husband crazy.
4. I prefer for food not to touch on my plate.
5. I can't handle spicy food. Although I did remarkably well eating seafood boudin.
6. I would eat steak everyday if I could.
7. I don't like licorice. 
8. I don't drink milk. Stuart thinks this is just down right nutty.
9. I don't like corn dogs.
10. When we got o Starbucks, I don't order coffee. Yet another thing that makes Stuart shake his head.

With that said, I'm going to makes these cookies this afternoon. I'm having a hankerin' for pomegranate, so this should fit the bill. I found the recipe here.

Double Dark Chocolate Pomegranate Cookies
Makes 2-3 dozen
bake at 350 for 9-10 minutes

1/2 Cup (1 stick) Butter--don't use margarine
1/2 Cup Vegetable Shortening--you can substitute more butter or Coconut Shortening here but shortening gives cookies a flaky crisp

3/4 cups White Sugar
3/4 cups Brown Sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp Vanilla

2 cups Flour
3/4 cup Cocoa Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
3/4 tsp Salt

2 to 2 1/2 cups choc chips--appx 1 bag of chips. (I prefer mixing 1/2 bag of semi-sweet and 1/2 bag of milk chips)
1 cup pomegranate arils (those red seeds. 1 Pomegranate is more than enough)

In a Kitchenaid mixer (or in a bowl with a handmixer) cream together the butter, shortening, 2 sugars, vanilla, and eggs. Beat the mixture on medium-high for a full 3 minutes--this is important. During that time you'll watch the chemistry of the ingredients change into a very creamy mixture.

In a separate bowl mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Combine it with the butter mixture and mix till everything is incorporated.

Then comes my favorite part...
Add the pomegranate arils and chocolate chips. In my opinion, more chips is better than less. So I add about 2 1/2 cups of chips (or 1 bag of chips). And I prefer using a mixture of semi-sweet and milk chips. Dump in the chips and arils and mix briefly to incorporate everything. A few seeds may burst while mixing but that's fine.

Scoop the dough into 15 small balls on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 9-10 minutes