I didn’t really expect this, but our Fish Tacos with Fresh Salsa episode was one of our easiest videos to shoot to date. I guess that proves how easy the recipe is in general, but it’s also because this time, we were well prepared. We had such a nightmarish experience shooting our Soba Noodle Salad video because I was so tongue tied and scatterbrained. Watch our Soba Noodle Salad behind the scenes video if you want to know what that experience was like.
This time, even coming up with the recipe was a piece of cake. I did it in one shot. It’s probably because I have similar fish taco-like recipes already posted, and part of it was just luck. When I’m developing a recipe, sometimes I go with a recipe that’s already existing, and I add my own tweaks to it. But other times, I literally pull it out of thin air and hope it works. I think about what flavors sound good together, and just go for it.
What’s hard about doing it this way is figuring out the correct amounts of each ingredient, so I usually end up having to test it multiple times until I’m satisfied enough with it to shoot a video. But this time, it was an easy recipe, and an easy shoot. I sorta felt like some of my friends who have had an easy pregnancy and then an easy labor. Not the same thing? Okay…
But really, I think this was God’s way of throwing us a bone because we’ve been having a tough time just trying to finish Season 1 of Bits & Pieces strong. So there has to be some moments of fun and smooth sailing, right? Otherwise, it’s hard to keep going. But you can hear us explain more about this shoot, and why this time was different, in our Fish Tacos with Fresh Salsa behind the scenes video:
This episode was another collaboration between us and Lee from 6kidsProductions, one of our awesome Kickstarter backers who has now become our friend. Remember her from our Easy Shrimp Pad Thai episode? She always has great ideas.
This time she asked me to come up with a healthy and easy fish taco recipe she could make at home without a grill. She got the craving for fish tacos ever since she came back from a recent trip with her husband to California. Since we moved to Chicago from California, we knew exactly what she was talking about, and I couldn’t wait to film this video.
So maybe that’s what influenced me to be super diligent and prepared. I did something unusual and took a break from everything else I was responsible for, and poured all my concentration into just prepping and writing the script for this episode. And that really paid off, because by the time I filmed, I was relaxed, and on the ball.
We ended the shoot in the late afternoon, a vast improvement from finishing at night, and even got to eat lunch in front of the camera. We never get to eat lunch on our shooting days, so that was great! But in hindsight, that may not have been the best idea for Joe since he already has a hard time talking in front of the camera in the first place. Adding a taco in his mouth only made it worse. But at least we were both in good spirits and happy that the shoot went by pretty stress-free.
I hope to have more of these moments, but I’m gonna admit, it’s hard to always be so prepared because life doesn’t always allow you to concentrate on only one thing at a time. So inevitably, I know we’ll be back to our flustered panicked ways before we know it. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted and I’m glad we caught it on camera so I can remember that there are good days when we have things under control. I felt like it was redemption for our difficult shoot from the previous week.
It was nice to end the shoot on a positive note.
If you want the recipe, go here: Fish Tacos with Fresh Salsa . It’s pretty quick and easy to make for even a weekday meal. And not gonna lie, it made us miss California a bit. But at least I can transport myself there with every bite.
