Chicken and Apples

Although you do get Chicken and Apple sausages in CostCo, among other places, it's a fairly unusual combination in America. There is a variety of ways of making it - this is just one that I tried this evening. It came out very well.
Here, for this recipe, I chopped three chicken breasts into medium sized pieces - I admit that it might have been better to have made the pieces smaller. Next time I'll try that and update things here.

Ingredients

Hasselblad Potatoes	Two per person
Apples	One medium per person
Chicken Breasts	One per person
Rosemary	Quite a bit!

Method
Preparation

Potatoes Before

1. Cut the chicken into squares of a bit less than two inches.
2. Put into a bowl with some olive oil and a good amount of Rosemary.
3. Leave standing for at least 15 minutes while other things are prepared.
4. Cut the apple into eighths and then half these width-wise. 
5. If you're going to use celery too then chop this up and rince it well.

Potatoes

1. Turn your oven on to 425F.
2. Peel the potatoes and make sure that one side is good and flat so that the potato will not roll.
3. Cut each potato with a series of vertical slices about 4 mm apart. The slices should go about 80% through the potato from top to almost the bottom.
4. Place the potatoes onto a baking tray, brush them with olive oil, and douse when with some Rosemary.
5. Cook at 425F for 30 minutes. Take out, spread gently with some butter, and replace back into the oven for another 30 minutes

Chicken

1. About 10 minutes in to the potatoes second spell in the oven, heat some olive oil in a large pan and set some chopped onions to cook until translucent. 
2. Peel the apples, section and core, and then chop up - probably eighths of an apple are a good size, unless you're dealing with very large or small ones.



With Added Celery

3. Add the apples to the oil and onions and, after a minute or two, add  the chicken pieces. 



Chicken and Apple Cooking



Chicken almost done



4. Cook this mixture until the chicken pieces are well cooked through.
5. I felt that some extra vegetables would be good, so chopped up 5 stalks of celery fairly finely and added them at the last moment. They got warm but not soft, which is unusual for celery.
6. Take the potatoes out of the oven and brush them with some more butter.
7. Plate the meal and present. You should get some satisfying ooohs and aaaahs !!

Bon Appetit ! 

TTFN

Shrimp and Rice

This is a pretty easy thing to make and fills you up well. On top of the basic Shrimp and Rice (and herbs and spices) I like to add some veggies. You can choose the vegetables you add to it from a wide selection. My personal choice is frozen sweet corn.

Cooking Shrimp

Ingredients:

1 cup	Rice
6 tbsp	Butter
4 cloves	Minced Garlic
1 lb	Shrimp, shelled and deveined
1/4 cup	Parmesan Cheese
3 tbsp	Milk
2 tbsp	Chopped Parsley
To Taste	Salt and Pepper
Garnish	Parmesan Cheese
1/2 lb	Frozen Corn Kernels

Method

Cooking Shrimp

1. Prepare the rice. In my little rice cooker it will usually take about half an hour, so start it about 20 minutes before the rest.
2. In a large skillet, melt butter over medium-heat.
3. Add garlic and cook for 3 minutes, or until lightly browned, stirring very frequently. Do not let the garlic burn !
4. Stir in the shrimp and cook for 2 minutes, or until they turn pink, stirring frequently.
5. Add cooked rice to the skillet and mix until well combined.
6. Add cheese, milk, parsley, corn, salt and pepper; mix and stir for 1 to 2 minutes, or until creamy and heated through.
7. Remove from heat.
8. Garnish with parmesan cheese.
9. Serve.
   

   

   Ready to serve

A CDC Example

The idea of CDC is to capture the changes undergone by the data in a table in order to make use of those changes elsewhere. Very often this is to update a data warehouse with just the changes rather than completely refreshing it. This post is designed to lead you through a simple example so that you get a good feel of how to create and use CDC.

A word of warning before we start off - this is going to be a long one!

Create Your Environment

For this example we start by creating a new database and a new table.

1.     Create the database

create database NWM

2.     Make sure that the SQL Server Agent is running for the database instance

3.     Enable CDC for that new database

exec sys.sp_cdc_enable_db

4.     Check results

select name, is_cdc_enabled from sys.databases

5.     You will get a list of databases and an is_cdc_enabled

      flag. In the example shown the NWM database is enabled.

6.     Next, create a table to set up for CDC. The table must have a primary key. For convenience here we make it an identity field.

    create table nwm_cdc

( id int identity(1,1),

  field_1 varchar(32),

  field_2 varchar(32),

constraint [PK_nwm_cdc] primary key clustered ([id] asc) on [PRIMARY]

 )

7.     Add some data to the table:

    insert into nwm_cdc

    select 'one', 'ein'

8.     Check the list of CDC-enabled tables in the database. You will find that you are returned an empty dataset.

    select * from cdc.change_tables

Set up CDC for your table

In this section you prepare the data table where changes will cause CDC activity.

1.     Set up CDC for the table by running this system procedure:

exec sys.sp_cdc_enable_table  

      @source_schema = N'dbo',             --schema of table with data
      @source_name = N'nwm_cdc',           --name of table with data
      @role_name = null,                   --role of table owner (optional)
      @captured_column_list = N'id, Field_2',--Fields to capture when changed
      @capture_instance = null,            --Name of the CDC “capture instance”
      @filegroup_name = N'PRIMARY',         --filegroup to keep output in
      @supports_net_changes = 1            --1 = merge changes on the same field

2.     Re-run step 8 above. You will now get what you see below. Notice that many of the values are taken from the command in step 1 just above. 

           a.     source_object_id is the id of the table we referenced in step 8, as found in

the sys.databases view.

                                b.     object_id is the id of the capture_instance that we have just created
                                c.     schema_id is the id of the schema of the table we referenced in step 8, as found in
                                                                             the sys.schemas view.
                                d.     capture_instance is the name of the CDC setup that we have just created.
                                                                              There can be two per data table, and each must have a unique
                                                                               name – the default is the table’s own name with _cdc added.

       3.     Now look at the System Tables branch under your database
               in the SSMS Object Explorer: 

               You will see that there are a number of tables with a schema
               cdc. The one that you have just made by performing step 1
               just above is cdc.dbo_nwm_cdc_CT, and this will collect the
               data generated by the CDC system whenever the table is 
               changed.


       4.     Now go further down in the Object Explorer and open up the SQL Server Agent tree.
              It should look like this (right). Two new jobs have been created in order to hold the code necessary
              for processing the CDC operations.

Note     If you wish to disable CDC on a table then you use  sys.sp_cdc_disable_table, providing it the @source_schema, @source_name, and @capture_instance values to identify the Capture Instance.

Some Rules to Live By ?

Once upon a time I worked for this really cool company in Norway.

We had a company handbook, like everywhere, but this one started a little differently.

Work:	You spend at least half of your waking time at work – get the most out of it!
Solutions:	Do not choose the easiest solution; choose the one you think is right!
Work pressure:	The reward is usually proportional to the difficulties.
Things you dislike:	Do something about them; improve them if they are important enough.
Work instructions:	Until you are certain someone else has taken over the responsibility, it is your own.
Colleagues:	Find out which ones are important to you (organizational chart disregarded) and treat them accordingly.
Instincts:	Be skeptical of some instincts, do some of the things you dislike the most, talk to some of the persons you dislike the most.
Performance:	If you are honest with yourself, you are the best judge.
Improvements:	You are allowed to propose improvements, even if you are not perfect yourself.
Obedience:	If you are convinced that you are right, stick to it.
Personality:	Be yourself. Like yourself. Improve yourself.
Mistakes:	Admit them.
Chances:	Take them

Moving to the Cloud.

Tech
No, this isn't going to be all about sneezing while making cake icing - sorry! It'll be about a project I was on recently and why this sort of thing, while time-consuming, really is worthwhile.

The company I was working with had a rather old Pick system completely custom-written for all customer-facing functions, newer warehouse controls, and a variety of reporting systems. They already had an on-premises SQL Server instance to provide an acceptable interface for all the reporting software, and the Pick Basic programmers had created the output software to fill it with data.

Their problem had been that the Pick system was becoming more demanding of maintenance in its old age, so they had decided to upgrade their whole system by replacing the Pick system with a Microsoft Dynamics 365 system, which, of course, lives in the cloud.

Happily, one of the features of the Dynamics system is that pretty much any entity within it can be set to export values every so may seconds (or minutes, ...) to an external instance of Azure SQL Database (named by default "BYOD" !!). The database records (stored in tables defined in the export) include indications of source, date, and time of creation. This allows the developer of an SSIS package on-premises to pull the data, transform it, and use it to update tables in a local SQL Server instance.

The transformation processes can, of course, include not just aggregation by time or by customer, supplier, warehouse, article, etc., but also the change of units - singles to dozens or kg to lbs and oz ! For example, Dynamics might record that 12 items were picked from the warehouse whereas the reporting systems might work in units of a dozen.

So, to convert to using the Dynamics system one must first connect it to the various electronic reporting systems from warehouses, etc. But .... connect it in such a way that what it produces in terms of data resulting from any specific event must be identical to that produced by the legacy system. This sounds simple, but that's as far as the simplicity goes!

So in mid 2018 Microsoft announced an add-on to Dynamics 365 called "BYOD". This would be an Azure SQL Database instance, running beside the Dynamics instance. Entities withing Dynamics could be modified to maintain tables in the BYOD with their values, updating at regular time intervals.
The result of this is that an on-prem system can be fitted with some SQL Server jobs written using SSIS and these jobs used to pull data from the BYOD database. The data can be pulled down, loaded into local staging tables, and then transformed into the formats expected by the programs running off the on-prem system. Once you've got all that designed, implemented, tested, and working then you're ready to move over from your old system to the new cloud one.
The key word here is designed - that includes determining all the pieces of data that the down-stream programs (reporting, etc.) need and then finding them in the new cloud data system. Once you've done that then the job is relatively simple, although tedious and needing a lot of patience.

[UPDATE] March, 2020; It looks like I'm going to be doing another similar project soon ... more info to come. Just keep away from CoViD-19 !!

A Drop In Poverty ?

The content of this post is something that a friend of mine posted on Facebook and which I do not want to lose. Facebook posts are notoriously good at vanishing, never to be found again.
The author goes by Debby Dootson on Facebook.

I took a big ol' hour and a half step-out while a certain someone was counting how many lies and half-truths they could pack into a speech, but thanks to social media I got to see this tidbit.

"Poverty is plummeting."

The poverty level is around $11,000 for a single person under 65 years in the US. The minimum wages in several states have been going up during the last 4 years due to state regulations being passed, which would bring even a part-time minimum wage worker over $11,000. Obviously the rate is going to go down. Nobody talks about the fact that the poverty rate is set INSANELY low, to a point where no one could survive in any part of America on that amount anyways unless they had someone else supporting them.

From the Census Bureau: "The official poverty rate in 2018 was 11.8 percent, down 0.5 percentage points from 12.3 percent in 2017. This is the fourth consecutive annual decline in poverty. Since 2014, the poverty rate has fallen 3.0 percentage points, from 14.8 percent to 11.8 percent."

Whoopty-fking-doo you managed to get it so over 10% of America still can't manage to make $11,000 a year. A 3 percentage point decrease in poverty. Let's see what the percentage point increase is in the top quintile's median income in the meantime, shall we? I'll just throw a chart in. People like them better and I think they have a bit more impact. Decide on your own. You have to look holistically to get the whole story.

In case you want to see the it in adjusted dollars, see below. This is a perfect example of numbers not telling the whole story. Someone could say to you: 
"The 4th quintile is reaping the largest benefits from Trump's tax plan! See? They saw a 5% increase while the top 5% of households only saw 2.5%!" 
Then you look at the numbers, and realize how much more 2% of $400,000 is than 5% of $35,000. Hmm.

Also notice that little dip on the top quintile? This is genius. It makes the powerful people with lots of money feel like they are losing out, so they will keep voting for policies that appear to support them while mainly benefiting only the highest echelon. We need to be taking notes for our next life just in case. This is brilliant. 
The upper class feels victimized by the policies and sees gains being made by the lower classes (which are minimal and largely token) and therefore ask for even lower taxes and less restrictions because GAWD can't you see the poor people are making more money and here we are stagnating when we work just as hard! 
God!, the longer I look at it the more genius it is. Look at that slope uptick on the top 5%. Royal scam.

I would just like to say that I am immensely grateful to have friends such as Debby. They make life so much easier to live.

Chicken Rubs

This post definitely comes under the heading of food! It's a catch-up from the summer where I prepped a fair amount of chicken for people to grill and eat.

All the quantities are in teaspoons, but are ratios so that you can easily make more ... a quarter of a teaspoon of a powder is going to be a pain to measure .... multiply everything in the recipe by four, use what you need, and pput the rest in a Zip-lock baggie in the freezer for next time!

Coffee and Fennel

Ingredients
This turned out to be a popular mix, with a lot of positive comments about the "strange taste in the background" (the fennel !)

Coffee	24
Brown Sugar	6
Salt	2
Chile Powder	2
Fennel	3
Chocolate Powder	6

Sweet Garlic and Onion

This one has the potential for heat - be careful of the amount of Cayenne Pepper.

Smoked Paprika	16
Brown Sugar	16
Salt	16
Chile Powder	8
Black Pepper	12
Garlic Powder	12
Onion Powder	12
Cumin Powder	1
Celery Salt	4
Cayenne Pepper	1

Mediterranean Garlic and Onion

This one is similar to the one above, but with a Mediterranean flavour  rather than a more New World one.

Smoked Paprika	6
Salt	6
Garlic Powder	6
Brown Sugar	6
Cumin Powder	1
Sage	2
Oregano	2
Cayenne Pepper	1
Black Pepper	2
Coriander	1

Method

• In all cases, mix your herbs first.
• Open your (thawed, if necessary) chicken
• Cut chicken breasts to desired size - about 4 to 5 inch pieces (2 or 3 per breast)
• Rub herb mixture in to the meat, applying generously
• Pack meat into plastic food savers, add a little olive oil,  and stash in fridge
• Keep for about three days before use
• Every twelve hours bring meat from stash, add a little more rub mixture, and rub into the meat
• Remove from fridge at least four hours before cooking, and allow to warm
• Grill on medium-high heat
• To check for completion cut into thickest part of largest piece after about 10 minutes on grill