Jan 21 2012

Recipes

Strawberry Pudding    

Ingredients           :        

  • 1/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3 eggs, separated
  • 2 cups milk, scalded
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla, divided
  • 1 package vanilla wafer cookies, (16oz)
  • 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
  • 2 cups strawberries, fresh or frozen, sliced

Preparation:

In top of double boiler combine 1/3 cup sugar, flour, salt, egg yolks, milk, and 1 teaspoon vanilla; cook, stirring constantly, until custard thickens. Line bottom and sides of a baking dish (1 1/2-quart size) with vanilla wafers, alternate layers of custard mix, wafers, and berries. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form; add the 1 tablespoon sugar and remaining 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Spread meringue over custard and bake in a 325° oven until meringue is nicely browned.
Jan 7 2012

Indian luxury trains among world’s best

Indian luxury trains among world’s best.

DECCAN ODYSSEY AND MAHARAJA’S EXPRESS ARE AMONG THE 25 BEST TRAINS IN THE WORLD

Mumbai’s Deccan Odyssey and the Maharaja’s Express have found themselves among world’s best 25 trains in a list compiled by a US-based global rail travel society for being some of the “most luxurious” with courteous staff and best cuisine. “India has some of the best trains; the list has quite a few from the subcontinent,” Eleanor Flagler Hardy, president of the Society of International Railway Travelers said. A joint venture of MTDC and Indian Railways, Deccan Odyssey was launched in 2009. It traverses Mumbai,Sindhudurg, Goa, Vasco, Kolhapur, Aurangabad and Nashik. It has been shortlisted for its chartered trips covering some iconic landmarks, including Unesco world heritage sites — Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, Fatehpur Sikri, Jantar Mantar observatory, Ajanta & Ellora caves, and CST.
“The Deccan Odyssey’s cars, built in 2003, have been upgraded with new carpet and bedspreads recently, according to our ground suppliers. These improvements, which we had recommended last year, bring this train up to ‘luxury’ status, because its staff, service,amenities and food were already superb,” says a member of the society. The Maharaja’s Express (Mumbai-Delhi as well as the one that travels within Delhi) is another latest entrant in the list. It is operated by Royale Indian Rail Tours Ltd, and organises an eight-day tour that covers cities with rich royal history, such as Vadodara,Udaipur, Bikaner, Jaipur and Jodhpur.The tour offers meals at top-notch five-star properties, such as the Taj Lake Palace in Udaipur. The train also operates a seven-day classical India tour of northern states. “All cabins have large windows,LCD televisions, wi-fi access, individual temperature control and full ensuite bathroom. There is one presidential suite which comprises a full train car — the largest suite available on any train in the world,” the member says.

Jan 7 2012

Three Benefits of Windows 8 Storage Spaces

Three Benefits of Windows 8 Storage Spaces.

Small and midsize businesses often can’t afford file servers, and struggle with the best way to provide their users with enough space to store data and keep it safe from hardware failure. Windows 8′s new feature called Storage Spaces has three benefits: bringing the safety of RAID to the desktop, creating an expanding space to store files, and providing these features at lower cost than other hardware options.

How much disk space do you need, and how reliable is it? Storage Spaces addresses the problem that matter how much space you buy, odds are good that you’ll fill it. Disk space is cheap, and USB drives are easy. This generally results in an assortment of variously sized USB drives attached to your computer, requiring numerous drive letters you need to spread your data across. If you want disk space that’s protected against hardware failure, mirroring two disks requires they be identically sized or else you lose the extra capacity of the larger disk. For a level-5 RAID, that strips data across more than two disks, and you lose the capacity of each disk larger than the smallest in the RAID.