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The Star Tribune featured a story February 9th titled: Filmmakers find a sense of place by Bill Ward. It was noteworthy that two women Susan Bernstein and Mary McGreevy took to the streets of Minneapolis and St. Paul to film a video Why We Are Here and within the first four days of it being posted online drew more that 30,000 viewers. Their concept for the 6 minute video was really quite simple: go to the streets of the cities and ask people the questions:Why do you live in the Twin Cities? What do you like about the city you live in?

The video was shot in the Twin Cities during Spring and Summer 2010. It includes snapshots of both cities with short interviews of residents of all ages.

Check out http://vimeo.com/19115634 the collective poem to the Twin cities produced by Seven and Sixty Production.

On a previous blog, I wrote about my experiences making a red velvet cake. Interesting that today the Yahoo page featured that very same subject in an article by The _Stir written Feb 8th titled:

8 essentials for authentic red velvet cake. I copied some of the text (see below) but encourage you to read the full article for yourself. It was a fun read.

1. The cake must have some cocoa, but not too much because it is not a chocolate cake.

2. The cake must have red food coloring; beet juice does not add the right kind of red.

3. The cake must have cream cheese frosting.

4. There should be pecans. (This was news to me.)

5. You must use high-quality ingredients, including White Lily flour, a Southern specialty flour.

6. Precise measurements and meticulous attention to detail are key for this cake; therefore, it must be made in small, easy-to handle, family-sized batches. (Mass-produced batter just doesn't cut it. Sorry, large-scale bakeries.)

7. You must use a hand-held electric mixer, not a stand mixer: Larger machines can over-mix the batter, which sometimes prevents the cake from rising properly.

8. Red velvet cake batter needs vegetable oil, not butter or shortening. Oil yields a very moist cake.