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Cilantro-Lime Sauce

Food, Recipes,
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Clilantro-Lime Sauce

A delicious topping for pan-seared salmon.

Course Condiment
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 1 minute
Total Time 6 minutes
Servings 4 people
Author admin

Ingredients

  • 1 ea lime juice only
  • 1/2 cup cilantro
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 5 ea golden berries
  • 1/2 ea jalapeno pepper
  • 2 tbsp mayonnaise

Instructions

  1. Add lime juice, olive oil, mayonnaise, cilantro, golden berries and jalapeno to blender

  2. Blend for 30-45 seconds, pushing cilantro down if necessary.

Zucchini Walnut Lasagna

Zucchini Walnut Lasagna

Food, Recipes, ,
Zucchini Walnut Lasagna
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Zucchini Walnut Lasagna

A Keto-friendly, vegetarian lasagna
Course Main Course
Keyword Keto
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour

Ingredients

  • 1 can tomato paste
  • 1 can diced tomatoes drained
  • 1 white onion finely diced
  • 2 carrots shredded
  • 3 cups mushrooms chopped
  • 2 large zucchinis
  • 1 cup toasted walnuts chopped in blender
  • 2 tsp thyme dried
  • 2 tsp oregana dried
  • 4 tbsp olive oil extra virgin
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 2 tsp sea salt
  • 2 tsp black pepper med-coarse grind
  • 750 g ricotta
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg ground
  • 2 cups chopped spinach
  • 1 cup mozzarella cheese shredded
  • 1/2 cup parmesan reggiano grated
  • 10 grape tomatoes sliced
  • 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves

Instructions

Prepare Zucchini

  • Slice zucchini lengthwise into 1/8" – 3/16" thick slices.  Lightly salt & pepper both sides of each slice. Let sit for a few minutes then dry slices with a paper towel.
  • Lightly oil a cookie sheet, or line sheet with a silicon cooking mat, and arrange zucchini slices in a single layer.
  • Setting oven rack so that cookie sheet will be 6 inches or so from broiler.
  • Broil on high for 5 minutes, remove from oven, flip slices and pat dry, then return to oven for an additional 3 minutes.
  • Line a cooling rack with paper towel, and place zucchini slices on it.  Repeat these steps until all slices have been broiled, and set aside.

Prepare Ricotta

  • Mix ricotta, 1/3 of the chopped spinach, and nutmeg in a medium size bowl.  You can add a little salt & pepper if you like.  Set aside.  (I intended to add an eqq to this as well but forgot – the lasagna turned out fine without it.)

Prepare Sauce

  • In one skillet, add a couple tablespoons of olive oil, and saute the onions and shredded carrot until translucent. 
  • In a larger, deep skillet, heat up two tablespoons of olive oil, and 1 tablespoon of butter, and fry the chopped mushrooms along with the thyme.
  • When mushrooms are turning golden, clear a space in the pan and add the tomato sauce, dried basil and oregano. and stir well.
  • When the tomato paste starts to deepen in color, add the drained tomatoes, and the sauteed onion and carrots, and toasted walnuts.  Stir well.
  • The sauce is ready when most of any liquid has evaporated.  Remove from heat and set aside.

Assembly

  • Set cooking rack to middle of the oven, and preheat to 350 degrees.
  • Lightly oil a 9 x 13 baking dish.
  • Put a very thin layer of sauce across the bottom of the dish.
  • Arrange one layer of zucchini slices
  • Spread one third of the sauce over the zucchini, followed by one third of the ricotta mixture followed by one third of the remaining chopped spinach.
  • Repeat the previous 2 steps.
  • Spread the shredded mozzarella, followed by the grated parmesan.
  • Arrange sliced tomatoes and fresh basil leaves over top.
  • Place lasagna into oven, and bake for 30 minutes, or until top starts to turn golden around edges.
  • Remove from oven when ready, and let cool for 15 minutes before cutting and serving.

Building a new PI with DAC

Hobbies, Home Automation, Music

Purchased a Justboom DAC Hat a while back, along with a PI 3B+.  Was going to install OpenElec, but found out the latest distro isn’t compatible with the Pi.  I ended up going with LibreElec, which has been working great with it.

I did solder the IR receiver onto the Justboom DAC but found it wasn’t responding to a couple remotes – I have a Flirc dongle that worked fine though, so I have Lirc disabled for now.  I might spend more time trying to get it working later, so I can use the Flirc dongle elsewhere.

#dtparam=audio=on
dtparam=audio=off
dtoverlay=justboom-dac
Have been very pleased with the sound quality of the JustBoom DAC – makes my vintage AR-210’s sound amazing!  I also have an old pair of Wharfedale Diamonds that also sound awesome – just lacking some bottom end – but for a tiny speaker, they are still awesome!

Chocolate Bourbon Latte

Coffee, Recipes, , , ,

Felt like a warm cocktail the other evening, something that would fit in with the Keto diet that I’ve been on since July.

What I came up with was delicious!

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Chocolate Bourbon Latte

Course Drinks
Keyword bourbon, coffee
Prep Time 3 minutes
Total Time 3 minutes
Servings 1
Author Me

Ingredients

  • 1.5 oz 100 Proof Bourbon (I used Old Grandads)
  • 1 shot espresso (a double shot)
  • 3/4 cup 33% Whipping cream steamed
  • 6 drops Bittermens Xocolatl Mole Bitters

Instructions

  1. Add a freshly pulled shot of espresso to your favourite coffee mug or cup, along with your favorite bourbon and the Bittermens bitters

    Steam the whipping cream until nice and hot, with good microfoam

    Add to your mug and enjoy!


Aquarium rebuild

Aquarium, Hobbies

After a tragic loss of all but 2 fish in my aquarium, I took it as an opportunity to try something a little different.

The 2 survivors are my stealthy Bristlenose Pleco’s.

The new occupants:

  • 9 Rummy-nose tetras
  • 6 Discus
  • 3 Botia dario loaches

Added a very large piece of driftwood to the tank, and also added a new LED light – MicMol 36″-48″ Planted tank lamp, with scheduling.  The lamp is very nice – but is a pain to program.  Just have to be patient 🙂

I have been finding snails to be a challenge to control, which was one of the reasons for adding the loaches.  Unfortunately, they don’t seem all that interested!
I’ve been reducing the amount and frequency of feeding the fish, although the discus I bought are young and growing!  One seems to be a runt.