Good Things

One of the local, daily TV shows called Good Things Utah put out a request for pizza recipes.  When I heard about it, I thought, "I should send them my Sticky Chicken Pizza recipe!"

So, I did.

In the back of my mind, I wondered if I might be asked to come on the show and make the pizza, but I didn't really think they would be interested in me since I don't have a business and I am not a professional blogger.  Usually, those are the two types of people that they feature on their program.

Right after I emailed them the recipe, I received a reply asking me to be on the show to demonstrate how to make the pizza.  I wondered what I had gotten myself into!  But, I have done a few things in the last two years that have given me more self-confidence and thought this was something that I should try to do.

On June 30, 2016, I was on Good Things Utah for four and half minutes showing how to make Sticky Chicken Pizza.

I went a little crazy in the few weeks before I was scheduled to appear.  I made the pizza four times and even wrote a script for myself to memorize.  People have commented that I seem to be shy.  I guess I am.  When I am around people that I don't know, my communication brain cells stop being useful and I get tongue-tied and can't figure out what to say.  So, usually, it is easier for me to just not say anything at all. But, I thought about how to present the recipe over and over again, especially when I was laying in bed at night trying to go to sleep.  I may have suffered from a lack of sleep because of it!

I also bought new pizza pans, measuring cups, measuring spoons, a plate for displaying a piece of pizza, a lot of Frank's Red Hot Sauce and brown sugar, little bowls for all of the ingredients, and a new shirt to wear.  Kj happened to be here visiting from California and she "interviewed" me as if she were one of the hosts of the show.  I think that helped quite a bit.   We had a joke about "hot summer pizza!"  from one of our practice sessions.

I had a great support team that day.  Jer and Hunter Man watched all the kiddos while Kj and Tass went to the TV station with me.  I couldn't have done it without them there. They kept me from getting too nervous before the show started. We laughed a lot as they helped me set up and we tried to figure out what we were supposed to do.

The weird thing was that when we arrived at the studio, we were taken to the kitchen area by the TV station's receptionist and then, we were totally on our own. Camera operators, directors, and producers all knew that we were there, but nobody paid very much attention to us.   I would have thought that a production assistant type person would have been there to give tips and pointers on how best to go about getting ready for the presentation, but there wasn't anybody like that.  If we hadn't practiced and if I hadn't seen many, many episodes of this show, I wouldn't have had any idea of what to do.

Once we had set everything up the best that we could, we started getting silly and taking pictures.

These two would make amazing news anchors!

Not bad for a 50 year old grandma!

Finally, I was told that Nicea would be the host for the cooking segment and that she would come and talk to me for a couple of minutes before the segment started at 9:30 a.m.

I hadn't really planned on focusing on making the pizza dough because it is really the sauce that makes this pizza so fabulous.  When Nicea started making notes about the segment, it seemed like she wanted me to spend a minute explaining how I make my own pizza crust.  That kind of threw me off, but I just had to follow her lead and answer her questions about the crust and then start showing how to make the sauce and the rest of the pizza when the cameras started filming.


I think it went okay.  There are things I would change now that I look back on it and have watched the segment a few times.  But, it was great when Nicea asked, "When you create a new recipe, how do you know if it is good or not?"  My answer was, "If I like it!"  She laughed.   It made me happy when she pointed out that Kj and Tass must like my cooking, too.  I was glad that they got some recognition for being there.

As the segment ended, Nicea had Reagan come into the shot so that she could taste the "magic of TV" pizza.  They both acted like it was delicious and one of the best things they had ever tasted. Then, during the commercial, their announcer Brian came over to get a piece, too and took a video of himself with his phone.

And then my 4 and a half minutes of fame was over.  (Well, really, I had about one day of fame.  Kj posted the pictures on Facebook and Tassie posted the link to the segment, so a lot of our friends saw it and gave nice feedback to me)!

It was fun.  I probably wouldn't ever volunteer to do it again.

But, then again, you never know!

Here is a link to the episode and a link to a Facebook live post, too.

http://www.good4utah.com/good-things-utah/gtu-recipes/sticky-chicken-pizza?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_Good_Things_Utah

https://www.facebook.com/abc4briancarlson/videos/1120582201335268/?pnref=story

(if you copy and paste the links into your brower, they will take you to the video).