BevNerd

Video podcasts and free episodes of TV shows have become my new favorite past time. One of my favorite podcasts is BevNerd. The host, Jason, is from Alabama and reviews a beverage + a snack each video. He sometimes does more than one beverage or snack, and usually tells you about a promotion as well. I think he restocks vending machines (he sort of makes an allusion to that in an early episode) which is part of the reason why he has access to so many snacks and beverages. If you enjoy this blog (or don't and want to see someone do a better job) check out his website/Facebook/Twitter/YouTube/iTunes podcasts. Do you all think I should make videos? I've considered carrying around my camera so that I can film myself at restaurants. Perhaps I'll give it a try. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

Pomegranate 7UP Antioxidant

Generally, I prefer Sprite over 7Up. But when I saw Pomegranate 7UP antioxidant at Bi-Lo I decided that I had to give it a try. I found some pics online of pomegranate 7UP cans but they only had it in 2L form at Bi-Lo so I grabbed a bottle. It has antioxidants, which is pretty cool. Again with the healthy soda, I suppose. I’ve had pomegranate before, but didn’t know what to expect from this. I guess I thought it would sort of taste like cherry soda. Really, I expected it to taste like pomegranate soda, but heck if I knew what that would taste like. Let’s be honest, most of the time when you have something that’s flavored like fruit it doesn’t actually taste like that fruit. I love grapes but hate anything grape flavored. It’s just not the same. This soda didn’t disappoint. When you first drink it, it doesn’t really taste like pomegranate. It just tastes like a fruity 7UP. But the first little aftertaste hint that you get tastes EXACTLY like pomegranates! It's not really "crisp and clean" like you'd expect from Sprite or 7UP. It does taste more like a fruit soda. Still, it's really great. I like this soda a lot. Brian and his roommate tried it and they both liked it as well. I don’t know if I’ll buy it again, but I’m certainly going to enjoy finishing the rest of the bottle. I give this 4.5/5 stars.

Tommy's Naked Soda

I went to the Gourmet Shop a few weeks back to visit a friend who had just started working there. While I was perusing their wares I found some New England ‘naked’ sodas; Tommy’s Naked Soda to be exact. These sodas don’t have any caffeine, unnatural flavors or colors, and are clear. I’m sort of curious how they get sodas such as blueberry, raspberry, and orange to be clear, but whatever. I think that in general I have decided that I am not a fan of ‘healthy’ sodas. If I want healthy, I’ll drink vitamin water. If I’m drinking soda I don’t want healthy. I ended up purchasing the lemon & lime, raspberry & lime, and orange. For more information on these drinks, visit tommysnakedsoda.com

1. Lemon & Lime
When I think about how a lemon/lime soda should taste I imagine a light, crisp, refreshing taste. This soda was lacking in the light and refreshing departments. The lemon & lime part was fine, but something about it seemed heavy. Perhaps it didn’t have enough carbonation in it? Brian thought it tasted alright but I thought something about it just tasted a bit off. It was okay, so I’ll give it 3.25/5 stars.

2. Raspberry & Lime
I was a little worried about how this would taste, since I tried the black cherry & lime Vitamin Water flavor and didn’t like it, but I decided to give it a go. I like this one more. You mostly taste the raspberry, with just a hint of lime at the end. This one was a bold mix of flavors and was pretty good, so it gets 3.8/5 stars from me.

3. Orange
I feel like I’ve had this before. I think it’s taking me back to the ‘natural’ orange soda I got from World Market. Good to know that they all taste the same. And how could they not? The ingredients are the same: carbonated water, cane sugar, natural orange and other natural flavors, citric acid, and ascorbic acid. This particular natural soda has 100% of the U.S.R.D.A. of Vitamin C, which is great for me because I currently have the winter sickness. I uploaded a picture of this soda's bottle (please excuse my free phone's lack of mega pixels.) In the effort of fairness I give this one the same rating I gave the last natural orange soda I tried: 3/5 stars.

Recreating Wild Wing's Poppy Seed Honey Mustard

Recently I have welcomed all mustards that are not "yellow mustard" into my life. My favorite non-yellow mustard is Wild Wing Cafe's honey mustard. What makes theirs unique? It has poppy seeds in it. I swear that I once saw a poppy seed honey mustard at Bi-Lo but have been unable to find it again. I have since found myself wondering if I could recreate the dressing by merely adding some poppy seed dressing to some honey mustard. Sounds simple, but this theory doesn't always work out. Example: adding curry to ketchup does not make curry ketchup. I finally caved and purchased some Publix poppy seed dressing (it was the first one I found that was a plain poppy seed dressing). Today I mixed the dressing with some French's honey mustard and to my delight it tasted EXACTLY like Wild Wing's! I didn't exactly measure it out, but if you're looking to recreate the taste yourself this is what I did:

-1 medium squirt of honey mustard
-3 splashes of poppy seed dressing

I like this dressing on just about everything. Grilled chicken, fried chicken tenders, wings, fries, and even chips (I'm currently dipping some Lay's classic chips into my dressing). I encourage you to give this a go if you're a honey mustard fan. If you do try this out, post your findings in a comment. I'd love to know how you think the mix of the two stacks up to the original.

Happy Gobble Gobble Day

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and speaking of gobble gobble, I don't know how many of you have ever had fried turkey but if you haven't YOU ARE MISSING OUT. To quote my uncle it's, "the best damn turkey you ever ate." So when I learned that my uncle was not going to be coming to thanksgiving this year and thus was not frying a turkey I was really disappointed. I was so disappointed that I asked my step mom if my sister and I could fry a turkey ourselves if we bought the ingredients (mainly peanut oil and seasoning). She and my grammy reluctantly agreed. $30 & about 4 gallons of LouAnn's peanut oil + 2 partial cans of Tony Chachere's seasoning later we were ready to go! To the right is a picture of our turkey, post Tony's rub. My uncle usually uses a whole can. We didn't quite have that much, but I think it turned out alright in the end.

Now, there are about 6 steps to frying a turkey. 1) Make sure the turkey is FULLY thawed. This means you should start defrosting it the night before. 2) Do not over fill the pot with oil. To make sure of this we put the turkey in the pot, filled the pot with water so that it just covered the turkey, removed the turkey (making sure all of the water drained out), then marked the waterline by scratching the pot with a pocket knife. 3) Bring the oil to 375-400 degrees then keep the temperature steady at 350 degrees. 4) Slowly lower the turkey into the pot to avoid splashing. The picture to the right is my sister, and boyfriend putting the turkey into the pot. If you do not follow rules 1, 2 and 4 that's when things get dangerous and you run the risk of injury and/or house fire. 5) Cook the turkey for about 3-4 minutes per pound, or until an internal temperature of 160 degrees is reached. We had a 13lb turkey and cooked it for 39 minutes, at which point its internal temperature was around 175. 6) Let the turkey sit for about 5 minutes before you remove the turkey from the base and skewer, or begin carving. After 5 minutes carve, serve, and enjoy!

Above is a picture of the finished turkey pre- and post-carving. Look at that crisp brown skin! mmm, mmm good!

Wendy's Natural Cut Fries

I don't know about you all, but I love Wendy's. One of my favorite things about them (beside their spicy chicken sandwiches and nuggets) is their fries. Well, that's no longer the case. They've unveiled their new, natural cut fries. These ones are cut and fried with the skin on them and are flavored with sea salt. Despite my love for their old fries these sounded delicious and I couldn't wait to try them. I'd even received a coupon in my e-mail (yes, I like Wendy's so much that I'm on their mailing list) for a free 'value sized' fries. Boy, was I disappointed.

For starters, my fries didn't even have any skin on them. Disappointment. I'd heard (haven't done my research, so I don't know for a fact) that the new fries have more salt on them but mine certainly didn't taste like it. You know when you go to McDonald's and you get those hard, somewhat over cooked fries in your fry container? Well, Wendy's new fries were like that. But all of them were like that. Gone were the moist, squishy fries that I had loved.

Comments on their Facebook post about their new fries features mostly negative comments about the new fries. Hopefully they'll change them back soon. R.I.P. Wendy's delicious fries.

Welcome to yummmpop!

I bought some sodas from World Market a while ago and wanted to share my findings. So, I made a note on Facebook so that I could share my thoughts with the world! Or at least my Facebook friends. Since then I have entertained the thought of making a blog where I could review sodas, post recipes I have found/altered/created, and generally share my opinions on food and beverage. This is that blog. I will do my best to update it at least once a week. I don't know how well that will work out, but I'll give it a shot. Enjoy!