Image – TLB Entries

William & Mary’s forays into live social video

Tiffany Broadbent Beker — Mon, 27 Jun 2016 17:24:59 +0000

Finding great ways to use live streaming social video on campus had been on the agenda of the social media folks at William & Mary since Periscope launched in the spring of 2015. However, no great projects or ideas really materialized, as the ephemeral nature of the Periscope videos made it feel like it was a lot of work for something that would disappear after 24 hours (granted, Snapchat has a similar issue but it is a very different platform, and possibly another blog post).

When Facebook Live entered onto the scene last year and then opened up live video to all people and pages this past April, that seemed like the true tipping point for live social video as the biggest social network was throwing their hat in the ring. This presented a really interesting new (and more permanent) way to communicate with our audiences on social media and I knew this was a tool we needed to be utilizing at W&M.

In University Communications we are always looking for ways to showcase our great faculty and students. Offering a way for our entire community to interact with interesting W&M people in real time (and ideally discuss some of their research) via live social video on platforms where our audiences already existed was a great melding of trying out an new technology and tying in to part of our general social media strategy.

W&M did our first live social video in late March, interviewing Government professor Jaime Settle about politics and social media. We had planned to use both Periscope and Facebook Live simultaneously (because why not just dive in head first and try all the things?), but at that point Facebook Live was still being a bit squirrely as to whether it was available to all pages or not. The day of the broadcast Facebook didn’t cooperate so we just used Periscope.

Our first Facebook Live post was right before graduation in May, when Face the Nation was on campus to interview our chancellor and W&M alumnus Robert M. Gates. John Dickerson, the host of Face the Nation, agreed to “Face the Tribe” in a short interview after they wrapped up filming of the show.

We completed our second Facebook live broadcast yesterday, talking to Government professor Clay Clemens about the the UK’s vote to leave the European Union.

I think this new way to interact with our audience and showcase great folks from W&M is definitely staying in the rotation. There have been a few lessons learned from these first forays into live social video and I’ll share those in my next post.

Cross-posted from William & Mary’s University Web & Design Blog

Ceviche

Tiffany Broadbent Beker — Thu, 09 Jul 2015 15:54:39 +0000

For one of our themed wine dinners a few years back I opted to make a ceviche as one of our two dishes to contribute. I’d never made it before, was honestly rather intimidated by the idea of relying on citrus juice to cook the seafood, but was pleasantly and deliciously surprised by the result. Each time I’ve made the dish I’ve based it off of Simply Recipe’s Ceviche recipe but switched up the seafood mix. Scallops and shrimp, white fish and scallops, just shrimp…as long as everything’s an equal size and the seafood ends up being two pounds worth, just about anything will work. It’s cool, refreshing, flavorful, and perfect for these hot summer days. (Plus, the latest time I made it I opted to serve it in my grandmother’s vintage shrimp cocktail dishes, it looked so cool.)

Egg Breakfast Sandwiches

Tiffany Broadbent Beker — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 15:23:37 +0000

Weekend breakfasts in the Beker household have often become egg-centric. Our CSA includes a dozen fresh eggs in their twice monthly deliveries and (for better or worse) we don’t eat a lot of eggs during the week, so the weekend is our chance to catch up.

We started with simple fried or scrambled eggs (either quick or slow, either method ideally resulting in soft, custardy eggs). However, I have always been a fan of the breakfast sandwich (confession: McDonald’s Bacon, Egg & Cheese Biscuit is a road trip favorite) and wanted to recreate them at home. We had English muffins, smoked Gouda, bacon, eggs…everything needed for a tasty breakfast sandwich. So in the last few months we’ve veered to the handheld breakfast making variations with different cheeses, either frying (being sure to place the yolk so it is directly against the top piece of bread so when you squish everything together it results in a tasty yolk “sauce” that absorbs into the top) or, more recently, scrambling the egg, and serving it atop a toasted, cheesed English muffin.

The scrambling approach I was always a bit leery of as I could never figure out the right approach to get a non-falling-apart egg, until I came across the Bodega-Style Egg on Food52. It really is “stupidly easy.” Crack your egg(s) mix with some salt and pepper, pour in your pan, add cheese (if desired), and leave them be until they’re cooked, then fold so they fit on your bread and serve. To be honest, I don’t leave them completely alone, I will swirl the pan so that the eggs are spread out and as thin as possible but no shaking, stirring or scraping is required. Top it with a bit of Sriracha or other hot sauce, and you have a great, full flavored, and super easy, breakfast (or lunch, or dinner).

Potato Stack Scalloped Potatoes

Tiffany Broadbent Beker — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 14:30:44 +0000

After the first few attempts at thinly sliced potato dishes Jeremy came across this recipe on Food52. It promised crispy, flavorful potatoes stacked up in little compact towers and baked inside muffin cups. Sounded simple enough and simplicity definitely won out. The tops were crispy and browned, the middles were soft, cheesy and very flavorful with the rosemary and butter. Plus (if we had had enough muffin cups) really easy cleanup!

So this recipe definitely wins out of all the scalloped potato recipes so far and will be added to the dinner repertoire.

Christmas Eve Dinner 2014 – Beef short ribs in Barolo

Tiffany Broadbent Beker — Thu, 25 Dec 2014 14:23:37 +0000

This recipe for Beef in Barolo from Food 52 turned out really well. We went to Belmont Butchery for the short ribs, a very cool little shop in Richmond. Served it with a quick sautéed broccolini with lemon and garlic (blanched first so they’d sauté up faster then topped with panko breadcrumbs mixed with some lemon zest for some additional texture and flavor) and oven roasted potatoes (love the mandolin for thin crispy slices) and had a bottle of Elizabeth Spencer 2009 Spring Mountain Napa Cabernet along with it.

For dessert I knew I wanted something pie-like but didn’t feel like making a proper pie crust so I found this raspberry tart recipe which was amazing (I omitted the walnuts as we didn’t have any). This turned out to have a very custard-y filling, dotted with fresh raspberries and a shortbread-style crust. Delicious.

Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip (or mini-M&M) Cookies

Tiffany Broadbent Beker — Sat, 20 Dec 2014 19:49:05 +0000

I had bought a bag of mini M&M’s from Amazon a while back in the hopes of recreating a childhood cookie-favorite, oatmeal M&M cookies. However, upon being faced with an impending deadline for a holiday cookie exchange, I opted to made more “traditional” chocolate chip cookies using the M&M’s instead. Always on the search for the perfect soft and chewy cookie (with just a little crisp on the outside edges) I found Martha Stewart’s Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe and it was a winner. All of the things I wanted it had (just ignore the quantity of butter used, it’s what makes them so tasty).

Butternut Squash Soup

Tiffany Broadbent Beker — Sun, 14 Dec 2014 21:46:38 +0000

As our Dominion Harvest CSA fall season was coming to an end (which, by the way, if you’re in the Richmond/Williamsburg area and like fresh produce, eggs and cheese delivered right to your door, I highly recommend), the Beker household found itself with a plethora of winter squashes. I subscribe to Food 52’s blog and this well timed post for Thomas Keller’s Butternut Squash Soup with Brown Butter gave us an excellent outlet for the two large butternut squashes we had sitting on the counter. The author emphasizes the importance of the brown butter and I’ll second it, the nutty flavor really adds a new dimension to the soup, along with the creaminess of the creme fraiche, the crispy fried sage leaves, drizzle of good olive oil and sprinkling of black pepper.

Steamed Clams in White Wine

Tiffany Broadbent Beker — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 21:35:25 +0000

The idea to make this recipe started when we were asked to bring over an appetizer/starter for an Italian-themed dinner one weekend. We knew mussels were coming into season, I had been wanting to try cooking shellfish, and Jeremy and I both love the mussels in white wine dish that’s available at quite a few of our favorite restaurants, so all those factors led us to opting to prepare that to bring over to the Golds for dinner. We visited our local fish monger early that morning but the mussels had not come in yet, all he had were clams. Figuring they couldn’t be that different we opted for those and headed back to the house. A quick Google search yielded this steamed clams in white wine recipe and it is perfect. I did feel a bit bad when we dropped the clams into the hot broth, but despite that we were well rewarded with a tasty dish. Just the right amount of citrus, butter and wine, topped with parsley and served with fresh foccacia, it’s wonderful how something so simple can taste so amazing when you have good ingredients. We did add a tablespoon or so of clam juice just to up the salty/brine-y/clam-y flavor but that was the only tweak to the recipe.

Jeremy and I later made this same dish but turned it into an entree and served it over linguini, also recommended.

Hasselback Potatoes

Tiffany Broadbent Beker — Fri, 14 Nov 2014 21:22:38 +0000

I saw this technique for Hasselback Potatoes go by on a food blog or two this fall and we decided to try it out to go along with pork chops one weekend for dinner. I can’t track down which specific recipe I used but the preparation was pretty straightforward. Slice almost all the way through the potatoes, brush with butter/olive oil, season liberally, we stuck some sliced garlic and whole sage leaves in between some slices (to go with the pork) and popped them in the oven at 400 degrees or so. Problem was, we didn’t allow enough time for the potatoes to cook before the pork was ready, the top part was done (but not really crispy, which is the goal) but the bottom was still a bit toothsome. Timing multiple dishes has always been an Achilles heel of mine and I think this dish fell prey to that. I definitely want to try this again though and allow lots of time to cook the potatoes. Although this variation turning the dish into a Hasselback Potato Gratin Casserole looks pretty delicious too.