flavorbaron.com launching soon!

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Flavorbaron.com coming soon! A blog for Food and Flavor Lovers Everywhere:

 

One day my wife witnessed me creating some sort of monstrosity in the kitchen. I believe it was a PB and Greens smoothie. Kale, Peanut Butter, Banana, Matcha and Chia. She turned her head and looked at me and said, “What are you DOING?!!!” Without missing a beat, I said, “I’m just a Flavorbaron Baby.” We both erupted into laughter. Since that day, I’ve spread the word about the Flavorbaron way of life.

There are only two rules if you wish to flavorbaron:

  1. There Are No Rules To Flavorbaron
  2. To Discover New Flavor Combinations Break Every Rule

Yes, I know this is recursive, it is a rule that there are no rules – and it is a rule that you must break each rule, including the rule that there are no rules, so I suppose you could form your own rules.

There are only two steps to follow if you wish to Flavorbaron.

  1. Forget Everything You know About Flavor
  2. Apply Flavor Recklessly

There are a few guiding principles

  1. There Are No Bad Flavors, Only Unexpected Flavors
  2. There Are No New Flavors, Only New Flavor Combinations

As we get further involved with the Flavorbaron way of life, thing will evolve and change over time. The most exciting thing down the pike is flavorbaron.com. From this site, I will post flavor recipes, and encourage new up and comers to post their ideas, we may crowdsource a flavorbaron cook book. Who knows where the wind will blow! To get started, make sure you follow the flavorbaron twitter account!

 

How can you help? Right now we’re looking for the face of flavorbaron.com! Submit a headshot of your interesting mustache and we’ll feature your mug prominently on our twitter account and website.

How to Make a Video for Youtube

My wife on youtube

How To make a video for Youtube

With Youtube, anyone can start creating videos and posting them for the entire world to watch. Building up a youtube channel can be lucrative, fun, and a great way to earn some cash on the side by marketing products and promoting companies. Helping my wife run her channel, and watching it grow, has given me a unique insight into how the whole thing works. So in this post, I’m going to discuss what equipment you’ll need and in part two I’ll talk about what we’ve learned about growing a Youtube audience.

My wife started making Youtube videos about a year ago, and focuses on Make-up tutorials, product reviews, and other lifestyle videos that are catered to women ages 15-35. She talks about pop culture, style, beauty, and fashion. Over the last year we’ve watched her subscribers grow exponentially, and strangely enough she is occasionally recognized by people who are friends of friends that watch her channel. If you watch her earlier videos, you can see how much our production value has improved over the last year. This has made a difference in the number of subscribers and views she has achieved. Some of her most watched videos is a hair dye review, and celebrity make up looks. So try to figure out what your audience will want and make videos that cater to their needs.

If you know how to do anything, chances are you can find an audience on Youtube.

Before reading this post – feel free to visit my wife’s youtube channel and blog.

Things you’ll need to make a video for youtube:

  1. An Idea
  2. An HD Video Camera (1)
  3. Adequate lighting
  4. A Microphone
  5. A Computer and Video Editing Software

Things to keep in mind for making a youtube video:

When it comes down to making a video for youtube, you can put as much or as little into it as you wish. When my wife started making videos for youtube, we just used a Sony Webbie HD camera. We didn’t have soft boxes or a decent microphone. If you own an iphone and have $5 you could use imovie on the iphone to edit a video and upload it. While your results won’t be as good if you used more professional software, there is a lot of leeway. Of course, the higher your production value, the more  interesting your audience will find your video and the higher the likelihood that they’ll watch the whole thing or share it with friends.

Ideas for a Youtube Video:

There are a lot of reasons people go online to watch videos on youtube. Typically a video is better for instructions on how to do or make something. Ideas you might have for a video include:

  • a standup comedy routine
  • a short movie
  • a funny skit
  • instructions on how to prepare a certain recipe
  • play a certain song
  • demonstrate a skill such as singing or musical ability
  • in depth product reviews
  • vlogs
  • music videos

Video Camera For Youtube:

When it comes down to what camera to use, often times the answer is whatever camera you have. If you’re serious, it is my recommendation that you select a DSLR similar to the Canon T5i. The reason a digital SLR is preferable over a stand alone digital camcorder is that they’re useful for still images as well and are more versatile because they offer more lens selections. This means you can use a zoom lens for part of the video and then switch to a macro lens for close up shots of items in the video or switch to a wider lens as your needs change. Additionally a DSLR has manuel settings wich allow you to have a much wider range of control over how the video looks. For instance you could adjust the white balance more accurately than with a stand alone camcorder, and change the ISO or light sensitivity settings so that if you have less than ideal lighting you can still get a bright picture. You’ll also get better out of the box sound recording and options to add a better microphone using the Hot Shoe on top of the camera if you choose. Using an SLR you also have more lighting options – because you could mount a video light on top of the camera or around the lens.

Other great options are the smaller cameras made by Canon and Nikon that offer HD video recording and image stabilization. Many well known Youtubers use these smaller cameras for vlogs and they don’t disappoint. If none of these options work a good candidate is your smart phone if it shoots in HD.

For Youtube the higher the quality the better, 1080P is ideal – but 720P should be madatory. With a 720P video file shot in adequate light image sharpness will be high enough to watch on a large screen – and with Apple Tv, Roku, and other streaming devices more and more people are watching their favorite Youtube channels on an HD television.

The bigger the camera sensor the better the video looks, however as long as it is high definition capable you’ll be alright. Lighting is a much more important element than video format or the tools you use to shoot the video. People have made entire movies using nothing but an iPhone 4.

Lighting for Youtube Videos

The right camera will give you more options, but it will not make the video. Nothing is as important as lighting. A dimly lit video is immediately boring, but a bright video with lots of saturated colors that’s nice to look at draws people in. Because lighting is so important my wife and I purchased some soft boxes. These are super bright halogen bulbs that have a nylon box over them with a plastic diffuser. You might consider investing $220 in something like this very capable kit.

Tips for lighting your Youtube video:

  1. If you don’t have the budget for great lights, then shoot in front of a window that faces the sun and use a white sheet or curtain as a diffuser. Make sure your face is positioned toward the window so that the light reflects onto your face. If you have the light source behind your face, the camera’s white balance will typically adjust for the brightness in the overall scene so your face will come out dark while the backdrop is exposed properly. If you can’t get a hold of a window and good light, then outside is your next best option.
  2. Keep in mind that the best time to shoot video outside is an hour after sunrise and an hour before sunset. This period of time is called the Golden or Magic Hour. The sun is low in the horizon at this time and the light is diffused through the atmosphere and gives everything a warm glow.
  3. If you can’t shoot at this time, then try to shoot in the shade but make sure to adjust your settings on your camera – because depending on the source of light – your video can come out too cool or warm. Try to avoid high sun and direct light. This type of light creates a lot of shadows, and it can be difficult to look good.
  4. Look for natural diffusers like tree cover, overhangs, doorways, or clouds.
  5. If you have to shoot outside you may want to invest a few bucks into a reflector. Reflectors usually have a few options. Choose white if you want a soft white light, silver if you want a stronger light, gold if you want warm light, and black if you want to shade certain areas.
  6. No matter which light source you use, make sure you adjust the white balance accordingly. You don’t want the light to be too warm (yellow) or too cool (blue). You want the colors to look as natural as possible.
  7. When setting the exposure, you want the details to be visible. If you have too much light you’ll blow out the brighter colors, and digital sensors (at least the ones Canon produces) tend to over saturate certain colors if there is too much light. If you don’t have people in your video – it’s not very distracting, but if you do and this happens it can really mess up their skin tones and look horrible.
  8. If your camera allow you to manually meter, spot meter for skin, usually using the shadow under the chin. This will make sure that the video is adjusted to the darker parts of the image and the skin in brighter light will be slightly over exposed which can help skin hide blemishes and scars.
  9. These lights can get REALLY hot. If you’re shooting in a small room, you might want to open a window or if possible purchase LED or Fluorescent bulbs.
  10. The idea set up is three lights, one between 10 and 11 o’ clock, one between 1 and 2 o’clock and then a smaller light at 12 o’clock to light your face.  Depending on the size of the room, the position of the camera, and what is going on in the video you’ll have to play with the lights. Try to avoid shadows on or across the face or against the backdrop. Shadows can distracting and ruin your message.

Sound for your Youtube Video:

Having adequate sound is equally as important as adequate lighting. These two factors make or break the video. On camera mics on less expensive cameras are hardly up to the task and often pick up other noise from the camera – most notably the motors in the lens if you’re zooming in or out or if the focus changes. If you want your video to appear professional adequate sound is a must. A decent microphone can be had for $50 – $100. My wife and I use the Blue Yeti and it’s an amazing microphone. The less expensive Canon cameras do record adequate sound for a vlog, but if you intend to do any voice over work for your video you’ll want to invest in a good microphone. Make sure it records in at least 16bit and 48khz.

The reason I recommend the Yeti is because it has 4 different modes  meaning it works well for a podcast or a singing a duet, or recording sounds on all sides of the microphone. The quality is crystal clear, and it has a headphone jack so you can listen to your audio as you record it. Many USB mics don’t have this option, so you have to plug your headphones into the computer and you experience a delay as the sound is processed which is distracting.

Of course if you have a smaller budget, one of Blue’s less expensive microphones will still work well, check out the snowflake, also by Blue. The cool thing is it’s small and portable – great if you like to record from your laptop on the go, but it would also work well in your home. If you use your built in microphone on your computer or phone, make sure to speak clearly, and try to avoid large rooms which can create a lot of echo, or busy public places that will create background noise.

A Computer and Video Editing Software:

If you have an iMac, you’ll be able to use iMovie and there’s no additional cost. If not, you’ll have to shop around for another option. iMovie is really well made and worth the cost of owning a mac by itself. However if you’re making music, software like Garage Band really comes in handy. There is no doubt that video editing software isn’t cheap – and while iMovie isn’t as robust as other options like Final Cut Pro – it will definitely allow you to do transitions, add music, insert photos, or even have picture in picture. Producing a quality video isn’t cheap, but it is attainable. Without that option and for basic editing iMovie on the iPad or iPhone will also work well. If you need to edit video using a PC Adobe has a creative suite option which allows you to subscribe and use their software on a monthly basis. Some of their plans for students are a total steal, but all of their software is affordable this way.

Tips for editing your video:

Shooting the video is just part of the process. Editing is how you tell your story.

  1. Try to stay away from distracting or flashy transitions. It’s ok to use some of these from time to time but you don’t want to do it every time. A fade works just as well, you want to transition between scenes as smoothly as possible.
  2. Avoid overusing effects. Often times video effects are cheesy if not done properly and they’re completely unnecessary and distracting most of the time.
  3. If you add music to your video, make sure you use royalty free songs or ones that you own the rights to.
  4. Try to keep the volume of the music low enough so that it’s not distracting during dialogue and don’t transition between music and dialogue to often. Silence is OK, but if it goes longer than feels natural just crop it out.
  5. What you take out of your video is as important as what you leave in. Chop out anything that is boring, distracting, or not pleasant to look at.

Things to Keep in mind:

Making Youtube videos is fun, and will open you up to all kinds of new opportunities. The most important thing to keep in mind is that building an audience takes some time. The most important thing to keep in mind is to have fun. You can make a profit on Youtube, and use your new exposure to launch new endeavors. Try to be as personable and relatable as possible. People generally want to see things that are funny, light hearted, and enjoyable. So try to stay away from controversial subjects that will alienate your audience – unless you’re trying to go for that sort of thing and if so, make sure your opinions are well researched, logically thought out, and clearly explained.

 

Healthy Eating Basics: How I Eat Well, Without a Diet Program

A few years back I bought the newest book by Author Tim Ferriss entitled “The 4 Hour Body”. I started following his suggestions and recommendations and was overwhelmingly pleased with the results. Over a relatively brief period of time, I ended up losing over 20lbs. I felt better and looked better. The problem was that I felt like I was missing out on nutritious foods – namely fruits, juices, and grains. All foods can be part of a healthy diet, so I went back to the drawing board and started making smoothies with fruit in them. Well one thing led to another and I went overboard. I read about the benefits of foods like beer and peanut butter (no really there are some) and went a little crazy consuming them nightly. Pints of Beer make you strong, as the song goes, and I found out that it also makes you fat – along with pints of peanut butter. I also didn’t know what to cook outside of 4hb because I had gotten used to eating grilled meat, beans, and steamed vegetables – which gets old – which leads to late night burger runs. The result? I gained back 20 pounds and then some. While I was never very heavy – I noticed the increase, and didn’t really know what to do about. I basically gave up on having a set diet – because I don’t believe that they really work well – it’s a constant battle to avoid certain foods and even when the temptation to eat foods not on the diet are over, It still complicated eating out.

Why I quit the 4 hour body:

The Four hour body has a ton of research behind it, but it does advocate the use of supplementation (something I’m not a fan of) and creates a diet to follow that is missing some key nutrients. While it may result in weight loss, I do not believe it’s healthy to miss out on fruits, veggies, and grains. I’ve read a lot about the great gluten debate, celiac disease, etc – It’s rare. My theory about what leads to gut problems is the over-prescription of anti-biotics, the prevalence of genetically modified crops – specifically corn which according to one (criticized) study showed led to elevated blood levels of BT Toxin in a group of women from Canada, and the fact that the western diet is full of pasteurized, irradiated, and otherwise dead food. My theory on what causes people to gain weight in this country is along the same lines – High Fructose Corn Syrup, bad guts, and a diet filled with dead food, bleached and modified grains, and bad fats.

But before I continue – a note on BT Corn. Basically BT Toxin is produced by bacteria that naturally occur in the soil. Farmers have used BT toxin as a “natural” pesticide for a substantial amount of time. However, Monsanto took it upon themselves to take genes from the BT Toxin producing bacteria and implant them into corn plants. Now corn can make it’s own BT Toxin without a farmer needing to apply it. BT Toxin was believed to be destroyed by the digestive system and that being the case should not show up at all in blood samples. The study was criticized because the levels were so elevated that the debunking scientists claimed that the study was flawed and did not consider other possible contamination sources. However, the only study ever done on the safety of GMO foods found that gut bacteria that had come into contact with round up ready soy products began producing the same proteins creating round up ready gut bacteria. So if bacteria can learn to produce toxic substances from foods we ingest – it’s a theory that the women in this group may have had elevated BT Toxin in their blood because their gut flora had begun producing it. How BT Toxin works is that its ingested by the worm that feeds on corn and ruptures their stomachs. Do some research on food allergies, celiac disease, and digestive conditions like Chrohn’s disease and Ulcerative Colitis and you’ll see that lots of people don’t feel well and nobody knows why.  So while there is no “proof” that BT Toxin gets into our bodies through GMO Corn, it is uncertain how so much toxin got into these pregnant women’s bodies and that the findings were so high that scientists debunking it suggested that it had to be due to false positives, and ignoring other contamination sources. This is just one example of why eating “products” and not “produce” can be so potentially harmful to us. A logical person would conclude that corn does not naturally grow BT Toxin producing cells, and that since GMO corn can be avoided it should be avoided. However if you eat any packaged bread products chances are you’re exposing yourself to GMO corn and BT Toxin.

On the Road To Flavor Baron Nirvana: How I Discovered a Healthy Way of Eating in the Pursuit of New Flavor Combinations

When I discovered this new way of eating, I had no intention to lose weight, but it was only to seek out new flavor combinations – in a eating practice I call “Flavorbaroning” To be a Flavor Baron one has to follow 2 principles and 2 rules:

Principles:

1: There are no new flavors – only the experience of new flavor combinations.

2: There are no bad flavor combinations, only unexpected flavor combinations.

Rules:

1: Forget everything you know about flavor

2: Apply flavor recklessly.

Healthy Eating Basics:

I cannot believe that there are foods we should never eat. All foods can be a part of a healthy diet – the key is moderation. I think there are a lot of reasons why Americans are so unhealthy – and largely it’s because of a poor diet and poor eating habits like eating too many of the wrong foods at the wrong time – which results in a huge surge of insulin and insulin insensitivity. When I came to the idea of the “Flavor Baron” It was in the pursuit of better living – not necessarily of health – although I found that the most flavorful foods are often times the healthiest foods.

Product based diet vs produce based diet:

I was reading an article the other day and it was making suggestions as to which “products” we should avoid. I realized that people were not meant to eat products, but meant to eat the produce of the land. I started making more of the foods I wanted to eat – soups, stews, breads, by making them myself from scratch. It is a simple process to make bread. I bought organic stone ground wheat, yeast, organic molasses mushed it all together with some water and popped it in the oven. I wanted to have a soup or a stew but instead of purchasing a can of BPA lined, MSG seasoned cancer water (broth) I went  to my local grocer and bought some beef bones, organic free range bone in chickens, and boiled up my own. I used to buy all natural chicken breast in a big giant 10lb bag at Costco but now I just buy a whole chicken for $11 roast it, peel all the meat off the bones, and then make a broth out of it. I eat soups and stews just about every day and I feel full when I’m done but not bloated or heavy. I eat carbs, protein, fats, and all things full of flavor.

Some believe it’s more expensive to eat organic foods, but I’m telling you it’s much more expensive to buy inferior products. For example, I purchased 2 bags of organic stone ground wheat flour for about $8 and made enough bread to last a month – if I had bought store bought bread I’d have eaten half of it and thrown it away and probably spent twice as much to keep it in stock in case I wanted some. Now I make a loaf, cut it in half, put half in the fridge and half in the freezer. I eat the first half and thaw out the second half when I’m done – and because I know there are no preservatives in it I just keep it in the fridge to keep it fresh.

The same goes for beans. Buying a can of beans will run you about a buck – not expensive by any stretch. However you’re also buying a can – which needs to be recycled and a plastic lining made with BPA which causes unknown detriment to our environment and your body. I bought a 25LB bag of beans for $20 at Costco. Beans are not especially nutritious – but they’re a great source of complex carbohydrates, fiber, and a few vitamins. Some dietary experts argue that beans are unhealthy because they contain antinutrients, but they can be cooked and drained in such a way so that they do not cause any problems. Lectins are destroyed by heat – so I boil for 10 minutes and then drain and then rinse 3-4 times – Then I put them in a big pot and boil them for an entire day. Beans can be delicious if you sprinkle on some cheese and add a ton of garlic. So I use beans as a delivery vehicle for spices which have other benefits than beans by themselves.

Bone Broth:

The top reason I eat soups and stews is because of the broth. Bone Broth has tons of minerals and beneficial compounds in it, because it’s made from the stuff skeletons are made of. If you take a look at a can of chicken broth, it’s going to be liquid at room temperature, but if you look at one that I make, it’s going to be like a big bowl of Jello. The reason why is because mine contains much more gelatin. Gelatin contains proteins – Glycine and Proline which play an important role in the makeup of our bodies. Think about it – people have eaten broth daily for thousands of years until MSG was invented. The glutamate receptors on our tongues cannot tell the difference between the glutamate in natural brewed bone broth or the artificial glutamate in a packet of Mono-sodium Glutamate. So we get the same savory taste without any of the cost of shipping gallons of water around, or of the energy cost of boiling bones for 3 days straight or of the cost of meat. Imagine a package of instant noodles that didn’t have that little flavor packet but instead came strapped to a package of broth. Ridiculous right? So what are our bodies missing out on by not having broth every day?

Probiotic Foods:

Before refrigeration, people kept food fresh through preservation. This was accomplished through Lacto-fermentation and other means. Today, even traditionally fermented foods like Sour Kraut and Pickles are pasteurized to ensure a consistency of flavor and to reduce any risk of infection by bad bacteria. Americans supplement their diets with “probiotic” yogurt and dairy drinks which contain carefully selected cultures. These probiotic strains die out on the shelf and contain far less active ingredient than old fashioned homemade kefir and yogurt and the same goes for the probiotic pills people take – Chances are they’re not shelf stable, and even the ones that are tend to lose their potency – even in a refrigerator. What’s known about our gut flora is that not a lot is known. There are over 100 trillion bacteria in the average gut – which comes in at about 3lbs. 10x more bacterial cells than human cells inhabit our bodies. You could think of humanity as basically sacks of meat that carry around bacteria and yeasts.

Antibiotics, many produced naturally by “good bacteria” and fungi in the human body have been copied by pharmaceutical companies and prescribed in many cases because it’s cheaper than simply doing a test to see what’s wrong. This over prescription of antibiotics has created a generation of people with bad gut flora – because as we know, antibiotics eradicate good and bad bacteria and our gut flora is made up of bacteria often times that we’ve come across in our environment. So for instance if you had good bacteria growing from infnacy that came from our mothers and then take an antibiotic – you won’t be able to come back into contact with the same strains of bacteria unless you have a good source of breastmilk from a healthy mother or raw milk from sheep and other animals that have given humans beneficial bacteria and complex sugars with which to feed them.

This allows opportunistic bacteria (like C. Diff) to take root in our guts and take over. The good news is that it’s not difficult to obtain raw probiotics. Foods like Kim Chi, Ginger Beer, Lacto-fermented vegetables, Yogurt, Kefir, and yes – even some supplementation can help get us all back on track.

Healthy fats:

Omega 3 this, Omega 3 that – we hear about this “healthy” fat – meanwhile we shun saturated fats as unhealthy. Truthfully, I believe ALL fats are healthy in moderation. I should take that back as some unhealthy fats exist – like Transfat. Coconut oil is an example of a saturated fat that is healthy. Coconut oil is rich in ketones which can replace insulin spiking sugar as a fuel for the body. In addition saturated fat found in coconuts exhibits antiviral properties and can even help prevent kidney stones.  Science does not know enough about fats and the roles that they play to rule out an entire category of fat. I get my healthy fats from grassfed butter (Kerry’s gold), Grassfed Beef (Sunfed) and milk from Grassfed cows (St. Benoit). I get a healthy dose of fat from Sardines (Wild Planet) and occasionally a slab of salmon.

The results:

So far, I feel better, look better, and have lost 14lbs while still indulging in ice cream, cookies, and even eating unhealthy food products from time to time. I eat foods like oatmeal, maple syrup, and tons and tons of grass fed butter. The weight continues to fall off. I had so much more energy that I also started a new exercise routine, and started carrying around a glass jug of water to help me ensure enough intake. This is just a fraction of what I learned in the last few months and I plan to write more about these, so bookmark this blog and check back often. I’ll be updating this post with new links in the future. You can also follow me on twitter.