#16/365 (Offerings)

This tool, our body; is given to us for only a short time: this life. - Dilgo Khyense Ripoche


Title:"Young & Old"
Flicker user ENABLE Scotland
Taken August 8, 2005

Kateydog vs. LA Confidential

Dave and I retired after dinner last night to CuddleTimeTheater (aka the queen size bed in my office) to watch LA Confidential - one of our favorite movies. Well - Miss Kate decided to bark at every slammed car door (a 50s cop drama has lots of them) and just WOULD NOT settle down. So I ended up taking her to bed about an hour in to get her to settle down - I'm watching the end of the movie now over coffee. and you can see her looking up every time a car door slams or a a doorbell rings or someone knocks on a door. but somehow since it's light outside - she's not barking at all of it - but still hearing it all. (giggle)

is there a home cook with a youtube cooking show that HASN'T done Chicken Tortilla Soup?

It's almost like it's some unspoken rule of home chefs on YouTube - EVERYBODY has done Chicken Tortilla Soup! There are literally HUNDREDS of them out there - basically our special twists on each recipe.

I sorted them by rating and comments - and here are a few that stood out for one reason or another:

There's Chef Mike @ Lights!Camera!Cook! who's talks fast and doesn't explain what he's doing much - and he likes to smile: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypDbATyAf8k - but he's ChefsUSA certified and has apparently a LOT of training. (but his soup doesn't seem like its going to be as yummy either)

There's cookbook author Kieth Snow - who well... talks too much. and he takes ten and a half minutes to teach the recipe. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaYDD9caX1Q

Jason Hill - over at cookingsessions.com - does his recipe quickly (smiles A LOT) - and has a great video quality. (boy do I need to upgrade my camera!) He also suggests you go out and buy a deep fat fryer and make home made tortilla chips vs. using chips from the store.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjuxUrMBG44

Allie Schwartz over at Economy Bites in Brooklyn - is a homemade show she makes with her boyfriend. her kitchen is bright - and she also - is obviously using a nicer camera. She also isn't afraid to say "fuck" when she burns herself or cut herself making onions on camera. It's so laidback - it's fun to watch actually. It's like watching your sister cook for you. (and she sets the fire alarm off in her apartment cooking - gotta love that!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abowtShD9J8

ONe chef manages to spread the pretty simple recipe into at least 15 one minute episodes "adding salt and pepper to tortilla soup", "stirring tortilla soup", "contemplating tortilla soup". Poor girl makes adding salt and pepper seem like something thats frought with danger and should take a FULL MINUTE to explain. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1n1y2Nuevo

anyhow - whats my point?

(THANK GOD - WE"RE FINALLY THERE!)

I do Bob's Kitchen for my own hobby - but three of these chefs mentioned above have THOUSANDS of views on their videos (of varying degrees of chef quality and cooking ability) - and my best video too three years to reach four digit views. I mention it on Facebook, LJ - I have my blog mentioned in a few places - I'm a featured home chef on iFood.tv - so why am I still in the hundreds of views vs. the thousands. (Chopping Tomatoes for Tortilla soup has 4700 views. CHOPPING TOMATOES!)

Any thoughts on what I might be doing better? I know my video quality is still a little behind the curve but my recipes tend to be easy and homecooking specials. I'd appreciate any thoughts any one has on this topic.

Thaw

I put together an iMix for a friend of mine tonight - and sent it to him for downloading in itunes. He's (believe it or not) home simultaneously down with pneumonia AND H1N1. He received it and got on the phone with me - and he didn't know I liked a lot of these artists. His fever broke this afternoon after nearly a week of it.... it was good to hear him laugh and sound like healing was most definitely on its way.

I called the iMix "Thaw" - referring to the HD thoreau quote that says "Thaw with her gentle persuasion is more powerful than Thor with his hammer. The one melts, the other breaks into pieces.”

So I thought I'd share it with you here on LJ.