Spatchcocking a Turkey

Caroline will tell you I am a HUGE creature of habit. That I really, really like my yearly traditions -- none moreso than the annual gathering of my college friends for our holiday party, which we were lucky to host this year.

In preparation for the get together, I researched "spatchcocking" a turkey which my friend Aaron told me was the tastiest way he's ever had turkey. Since he's tried cooking a turkey in every conceivable way (and I had yet to cook just one), I went with his advice.

In a video I watched, spatchcock gets its name from olde (like the "e" on the end there?!) English, which means to literally remove the...well the man parts. For a turkey from your grocery store, this means cutting out the backbone, breaking the wishbone, and laying the sucker flat to then cook.

I watched two videos to help get my head around this method:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpG-astKu5s
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9ZoC4Tp8Ik

The videos are very simple, but I like to see how different people handle different cooking temperatures, time in the oven/on the grill, different seasonings, etc.

The bird after being brined, spatchcocked, and tented on the grill

I also decided to brine the turkey, which I've never really done before as well. Again turning to YouTube (https://youtu.be/KKr1rByVVCI?t=2m31s), I purchased a giant bucket from Lowe's and let the turkey sit in the brine & ice-water bath overnight.

Obviously prior to all of this, the turkey must be defrosted, so I let it sit in the fridge for about three days (one day per 4/5 lbs is what YouTube said...I know I must be stopped). 

The bird came out still a bit icey, which did make cutting out the spine more difficult than what I'd like, but after sharpening my kitchen knife it went more smoothly.

After the bird was defrosted, brined, spatchcocked, and seasoned, I put it on my gas grill at 300 degrees for about an hour and forty minutes. I then put two burners on the lowest heat possible, turning the other two burners off -- just to keep it warm.

Very happy to report that everyone loved the turkey, and it was a huge hit. The bottom of the bird was a little crispy, but it's mostly bone and parts you're not eating. The other 90% of (the edible parts) were SUPER delicious!

Empty plates = win

Hope this is helpful! It really wasn't hard, but definitely more preparation than anything. 

Merry Christmas!

IBM v Amazon (continued)

Following from my post last week, Bloomberg had an interesting panel yesterday that echoed a lot of Friday's entry:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2015-10-27/ibm-looks-to-cloud-strategy-for-old-tech-reinvention

Odds are against some Jr. producer somewhere reading my blog, so it's much more interesting to see smarter people than I drawing nearly the same conclusions from last week's news.

"Go talk to any CTO or CIO under the age of 35...and their consideration for IBM is they're not even sure it exists."

Along these lines, my post from Friday: http://storyboardin.blogspot.com/2015/10/amazons-gasp-profits-and-spiral-of-ibm.html

***out***

Amazon’s “gasp” profits and the spiral of IBM. Correlation??? High…

Most of you know that I work at Lenovo and in the communications side of things, so watching the tech world is kind of what I do. And this week has been interesting, perhaps even more so than last week’s historical announcement (Dell/EMC).

Let’s take a look:

1. IBM announced earnings this week and definitely missed the marks (kind of already negative marks) Wall St. was expecting. Their stock gets hammered.
2. Amazon announced earnings this week, and they reported a profit (I believe for the second quarter in a row…which is unusual for a company that has been notorious for no profits as they absolutely pour money into growth). Most noticeable is that their Web Services (let’s call it “cloud stuff”) unit is booming, even while they are pouring money into the group.

As you can guess, IBM is a pretty important client of Lenovo’s, so tracking troubles at the company isn’t what I’d call fun. And the growth of Amazon’s Web Services? Well, let’s assume at the end of the day Lenovo is interested in basically selling hardware to every segment of the world’s 7b people and remove my company from the mix.

As a guy in his mid-thirties and someone who works for a technology giant, it’s really interesting to see two different worlds. One world is where a lot of my friends are in tech start ups, steering their own companies, at boutique agencies, etc. The other one is SAP needs XXX hundred thousand units of ______. The gap here is HUGE and growing – and I’m sure I don’t need to tell you who is using what.

Fast forward 10-15 years from now and it’ll be really interesting to see if Cisco, EMC (now Dell), and even IBM are competing in this arena. To me Amazon, Facebook, Google, and yes even Twitter are and will be the new tech giants. Sure 80 years from now we’ll all celebrate 100 years of Amazon just like we recently did with IBM, but someone newer (b/c newer is better right?) will be pushing them out of their space.

WIRED has a really good read on this, and I agree with their outlook 100%. If you have a few minutes, give it a whirl: Dell. EMC. HP. Cisco. These Tech Giants Are the Walking Dead

Now toss in Dell’s buy of server giant EMC (and subsequently their IaaS VMware) and you understand the move. But can a huge…sorry…GIANT, tech conglomerate really be quicker than Facebook engineers locked in a room with pizza and Mt. Dew?

We’ll see.

Better late than never...England!

We had a fantastic, two-week vacation in England during July, where I was with Caroline and her parents. We had planned this trip so far in advance, that when it was time to go, it was almost surreal.

We took the direct flight from RDU to Heathrow and upon arrival, my father-in-law, Trevor, and I went to the horse races at Ascot that Saturday. It was a great setting, a very impressive venue, and just fun to watch the thousands of people dressed in their best dresses, suits, and of course hats.

We spent the next week in London sightseeing around the city and heading outside the city for tours. I loved seeing Stonehenge, Westminster Abbey, and really just walking up and down the Thames River. Some of my more favorite moments were simply sitting at a bar on the Thames that Shakespeare frequented, and just having fish and chips and the world's coldest Guinness for lunch. Luckily, moments like that abounded during our trip.

On a riverboat tour with Big Ben in the background

After our week in London, we boarded a train headed north to Newcastle, where Trevor is from. We spent the next week touring the English countryside in an area called Northumberland (it is the last English county before you hit Scotland).

These towns and cities up north were my favorite part of our vacation. From Edinburgh, Newcastle Upon the Tyne, Tynemouth, Alnwick, and Warkworth -- they were all simply amazing. The fresh air from the North Sea, the castles that are awe-inspiring, to the warm little pubs with beers I'd never heard of (I definitely "tried" all of them), it was just a blast. I definitely want to go back, and go even more north next time to the Highlands of Scotland.

The stunning Alnwick Castle

It was here that I met Caroline's aunt and uncle and her cousins, their husbands and children -- all of whom I had never met before. It was great meeting Trevor's side of the family, seeing where he grew up, and simply making new friends!

Trevor and I played a two rounds of golf at the golf club he grew up playing at with his father, and I have a whole new-found respect while watching The Open. To call it windy is a huge understatement. Like so many courses in the N. of England, they're on the sea, and the wind simply does havoc to your ball while teeing off, putting, etc. Mix in weather that changes from full on sunny to rain in an hour and back again, and you'll start to understand. Regardless, the course was in flawless condition and definitely ranks as the best I've played on.

All in all, a fantastic vacation! We missed our puppy, but other than that it was an amazing trip. I highly recommend that anyone visit London for at least a couple of days, and cannot emphasize how great the northern countryside was.

Spring 2015

During the middle of February, I was informed I would be getting my boss's job -- and while this was an awesome development for Caroline and I, it came at the busiest point of the team's year. It's been a full on sprint from then to now, but we've also done a lot of cool stuff.

(Warning: Mostly a work-related post below)

While I dodged trips to Barcelona and Tokyo, I did manage to rack up some miles going to Beijing, Chicago, then back to Beijing. TSA pre check and status with United definitely made the travel a lot easier! I have firm sleep habits when flying overseas and back (some combo of sleep deprivation, followed by red wine + Zzzquil), which really helped me avoid jet lag these past couple of years.

The months of February-April were devoted entirely to Kickoffs. To mark the start of our fiscal year in April, Lenovo brings together its 60,000+ employees together for a series of meetings all over the world. My team happens to own this process from what we see/do/say/project on stage, to how we handle shipping 60,000 t-shirts all over the world.

Doing my "Mr Headset" at the PNC Arena

Kickoffs were a huge success, and in May we quickly marched on to year-end earnings and Tech World. While I obtained my earnings boy scout badge many quarters ago, Tech World is a new event for Lenovo. Usually when we announce a slew of new products and technologies, we do so at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas, or Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. 

So for the first time, we had a giant launch / tech showcase that wasn't tied to any other event. For our team's part, we managed to launch v2 of our employee news app, that brought real-time updates as all the cool stuff happened during Tech World. We even got it on Google Play, which was a huge win for us.

Thoughts of Summer

So now I'm back in the States and looking forward to summer! We're heading to the beach this weekend with the Hamiltons, Ric and Alison, and Will. It's cheesy, but the main reason we're all getting together is to watch the Entourage movie -- I'm just glad we're all able to make it.

We'll then be headed to the QC to celebrate one of Caroline's best friend's engagement. Sarah and Zack are an amazing couple, and I could not be happier for Chateau de Duplin's most frequent house guest :)

Then in July, Care and I are off to England with my in-laws! I'm really excited to tour London and the countryside with the Darlings. I desperately need to improve my golf game as I'll be playing a round or two with Trevor, and will need to represent the U.S. of A well in front of him and his fellow Brits. I'll definitely have another post when we get back. 

Otherwise no work travel for a while, just some quality time with Care and Carter!

In Review: 2014

Having just returned home from Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show last week has given me a much needed breather -- the mythical 'vacation after my vacation' so to say -- after two weeks of vacation and a week of CES.

The two weeks surrounding Christmas and New Years were chock full of some much needed R&R to mark my end of 2014. I read several books, played Destiny on my PS4 until the wee hours, and generally tried to really wear in my pajama pants (which were worn for solid, solid stretches at a time).

The highlights:

With my MBA team, Team Tres!

GRADUATION!

To be clear, I've never run a marathon but I liken that process to getting your MBA while working full time. I cannot speak highly enough about the caliber of my classmates, teachers, courses, and staff at Kenan-Flagler's Executive MBA program, but not even they can dust off the long-term fatigue that quickly sets in. 

It was the longest/shortest grind I've ever done. Two years is actually a short amount of time, but when you're in it.....

Caroline was my rock throughout all of it. Having dinner ready around 9:45 / 10 pm cannot be fun for anyone, but she pulled me through it. To colleagues at work, friends, and family, thank you for your collective support and understanding as I wasn't always there physically and/or mentally.

Closing Motorola & IBM Deals

I was very privileged to lead my team on two projects that had a huge impact on Lenovo: integrating Motorola Mobility and IBM x86 server group into the company.

Announced in January of last year, I was snowed in at home when I received a call that we were about to announce the x86 deal, and then had the same exact scenario one week later for Moto.

Quickly, and successfully making these two groups part of one company was "the" priority during 2014, and we felt that heat. Coupled with never really knowing when the deals would close (we had to wait for regulatory approvals - read: "waiting on the government," well heck, in this case two governments), made for one long summer.

Thankfully, both deals closed in October (oddly enough the same month I graduated), and months of planning was / still is being executed smoothly!

October

Coupled with the deals closing and graduation in October, several more fun and life-changing events happened then.

Atlanta

Caroline's friend from UNC-W, Ryan, got married early on in the month! Caroline's best friend, and maid of honor Kendall, flew in for the occasion and well...mayhem ensued.

Caroline, Katie, and Kendall at one of her 'secret' bars. Please don't ask.

Portland

Two of my very best friends, Keely and Jesse, live in Portland with their new bundle of joy - Tegan! Before any of the above plans were blips on the radar screen, we wanted to voyage out there to visit them and meet their little baby girl. Care and I fell in love with the city, and of course Tegan!

The view off of the Rademacher's deck

Singapore

Work sent me out to Singapore to help coordinate an event we were having there, which was a very cool experience. People ask me what the place is like, and I commonly reply "It's like someone built a new Chicago in the middle of the jungle." And it is.

The view from on my running trail from the hotel

Everything is shiny new, there are many very diverse, distinct cultures, and it's built on a stern practice of respect and understanding. More than anything, I was impressed with the collective thought and will that went into making that city/country what it is.

Hammy's Wedding

Closing out the month was Hammy's wedding, which I was immensely happy to be best man for! The match Emily and Mike make could not be any cuter. He's a cop. She's a fire fighter. He went to NC State. She went to Chapel Hill. The list goes on... :)

Mike and his family have been my family in Raleigh as mine have lived in Tennessee for many years. And the second I met Emily, I knew she was it for my best friend. Add in all of my closest friends coming in town for the celebration, and it was just simply a wonderful occasion.

Josh, me, Hammy, and Ric at the Pit for Rehearsal Dinner

Puppy Pants

Caroline and I adopted Carter in late August, and we could not imagine our lives without him. He's crazy, and has been causing an immense amount of damage to Caroline's furniture lately, but we love him so. 

He's brought so much to our lives, it's hard to picture a time when he wasn't there already!

Onwards to 2015

Long post, but hey, it was a busy year! I'm really looking forward to the new year, the chance to reconnect with old friends, spending more time at home with Caroline and Carter, working in the yard, and working on myself (gym, running, reading, climbing, learning a new language, etc.).

Cheers!