More Food, More SQL Saturdays!

Well, time has run me over like a dump truck again - 4 months since I got to write anything here!

Upcoming SQL Saturdays are now:
Pittsburgh October 3rd #440
Montreal November 21st #466
Washington, DC December 5th #470

Providence, RI December 12th #465

They're all looking like good events, so if you work with SQL Server, or if you're into IS in any way and are near an event, you should come along and take part - they're tremendous fun!

Food  --  Scallops and Ravioli

As those of you who've seen this blog before are, I'm sure, aware, I love food. In fact, I eat nothing else!!
So, the AG was hungry this afternoon - and so was i, as a matter of fact, and there was a pack of Cheese-filled mini-raviolis from Trader Joe's sitting in the pantry whimpering that it was being ignored.

In the fridge I found some baby spinach, some chopped garlic, and some little baby tomatoes. The pantry yielded some parmesan cheese, and the fridge door some Almond Milk and some butter.
Out of the freezer came some little bay scallops, and from the spice racks came Chives and Herbes de Provence, along with some black pepper.
Finally you'll need some thickener - I used some Bisto (Turkey, not trad.) that you can get at English shops.

1. Firstly, start the water heating for the ravioli (5 minutes or so to get hot, and then about 12-15 to cook). 
2. Put the scallops in some water to make sure that they're thawed.
3. Next, you melt the butter and add in all the herbs (chopped garlic, chives and herbes de Provence, and some good sprinkles of fresh black pepper.
4. Once that's started cooking so that the flavours are coming out (2 minutes or so), add the scallops and let them simmer in too. This will take about another 2-3 minutes.
5. Now add in about half a cup of Almond milk per person you'll be serving, turn up the heat somewhat to get it almost boiling, and then stuff in pretty much as much of the spinach leaves as you can, and cover. 
6. Cook for five minutes, mashing down the leaves every minute or so, so that they get good and wilted, and then add some more almond milk and a teaspoon or two of Bisto. Stir all very well and the liquid should soon start to thicken as it all heats up.
7. Now add the tomatoes - I slice mine once lengthways - and turn down the heat some.
8. Decant the pasta into bowls, cover generously with cheese, garnish with more (fresh) spinach leaves, and pour on the scallop mixture. 

Enjoy!

TTFN

SQL Saturday

There are a lot of places that you can learn about Microsoft's database package - MS SQL Server. Not much training, as you've probably learned, is just free for the having. Here's the exception!

The PASS (Professional Association for SQL Server) is an organisation that you can join for free. It has chapters - mostly local to your geography but some virtual. For me, Philadelphia is my local chapter - PSSUG. Philadelphis SQL Server Users Group runs a meeting monthly, two sub-groups quarterly, and a SQL Saturday annually. The next one is due on June 6th, 2015.

2014 was a bumper year for SQL Saturdays for me:

2014.03.01................ #268 ................North Haven, CT

2014.03.22................ #277 ................Richmond, VA

2014.06.07................ #294 ................Philadelphia, PA

2014.06.21................ #303 ................Rochester, NY

2014.06.28................ #293 ................Portland, ME

2014.07.26................ #302 ................Albany, NY

2014.10.04................ #315 ................Pittsburgh, PA

2014.10.18................ #314 ................Providence, RI

2014.11.01................ #337 ................Portland, OR

2014.12.06................ #347 ................Washington DC

Ten events in all, including 2 pre-con days, as well as going to a full week of Brent Ozar's BDA and Query Troubleshooting courses !

I can't see me doing anything like that many in 2015, but I'll be trying for some!

2015.03.21 ................. #381                 Richmond, VA.............Abandoned for me because of a snow storm!

2015.04.25 ................. #366                 Ottawa, ON...................Coincided with Marillion Weekend 2015 in Montreal

2015.05.16 ................. #383                 Rochester, NY..............This one definitely looks "on"

2015.05.30 ................. #380                 New York City, NY.......Exciting! - last year there wasn't one in NYC!

2015.06.06 ................. #390                 Philadelphia, PA..........My "home" event

2015.07.25 ................. #386                 Albany, NY...................Looks good

2015.10.03 ................. #440                 Pittsburgh, PA..............Looks good

Edinburgh and Dublin on the 13th and 20th of June are looking amazingly attractive - to some extent it depends on what time off I have available, and to some extent it depends on what yarn stores there are in the area !

In addition to the SQL Saturdays, I've also gone to Alan Hirt's Mission-Critical SQL Server training class in Philadelphia on March 30th - April 2nd. That was definitely worth the money and time!

Finally, just to spice up the mix, I'm spending my Saturdays for the next few months taking a Linux Administration course at Avtech in South Plainfield. Looks like it's going to be fun!

Get in contact - meet me there!

TTFN