POM Party!

I absolutely love pomegranates and grew up eating them all the time when I was a kid. So when I heard POM was accepting proposals to host a POM Dinner Party I jumped at the chance to submit one! This was right up my alley..pomegranates and a dinner party – pure awesomeness in my book. They were only selecting 100 people to host parties so I clicked submit and crossed my fingers, hoping mine would get picked. Sure enough, mine did I was SO excited! I did a little happy dance, then promptly emailed a bunch of my friends to secure the date of my party on their calendars. We held it on November 13th and to take this party up a notch from other dinner parties I have had in the past, I asked my guests to dress in cocktail attire. It was fun to have a reason to get a little dressed up :)

All the ladies

As an official POM Party Hostess I was to receive 2 cases of pomegranates, some coupons for POM juice, an apron (and believe me, it’s a really awesome apron!), a cutting board, and gift bags for each of my guests. I patiently waited for my package to come and I literally jumped up and down when it got here. It was like Christmas in November!

Lorraine and Hillary enjoying a Pomegranate Sorbet Spritzer

Camille and Jessica having a Pomegranate Raspberry Martini

I spent quite some time working out my menu. I wanted to incorporate pomegranates as much as I could, but wanted to make sure I had some dishes that everyone would enjoy. I had a lot of fun coming up with recipes too.

For my décor I wanted utilize fall oranges and yellows with the bright reds of the pomegranates. I created a centerpiece using fall leaves, pomegranates, and pillar candles.


I got a little crazy with the spray glitter, but it gave it a nice sparkle in the candlelight.


I am obsessed with place cards for seating, so I also used pomegranates to hold each place card, which each guest took home with them.


I sliced some pomegranates and put them into a tall vase in the cocktail area too, which ended up looking really great! There were a few other pomegranates placed sporadically throughout the house as well to keep with the theme.


We started the evening in the cocktail area for some appetizers and drinks.

I didn’t have a table that would work for what I wanted and mentioned this to my husband, Lance. 30 minutes later he came back with a table he built with some scrap wood – it was absolutely perfect, he is amazing!

The cocktail menu featured 3 drinks: a Pomegranate Raspberry Martini, a Pomegranate Sorbet Spritzer, and a Pomegranate Frost.


The Pomegranate Raspberry Martini was probably the crowd favorite, but the Spritzer was equally as tasty. The Pomegranate Frost was a non-alcoholic option. I also made some ice cubes with pomegranate arils in them which added a nice touch to the drinks.


For the appetizers I did a simple antipasto plate with some Brie, creamy Havarti, and Gruyère cheeses, assorted crackers, salami and some black grapes.


I wanted another light appetizer so I sliced some cucumber and topped with a dollop of cream cheese and sprinkled some pomegranate arils on top. It was crisp and delicious.



After the cocktail hour I had the guests move into the kitchen to show them a quick demonstration on how to open a pomegranate and then give one of them a chance to try it.

Getting ready to do my "How To Open A Pomegranate" demo - and rocking my awesome POM apron!

About a third of my guests had never seen a pomegranate before and never tried one either. A few of them had had them in the past but never purchased any for themselves. The remaining few ate them occasionally but had never seen this method to remove the arils. The demo proved to be very helpful to everyone. Lance was across the room and recorded my demonstration. Here it is for those of you at home:

For this party I decided to do pre-plated dishes for the meal, instead of my usual buffet style. Here was the official dinner menu:



Salad - Mixed greens topped with chopped cucumber, red onion, a persimmon slice, pomegranate arils and pomegranate-champagne vinaigrette

I used the arils from the demo to sprinkle onto the salad.

Entrée - Green Beans, Herb Mashed Potatoes, Chicken Breast with a Pomegranate-Balsamic Glaze



Dessert - Pomegranate Chocolate Mousse Torte: flourless chocolate cake topped with pomegranate syrup, white chocolate mousse with pomegranate arils, and a pomegranate gelatin, then drizzled with pomegranate syrup and pomegranate arils.



I thought the meal came out excellent, and based on the feedback from my guests, they thought so too! The party was a true success and I had so much fun planning it! Thank you POM Wonderful!