Snow, snow and more snow!

Filed under: Travel, World Events

After living in Texas for several years, moving to Omaha was definitely a big change for myself and the family.  This year is the first white Christmas we had and I will definitely say that it is one which we will never forget.  The shear amount of snow we have gotten over the last few days has been staggering.  When I first met the locals here and they spoke about winter not being very bad, it calmed my nerves a bit.  Winters are supposed to be light in this region, but now I’m seeing a different picture.  Some of our friends around town have reported that they now have six foot snow drifts blocking the entrance of their home and the city had to close down the interstate since snow plows couldn’t keep up with the amount of snow that was piling up.  Fortunately the snow has stopped and the roads are clearing up.  Now we’re all looking forward to warmer weather and counting down the days until spring.

Kickass Lemongrass Turkey

Filed under: Food & Drink

People have different recipes and ways to prepare their holiday turkeys.  The receipe below is one which my mom passed to me with a couple of tweaks.  The most important thing to remember here is to check the internal temperature of the turkey.  You will want to measure the temperatrure of the breast meat throughout the cooking cycle.  The temperature of the breast meat needs to be around 170 degrees.  Do not use the readiness indicator that might already come with the bird.  I have found thatwhen that goes off, it is always too late and you’ll be left with a dry turkey.  This recipe does not allow room for stuffing.  Cooking stuffing in a bird sounds like a good idea, but more likely than not actually dries out the bird due to the extended cooking time or does not actually get cooked.  In my opinion, its safer to cook a stove top stuffing rather than stuff the bird.

What you’ll need:

• Turkey (of course)
• Several stalks of lemongrass (available at your local Asian grocery and in some supermarkets)
• Garlic salt
• 4-5 Cloves of garlic
• 3 sticks of butter
• Reynolds Oven Bag
• Spoonful of flour
• Deep baking pan
• Alumium Foil

Preparation:

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
• Several days before your’s ready to roast up the turkey, put the turkey in the fridge to defrost it.  If the turkey is still frozen when you’re ready to cook it, place it in a vat of room temperature water and change the water every 30 minutes until the turkey is defrosted.
• Remove the giblets from the turkey and set aside if you want to use these to make a soup or gravy.
• Wash the turkey in and out with room temperature water.  Pat the inside and outside dry with paper towels.
• Rub a generous amount of garlic salt inside and outside of the turkey.
• Put one stick of butter inside the turkey.
• Smash 1-2 garlic cloves and put it inside the turkey.
• Rinse the lemon grass under water and dry.  One at a time, bend each lemongrass stalk and stuff into the turkey until you have used up all the lemongrass or you can not fit any more in.
• Take the turkey size oven bag and put one spoonful of flour in it.  Shake the bag to dust the flour around the bag evenly.  Discard the remaining flour.
• Place the turkey carefully into the oven bag.
• Cover the open gap where the lemongrass is stuffed with aluminum foil, trying to seal all of the gaps.  This is important since it will keep your turkey moist during the cooking process.
• Cut the remaining butter into 1/4 inch slices and place under the skin of the turkey, on top of the turkey skin and between the turkey legs.
• Chop the remaining garlic into a fine cut and spread evenly over the top of the turkey.
• Close the oven bag with the oven tie or tie it shut.
• If you have a meat thermometer, put it into the turkey making sure you avoid touching any of the bones.  Doing so will cause the thermometer to report a higher than actual reading.
• Cook the turkey according to the times listed on your turkey packaging.  About one hour before the turkey is supposed to be ready, start checking the turkey internal temperature.  Once the breast meat has reached 170  degrees, take the turkey out.
• Cut the bag open and let the turkey set for about 15 minutes before taking the turkey out.

You should now have a delicious moist turkey ready for your holiday feast.  The turkey will not have the golden brown color which many people expect.  Some websites have recommended firing up a blowtorch and carefully running the flame along the skin to crisp it up and to give the turkey that dark golden color.

Sametime 8.5 is now available!

Filed under: IBM Software, Sametime, Technology

After a year in the making, Sametime 8.5 has finally been released. This represents a major way in the way that Sametime meetings have functioned in the past.  I would like to say, congratulations to the Sametime teams for this release. 

Here is a link to the Sameitme 8.5 Information Center.

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/sametime/v8r5/index.jsp

Sametime 8.5 Product Announcement

Filed under: Sametime, Technology

The Sametime 8.5 Product Announcement is now available!

Sametime 8.5 represents the next generation of Sametime Meetings and clients taking into consideration many of the product enhancements which customers have been requesting for years now.  Sametime 7.5 represented a total revamp of the Sametime Connect client which is now available as a standalone application but also part of the Notes 8 Standard clients.  Sametime 8.5 has been built from the ground up to have a zero download footprint for web conferences and web clients.  Administrators can also take advantage of centralized administration from the Sametime System Console where you can pre-plan your deployments and administer policies from a single location.

• A new online meeting experience that is integrated into the IBM Lotus Sametime Connect client. Join a meeting with a single click. Easily invite others by dragging their names from the contact list. Accept meeting invitations with a single click. Upload meeting materials via simple drag and drop.
• New zero-download, browser-based chat and meeting clients that extend the desktop experience to wherever the user is working.
• A new standards-based audio and video infrastructure that enables interoperability with third party audio and video conferencing systems.
• New audio and video codecs that provide higher quality native voice and video services for a more compelling collaborative experience out-of-the-box.
• New Web 2.0 APIs that let developers embed Sametime capabilities into Web sites and applications so users switch context less.
• A new, browser-based Apple iPhone chat client, support for the Blackberry Storm, and an improved mobile client for Microsoft® Windows® Mobile devices.
• New social views that make it easier to find the people you collaborate with the most.
• A new System Console that centralizes infrastructure configuration, deployment, management, and policy management for all Sametime services.
• New upgrade options if you have basic Sametime services from other IBM offerings.

With all of these new features, I encourage all Sametime customers to take the time to look at what Sametime 8.5 can add to your existing infrastructure and how it can reduce the time and cost of administration.  If you aren’t ready to move to Sametime 8.5 yet, the Sametime Classic server utilizing the pre-8.5 style meetings and community services is still available.

Product Announcement

Sametime 8.5 is almost here!

Filed under: Sametime, Technology

After talking a break from blogging for a while, I have decided to start up again with the release of Sametime 8.5. Some of you have been wondering when this is coming and all I can say is it is coming very very soon and it will definitely be released to the public before the end of the year.  Over the next few months, I will post tidbits which will help you understand the changes made in Sametime 8.5.  Stay tuned!