Friday, October 29, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
my DEU Content Challenge original general business contest posting...
Small Business Marketing Solutions through Social Media Networking
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Share by emailThe need for a small business to incorporate social media into its overall marketing strategy is crucial. The costs of advertising in local newspapers, printing of business cards, putting a small sign out by the curb in front of your shop, and producing promotional items such as caps, t-shirts, banners, and Koozies, can all run into the hundreds of dollars.
These are dollars that may be better off spent on the tools or utensils that you use in your business to bring in revenue. Keeping your overhead down, and your enthusiasm up, is brought into play by smart dollar making decisions. With any garage start-up business, free is good. Do all you can do free first, until you absolutely have to pay. This is where the Internet and social sites can pay off with great dividends.
When creating your home page on a social site, always try your best to keep one thing in mind, FUN. Remember that the idea behind social media is that you want to be social. Most people go to social sites to meet and chat with their friends. Normally an after work day event. No different than if on the way home they stop by a friend’s house to talk, or maybe catch a ballgame on TV. Make as many friends as the site will let you make. Let the content on your site do the selling. Keep your content high quality. The "KISS" theory works great with content: "Keep It Simple Stupid."
Promotions that you do on your social site should bring enthusiasm and excitement for friends to participate. Contest and prizes are always fun. Try not to put yourself into any particular peer type group. Stay on an even keel. People are people. The bad ones will weed themselves out in time and move on. Every site has its haters. Always try to conduct yourself online as if you are representing your company. Because you ARE your company. If you’re using a blogger site, let anyone comment about anything except the use of curse words. Post on your site, “Anyone Can Comment, All Comments Will Be Posted” instead of "Only Registered Users Can Comment" selected on your comments settings page. Show the world that your business is welcome to any ideas or suggestions from anyone, be it good or bad. The use of IPO Look-Up has become very popular, and most blogger pages and social sites now accept this app: http://www.revolvermaps.com/
These apps can show you and all your friends or potential customers who and where you do business. They can also be used to scare off any silly hater getting their kicks by pulling some sort of Internet prank. The more you show how large your customer base is the better. You are a global business. You are large and in charge. Hundreds of widgets are now available for most blogger sites. Widgets can connect you to other sites that will in turn bring more people to your site. Widgets can act like a spider web of transmission lines reaching out to customers like magnets. Website hit counters are available for free in a vast array of fonts and colors. Paste your counter in a spot easily found on your home page.
Let everyone see how proud you are of your sites traffic and your business. The use of blogging as a social site is growing by leaps and bounds. Webcams can be attached to most blog sites. Ustream.tv is a site where you can have your own TV show or make your own commercials that start automatically when someones hits your site. On FaceBook you can link your blogsite to a network of bloggers called “NetworkedBlogs” for even further spider webbing. Use your .com site as your spider’s home. Use your blog and other social pages as your spider's webbing. Social Web pages allow your .com spider to catch customers without having to expend energy, $$$, by running it down.
Thus it is an efficient method of gathering food, $$$. Constructing your social media Web is in itself an energetic activity. It can also become addictive. Don’t lose site of your marketing goals. Know where your line in the sand is when it comes to giveaways and promotional items. Without revenue your spider passes away. Once again, when starting your small business free is good. When beginning and managing your social Web pages, you pay your Internet Provider a small fee, and pay your sites with a lot of your time. But how bad do you want your business to grow? How bad do you want those muscles? Simple equation. It’s all about hours in the gym.
when my paper was posted to the DEU site for the contest, someone went as far as to change the title. why? no respect i guess. sr
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Mesa BBQ Sauce Recipe Courtesy of Bobby Flay...
tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter1/2 medium red onion, finely diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
6 plum tomatoes, coarsely diced
1/4 cup ketchup
3 tablespoons dark molasses
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 tablespoon ancho chile powder (available at
Hispanic or specialty markets)
1 tablespoon pasilla chile powder (available at
Hispanic or specialty markets)
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and sweat the onion and garlic until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes and simmer 15 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer 20 minutes.
Puree the mixture in a food processor, pour into a bowl, and let cool at room temperature. May be refrigerated up to 1 week or frozen.
Sixteen-Spice-Rubbed Chicken Breast with Black Pepper Vinegar Sauce and Green Onion Slaw
Recipe courtesy Bobby Flay, Grill It!, Clarkson Potter 2008 Green Onion Slaw:
- 1 cup coarsely chopped green onions, white and green parts
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 2 serrano chiles
- 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 small head of purple cabbage, finely shredded
- 1 small red onion, halved and thinly sliced
- 2 teaspoons poppy seeds
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
- Chicken:
- 1 tablespoon ancho chile powder
- 1 tablespoon pasilla chile powder
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon ground coriander
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons onion powder
- 1 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon ground fennel seeds
- Heaping 1/4 teaspoon chile de arbol
- Kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper
- Heaping 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 4 (8-ounce) boneless chicken breasts, skin on
- 1/4 cup canola oil
- Black Pepper Vinegar Sauce (recipe follows)
To make the dressing for the slaw, combine the green onions, vinegar, honey, chiles, mayonnaise, oil and salt and pepper to taste in a blender and blend until emulsified.
Combine the cabbage, red onion and poppy seeds in a bowl, add the dressing, and stir until combined. Fold in the cilantro and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cover and refrigerate while you grill the chicken or for up to 1 hour.
Heat your grill to high.
Stir together the ancho powder, pasilla powder, cumin, coriander, ginger, brown sugar, garlic powder, onion powder, allspice, cinnamon, cloves, fennel, chile de arbol, 2 tablespoons salt, black pepper and cayenne in a small bowl.
Brush both sides of the breasts with the oil and season with salt. Rub the top side of each breast with a few tablespoons of the rub and place on the grill, rub side down. Grill until golden brown and slightly charred, 3 to 4 minutes. Turn the breasts over and continue grilling until just cooked through, 4 to 5 minutes longer.
Remove the chicken from the grill and drizzle with the black pepper vinegar sauce. Tent loosely with foil and let rest for 5 minutes. Serve the slaw on the side. Black Pepper Vinegar Sauce:
- 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
- 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3/4 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
Combine the vinegar, oil, mustard, honey, salt and pepper in a blender and blend until smooth. The sauce can be made 1 day in advance, covered and refrigerated. Bring to room temperature before serving.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Bobby Flay, Book Signing Event “Bobby Flay’s Throwdown”
Wed, Oct 6, 2010
Bobby Flay, the Food Network star, will be signing copies of “Bobby Flay’s Throwdown!: More Than 100 Recipes from Food Network’s Ultimate Cooking Challenge”. This title will be released on Oct. 12, 2010.- 10/18/10 Noon at Sur La Table – Preston Road. Plano, TX.
- 10/18/10 5:00 PM at Borders Books – Preston Road. Dallas, TX.
- 10/19/10 Noon at Sur La Table – West Gray. Houston, TX.
About the Book , courtesy of Amazon:
Are you ready?
Every week on Throwdown!, celebrity chef and restaurateur Bobby Flay goes head-to-head with cooks who have staked their claim as masters of an iconic dish—buffalo wings, chicken cacciatore, or sticky buns, for example—even though he may never have cooked these things before. The results are always entertaining—and delicious. In his first-ever cookbook collaboration with Food Network, Bobby shares the recipes and fun from his popular show.
For each episode, both Bobby’s recipe and his challenger’s are included, comprising a cross-country tour of regional specialties and good-hearted competitive spirit. Travel to San Antonio for puffy tacos, Philadelphia for cheesesteaks, Harlem for fried chicken and waffles, and Charleston for coconut cake. Try both dishes to pick your favorite, or challenge friends and family to a battle of your own. Either way, you’ll find tons of fantastic flavors in this best-of-the-best book from the first seven seasons of Throwdown!.
The ultimate companion cookbook to one of America’s favorite food shows, Bobby Flay’s Throwdown! lets home cooks and fans in on the action, featuring favorite Throwdown! moments and behind-the-scenes peeks alongside beautiful, all-new color food photography created just for this book. So if Bobby Flay ever strolls into your backyard asking “Are you ready for a Throwdown?” you definitely will be!
About the Author
BOBBY FLAY is the chef-owner of three Mesa Grill restaurants, two Bar Americains, Bobby Flay Steak, and five Bobby’s Burger Palaces. He is the host of numerous popular cooking shows on Food Network, from the Emmy-winning Boy Meets Grill and Grill It! with Bobby Flay to the Iron Chef America series and Throwdown! with Bobby Flay. A New York Times bestselling author, he is also the food correspondent for CBS’s Early Show and a contributing editor at Parade magazine. This is his tenth book. His website is www.bobbyflay.com.
STEPHANIE BANYAS has been Bobby Flay’s business assistant since 1996. She is the co-author of Bobby Flay’s Burgers, Fries & Shakes; Bobby Flay’s Grill It!; Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill Cookbook; and Bobby Flay’s Grilling for Life. She lives in New York City with her beloved cat, Emily Rose.
MIRIAM GARRON has been the sous chef of Food Network since 2003. Prior to working in television, she edited three cookbooks in the MinuteMeals series. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York, the center of the universe. Bobby Flay's Throwdown!
October 18, 2010 5:00 PM
Dallas-Preston & Royal - Borders
10720 Preston Rd., Suite 1018
Dallas, TX 75230
Chef Bobby Flay is on a secret mission: to challenge the absolute masters in different kinds of cooking award-winning BBQers, bakers, pizza makers and more. In each episode, one of these cooks thinks Food Network is shooting their profile for a show. What they don't know is that Bobby is going to drop in for a surprise visit and challenge them to an unexpected cook-off. Since they're in their element and Bobby's out of his, prepare for an exciting, tension-filled competition.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Monday, October 11, 2010
Chaotic Radio...
Hey man
Between You and Dennis Kaeos Smith
Ronnie hey man, hope all is well. Grab my friend request over there bud, long time no talk!
Hey Ron, wondering if your going to accept my friend request bud? It's been out there a few months and It seems like I am the only one not approved! Are we cool amigo?
Sunday, October 31, 2010 12:41 AM Dennis Kaeos Smith commented on L.B. Thrillkill's wall post.
Dennis wrote:
"Hey been trying to friend you man, please accept :)"
Dennis wrote:
"Hey been trying to friend you man, please accept :)"
Hi Ron, was wondering if you could either approve or deny my friend request here. Your friends with my wife, you've got "Like"s on all my pages but since my friend request is still "pending" I can see your posts, and it kind of sucks not being able to talk to you bud. Still not sure if your angry with me for something or whats wrong but I'd appreciate if you could hit the button one way or another. Hope all is well.
Dennis
Dennis
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Hey! I just randomly found this recipe. I've made it twice already with some slight modifications - I used whole chilies rather than powder (except the cayenne). I also added fresh lemon juice and apple cidar vinegar. I also used a smoked sweet paprika. I know this is an old recipe but it is fantastic. I smoked some ribs and finished them off with it. It was a big hit.