Serious Eats: bygnerd's Profile

Bacon and black olive is great together. The nuttiness really comes through and matches up with the salty flavor of the bacon and the sweetness of the tomato sauce.

I'm a huge fan of pineapple and onion too. It's sort of the pizza version of sweet and sour.

bygnerd at 3:07PM on 09/18/08

From Serious Eats

Happy Birthday, Instant Ramen

@ Pointy -- I'm a huge fan of those Sapporo Ichiban Chow Mein noodles too! They're super filling and really flavorful.

The best instant style ramen has to be the Duck flavored Mama noodles from Thailand. Beware of the whole chili packet tho unless you want to get your lid blown off! I usually go about half to 2/3. They also make a Pad Thai noodle that's ok in a pinch and wicked cheap.

bygnerd at 6:36PM on 08/26/08

From Talk

Adults and baby food?

Gerber's Hawaiian Delight. It's really good-- similar to a slightly ricey pineapple pudding. I have a jar in my fridge right now. :)

My adult cousins (with kids) always say they liked Blueberry Buckle as a kid and now :)

bygnerd at 4:40PM on 08/20/08

From Talk

Corn on the Cob is best when ______

Take it from an Iowa farm girl, keep it simple. Freshly picked-- no more than two days out of the field. Boiled for 5 minutes, buttered, salted. No bogus seasonings or lime juice or cheese or whatever. If the corn is good, it speaks for itself.

bygnerd at 7:04PM on 07/23/08

From Recipes

Barbecue Chicken with White Sauce

The Food Network site has a recipe for the Gibson's white sauce. Looks like it differs from this recipe to the tune of some horseradish and actual apple cider plus white vinegar. Sounds quite interesting.

bygnerd at 5:33PM on 07/11/08

From Talk

Question of the Day: Any former vegetarians out there? What happened? Why'd you go back to meat?

Bacon, sausage, ham. The pig is, indeed, a magical animal. And I live in Iowa. It's just too easy :)

bygnerd at 9:11PM on 05/08/08

From Talk

Yellow food

egg salad!!! nothing better!

bygnerd at 3:09PM on 04/08/08

From Serious Eats

Serious Easter Artisanal Chocolate Egg Giveaway

I am a big fan of lefse for Easter. We're good old Norwegian Lutherans so it's a must :) Ham is a close second. Always the Easter Ham!

bygnerd at 5:24PM on 03/17/08

From Serious Eats

They're Ba-ack! 'Top Chef' Gets Windy

I must have missed something. Who is Jennifer's partner?

bygnerd at 2:48AM on 03/13/08

From Talk

Does Topping Order Matter?

I've noticed that where you put the mayo-- top or bottom bread-- has an effect on how moist the sandwich seems. When it's on the top, I get more of a sense of moisture; conversely, when on the bottom slice the mayo seems to get lost in the shuffle of other ingredients. Curious.

bygnerd at 6:37PM on 03/02/08

From Talk

Do you DEEP FRY?

LivetoEat-- I'm from Iowa and I've heard the "deep-fat-fry" thing a lot. I don't think it's an exclusive term tho. Come to think of it, my mom always says that. :) lol

bygnerd at 4:25PM on 02/27/08

From Serious Eats

Grant Achatz' Cancer Now in Remission

wow, that's sweet. what a lucky guy and lucky for us that he'll be able to keep on at his chosen career. Now I'll actually get to go to Alinea :)

Goods things can happen!

bygnerd at 12:28PM on 12/19/07

From Serious Eats

Seriously Delicious Holiday Giveaway: Bacon of the Month Club

I like my bacon however I can get it... but prefer if it's not "well-done" to shattering stage. :)

bygnerd at 3:30AM on 12/03/07

From Talk

Easy meals during kitchen renovation

Get a second crockpot and you're in business. There are loads and loads of great crockpot recipe books.

One recipe I'd recommend if you like beans is called Calico Beans. You can make this in a double or triple batch quickly and freeze portions that you can then microwave. It's saved me many times throughout grad school:

Cook 1/2 lb. bacon until crisp; remove bacon to paper toweling and pour off grease. In same pan, brown 1 lb. ground beef. Then add:

1 can kidney beans
1 can lima beans
1 can pork and beans
--all with liquids

1/2 c. ketchup
3/4 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. yellow mustard
3 T. instant onion
2-3 tsp. white vinegar
salt, pepper to taste.

Mix together and cook on stovetop (or in your crockpot) until the beans are cooked through. It can then be packaged up and you're in business.

You can adjust all of the flavorings in the sauce to your likening... making it less sweet, more tart, etc. Enjoy :)

bygnerd at 12:32AM on 10/04/07

From Talk

Seeking Gift Ideas

The ideas for "experience gifts" -- dinners, chefs tables, cooking classes-- are all great. In the smallish town I live in there's a great culinary store that has series of classes and tastings. The cheese tasting classes and wine tasting classes are really fun social events and often you could also arrange for that person to receive a gift after the class from the shop, etc. A lot of the wine classes, for example, include specialized Reidel wine glasses for the varietal being tasted that night.

As far as cooking gear or the like, it could be combined with these experiences if you know this person's cookware collection and what they *don't* have. I'd recommend buying a nice piece of cookware or a specialty pan or tool that may be expensive and overlooked up to now. I don't know too many people that are serious into their food that wouldn't love to receive a nice LeCreuset dutch oven, a super nice stainless mandolin, or a paella pan (all on my list at the moment).

Good luck! Someone's lucky to have you in their life! :)

bygnerd at 12:08AM on 10/04/07

From Talk

Top Chef finale tonight! Casey, Dale or Hung?

I'm pulling for Dale, though I like all of the remaining contestants on one level or another. Hung is definitely the most arrogant of the bunch, but Casey and Dale aren't perfect.

Overall, Dale has been the little ray of sunshine of the lot. And his comment about not having cooked for lots of cowboys, but instead he had "slept with a few" really cracked me up last week.

Go Dale! :) We're rooting for our fellow Hawkeye!

Here's an article that ran in the U of Iowa's paper today.

bygnerd at 1:57PM on 10/03/07

From Talk

Adults and baby food?

I use baby food fruits instead of real live bananas as a nice change in my banana bread recipe.

goodcooker at 7:37AM on 08/12/09

From Talk

Adults and baby food?

I'm with chisai and mayoxqueen on YoBaby Yogurt!

It's the creamiest, most luscious yogurt ever... I couldn't believe it when I first tasted it before I fed it to my baby (who loved it, too!). I would finish whatever was leftover in the cup :p ... yummmm....

cucumberpandan at 5:05AM on 08/12/09

From Talk

Adults and baby food?

Okay, I must say I love peach baby food and those little puff things for tots! But being a teenager, and eating baby food can be a big problem! Mostly because I get odd looks from people in the check out line........and then everyone has to ask who is the owner of the baby food in the fridge at school.....which is always awkward. But now I'm chill with it, I mean it's just mushed up food, right?

Daisy Princess at 2:01AM on 08/12/09

From Talk

Question of the Day: Any former vegetarians out there? What happened? Why'd you go back to meat?

I was a vegetarian between the ages of 13 and 22. One night (about 2 months ago) I decided that I simply wanted a steak. Right there and then I went to a diner with my best friend and she watched me down a steak. It was incredible. Not only was that night amazing, but since then I have SO much more energy than I did before. For nine years I had issues with energy. It hit a climax last year when I literally could not stay awake at 2pm every day for months. That went away after I started to take insulin pills (I was diagnosed with pre-diabetes at that ime), but I was still kind of low on energy, moody, depressive...

I swear eating meat has been my savior! I feel like a new woman! I literally feel like a completely different person. I have energy now! And I'm not as moody or depressive... wow, things are different! Plus I feel more like "me"... I never saw myself as the girl who'd eat a salad at a steakhouse while her date had a rare one. I saw myself as the down-to-earth-red-meat-eating chick even when I didn't eat meat for 9 years.

I love steak! I can't ever be a vegetarian again!

chloeloveslife at 8:42PM on 08/08/09

From Talk

Corn on the Cob is best when ______

Grilled with the husk on! NO need to soak or remove the silk beforehand unless the husk is extremely dried out. Then, butter and seasalt and the shameful secret.

When it comes to corn on the cob--ONLY crappy powdered black pepper will do, in enormous stomach burning quantities. I will choose it over the finest fresh cracked in an instant. Only for corn...and sunny side up eggs.

BananaMonkey at 10:58AM on 08/07/09

From Talk

Corn on the Cob is best when ______

@PerkyMac I agree Duffield's is good but Zimmermans Farm on Salina Road is much better. There is nothing like getting corn still warm from the field to eat a couple hours later. It's so sweet and perfect.

DCLSweetspot at 10:07AM on 08/07/09

From Serious Eats

The Joys of Unnaturally Flavored Sodas

I am not really big on soda anymore BUT last summer I was in Nags Head, NC and found the famous Cheerwine, a NC thing. It is fizzy cherry-flavored soda, not cherry cola, just cherry soda. It is out of this world delicious.

Last week when we were close to the border of NC and leaving for WV, I hit a supermarket and bought myself a 12 pack to take home to NJ. We can't get it here. It is my favorite soda in a really long time.

Otherwise I really like Cherry 7Up but they don't sell it in cans around here, just 2 liter bottles, which I have no room for in the refrigerator. I also love Crystal Light Wild Strawberry (comes in a powder that you mix with water) and their Citrus stuff too. Excellent mixed with some green tea! I make fusions of all kinds of things.

I have never liked Fresca. When I was a child, all the skinny cool girls drank the Diet Fresca and that was all they drank (that and lots of folks drank Tab) - neither of which I could get a tasting for. My favorite soda at the time was Pepsi - just plain Pepsi. To this day, I prefer plain Pepsi over anything Coke, don't know why. BUT I prefer Diet Coke to Diet Pepsi.

RisaG at 6:17PM on 07/20/09

From Serious Eats

The Joys of Unnaturally Flavored Sodas

I'm a firefighter, and our rehab vehicle would always have a dry mix powder of something called Squencher, it was sort of a generic Gatorade knock-off. There is nothing that tastes better than that stuff after a structure fire. It was randomly citrusy and just spectacular.

firechick614 at 5:25PM on 07/20/09

From Serious Eats

The Joys of Unnaturally Flavored Sodas

First of all, I love this post & reading all the comments - so many unknowns to me!
Fresca, LOVE! Just tried the Black Cherry which was excellent! Never thought to use it as a mixer!
Polar Orange Dry, which we picked up when our usual Lemon Seltzer was out; we didn't realize it was pop but loved it!
Tahitian Treat, good memories with this one! Somehow delicious with its sickening sweetness!
Ale-8-One, I can't believe it hasn't come up yet! It's an excellent ginger ale with a pun-y name. Maybe just a regional thing but you could only find it in KY where it's made forever. Then a few years ago, they started to allow it to be sold "'cross the river" in Cincy and southern OH. I loved this stuff!
Canada Dry Green Tea, a new favorite! Great combo (though a bit sweet) & such sparkling goodness!

mimi_thi at 4:11PM on 07/20/09

From Serious Eats

The Joys of Unnaturally Flavored Sodas

honestly, none..

a few years back i used to drink vanilla coke almost exclusively, and root beer every now and then, but i can't even finish a soda (or pop as we call it here lol) anymore because they're just too sweet to me.. after drinking mainly water for so long now, anything else is too much

the closest thing to soda i drink now is sparkling naturally flavored water.. i usually just save my calories and flavor for actual food

Control at 3:15PM on 07/20/09

From Serious Eats

The Joys of Unnaturally Flavored Sodas

BobbieAnne, it's TAHITIAN Treat and is made by Canada Dry. I know this because I, too, used to love it!

onedrummer at 1:27PM on 07/20/09

From Serious Eats

The Joys of Unnaturally Flavored Sodas

Here in southern California we are fortunate enough to have Jarritos brand soda, we love tamarindo, mandarina, pina (pineapple), toronja (grapefruit), fruit punch and my own personal favorite - mango. Delicious and always in bottles and in my opinion, soda tastes better from a bottle.

We also have a wonderful store in Los Angeles called Galco's Soda Pop stop. They carry EVERYTHING in soda. For instance, they have 46 kinds of root beer, alone. Brands that you didn't even know were being made anymore. Website is galcos.com and it's fun to visit.

sandydee8 at 1:22PM on 07/20/09

From Serious Eats

The Joys of Unnaturally Flavored Sodas

I love Barq's diet root beer - but they've stopped making it! (At least in the 2-liter bottle - I can still find the 12-packs of cans occasionally.) Everything I love eventually disappears. Companies should pay me not to like their fringe products so they won't fail.

tomfodw at 11:12AM on 07/20/09

From Serious Eats

The Joys of Unnaturally Flavored Sodas

I love Fresca. When I was a kid my favorite thing in the world was an ice cream soda made with Fresca and strawberry icecream. Hmmm, I haven't had that in years, but you know, it doesn't sound half bad.

chisai at 9:41AM on 07/20/09

From Serious Eats

The Joys of Unnaturally Flavored Sodas

In South Florida/Miami there are three sodas in particular that I'm nuts for, and now that I live in Arizona they are pretty hard to find (though I've occasionally found them): Jupiña (pineapple soda), Materva (yerba mate soda) and Ironbeer (I have no idea what kind of soda this is, it's dark like cola but is kinda fruity with a bit of a bite). And since I, too, prefer to CHEW my calories, I was thrilled to find diet versions of all of these (in Florida of course). So those are my must-haves when I visit my parents in Miami.

OH! There is another one that is really good too, Coco Rico - a coconut-water soda.

Seriously - no amount of Fresca, Sierra Mist, Diet Mt. Dew or Diet Sunkist will ever top my South Florida favorites.

ivonneb at 9:40AM on 07/20/09

From Serious Eats

The Joys of Unnaturally Flavored Sodas

Fresca is definitely my favorite soda. I like the original, Peach, and Black Cherry Fresca flavors.

Meewlee at 9:36AM on 07/20/09

From Serious Eats

The Joys of Unnaturally Flavored Sodas

I was a Fresca addict for a few years, and I still enjoy it occasionally. Then I discovered flavored selzter. When I lived in Colorado all I drank was Canada Dry Cranberry-Lime Seltzer. Sounds odd, but was it refreshing, and as I've gotten older (alas!) I don't enjoy sweet drinks as much as I used to. Now I live in St. Louis now I can't get it here. However, I've found LaCroix "Pamplemousse" seltzer, which has the grapefruit taste of Fresca, but without the sugar or artificial sweetner. Does anyone out there like flavored seltzers?

portail32 at 9:30AM on 07/20/09

From Serious Eats

The Joys of Unnaturally Flavored Sodas

my friends and i were obsessed with fresca when we were about 13... useed to put pez in it to make it fizz vary the flavor, and drink it out of shot glasses to be "cool." now that im a semi-grown up i should try it with alcohol :)
squirt is also good... it has a weird flavor and seems more "juicey" than other sodas to me. every once in a while i get this weird craving for orange soda [and speaking of being 13, does that remind anyone else of keenan and kel?]... when youre super thirsty and orange crush tastes SO GOOD, like nothing else.

redzerostar at 11:31PM on 07/19/09

From Serious Eats

The Joys of Unnaturally Flavored Sodas

So glad others like Polar! Diet Polar cranberry dry for me...
Polar (based in Worcester, MA I think) still makes birch beer...and golden ginger ale - much better than "dry" ginger ale. Moxie isn't bad as long as it's cold.

AdamH at 10:26PM on 07/19/09

From Serious Eats

The Joys of Unnaturally Flavored Sodas

OK here goes...I used to live in Concord NC.The first time I ever went in a Wat-A-Burger they had a drink called a "Witch Doctor" on the menu.I asked the nice young lady whats a Witch Doctor? Her reply "you get a big cup,put a handful of pickle slices in it,some ice,then a squirt of every fountain flavor thay had,all together".MMMMMMM.....Wat A burgers in Florida never heard of a Witch Doctor. Have you?

onepercent99 at 5:26PM on 07/19/09

From Serious Eats

The Joys of Unnaturally Flavored Sodas

Oh and Aranciata is also a must!

mtgall at 3:48PM on 07/19/09

From Serious Eats

The Joys of Unnaturally Flavored Sodas

I've never had the chance to try Fresca. But I remember when I was younger and on vacation, drinking some fruity sparkling drink on a big, slender blue bottle, I think it was Clearly Canadian, but can't really say, way too much time ago.

mtgall at 3:45PM on 07/19/09

From Serious Eats

The Joys of Unnaturally Flavored Sodas

I heart Fresca too (and my mom is the ultimate Fresca addict!), but my absolute favorite is Diet Sunkist. I had a huge orange soda craving while pregnant with my daughter three years ago and have been hooked ever since. I'm pregnant with my second child now and am staying away from caffeine, so Sunkist is out... Diet Fanta Orange is caffeine free and quite a good substitute, though. Also LOVE Sundrop (a Carolina thing) and, when I could find it a few years ago, Diet Grape Crush.

PinkCupcake at 1:54PM on 07/19/09

From Serious Eats