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ɹǝʌo ǝɯ uɹnʇ – sıɥʇ pɐǝɹ uɐɔ noʎ ɟı

September 29, 2010
by Ray
1 Comment

Coconut & Shrimp Pasta

Coconut & Shrimp Pasta
Recipe Type: Main
Author: Ray Evans
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 15 mins
Total time: 30 mins
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 1/4c butter
  • garlic
  • 1/2 can coconut milk
  • 1/2 cup 1% milk
  • 1 lb of shrimp (cooked, peeled & de-veined)
  • 1/2 tbsp dry basil, crushed
  • 1/2 tbsp dry celantro, crushed
  • 1/4 tsp crushed black pepper
  • 1/2 cup cream cheese
  • 1/4 cup grated parmesan
  • 1/2 tbsp cornstarch, dissolved in 1/4 cup of water
  • Spaghettini (cooked)
Instructions
  1. melt butter in fry pan, and add crushed garlic. Sauté for a couple minutes.
  2. add shrimp, herbs, pepper toss and heat through
  3. melt in cream cheese, and add coconut milk, and milk
  4. bring to a slow boil, and stir in parmesan
  5. stir in cornstarch/water to thicken sauce
  6. serve over spaghettini and enjoy!
Notes

Could substitute fresh herbs, and definitely will next time! Time to prepare was about 30 minutes tops – perfect for those rushed evenings.


Popularity: 2% [?]

August 16, 2010
by Ray
0 comments

Samosa’s

Well, I have samosa’s for lunch almost every day during the week – and I figured I should try making some myself!  My first go at it was pretty successful I think.  I made both beef and vegetable ones – and made my own pastry.  The pastry was pretty easy – but I think that I’ll try a variation that I came across on http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/ – adding a bit of semolina flour.

The vegetable filling I made was very tasty – but I think I’ll cut the cayenne pepper back from the 1/2 tsp I used, to 1/4 tsp, which will make my son happier ;^)

The beef filling was good, but there was something missing – I’ll have to try a couple other recipes and see how things fare.  I’ll post up the recipes for both fillings, and the pastry, this evening.

Samosa pastry

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp. ghee, clarified butter, or vegetable oil, plus extra for frying

1 tbsp. semolina flour

1/4 cup water (some say ice water, others lukewarm)

Directions

Sift the flour and salt into medium bowl.

Add 1 tablespoon of the clarified butter and rub the mixture between the palms of your hands to evenly distribute, and let the fat-coated flour fall back into the bowl. Continue until the flour is evenly coated.

Add 6 tablespoons of the water, mix, and work until the dough comes together. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 4 minutes into a firm dough. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rest for 30 minutes.

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Popularity: 3% [?]

August 14, 2010
by Ray
0 comments

Back into the coffee! :^)

Picked up my espresso machine from CaffeTech today after having it serviced.  After being machineless for the past few weeks, it sure is nice to have it back up and running!

The techs modded the machine a bit for me (which saved me over a $100) – replacing the failed controller with one that is designed for a plumbed in machine.  There were a couple other pieces replaced to get the machine, and they also de-scaled the plumbing (the whole house plumbing isn’t quite doing what it should be I guess.)

I think that I might just plan on taking the machine in once per year and just getting a routine maintenance/descaling done.

Popularity: 2% [?]

August 13, 2010
by Ray
0 comments

Top Gear

Top GearA recent episode (Series 15, episode 4) had me laughing almost non-stop throughout…

From the hairstyle testing in the Porsche and Audi convertibles, to the vuvuzela testing, and the custom RV’s the guys made up and take on a road trip… definitely a “must see” episode! :^)

Popularity: 2% [?]

waffle-thumbnail

July 27, 2010
by Ray
1 Comment

My Waffles v1.0

Ingredients
2   cups all-purpose flour
2   tbsp sugar
2   tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 3/4 cups milk
6 tbsp canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
Add each of the wet ingredients to the dry while beating together.
Beat til smooth. I like to let the batter sit for a few minutes while the baking powder
does its thing – you’ll see little bubbles in the batter. I plug the waffle iron in, and set the Cuisinart iron to #4, and wait until it signals that its ready.

Spoon batter onto iron and spread out a bit.
Cook until the signal goes off and serve!

Popularity: 2% [?]

July 19, 2010
by Ray
0 comments

Creating ACU-like digital camo in Photoshop

Plan on redoing the camo paint on my M101 trailer, and seeing as my Jeep is silver, I thought an urban camouflage would look good.  Who knows, if it turns out well enough, I may even repaint the Jeep!  ;^)

 

Digital Camo in Photoshop
  1. Create a new file in Photoshop. Make it a fair size.
  2. Set background and foreground color swatches to black and white
  3. Filter > Render > Clouds.  Press CTRL-F until you get a nice balance of dark and light
  4. Filter > Other > High pass – set radius to 250
  5. Filter > Brush Strokes > Spatter – set spray radius of 16 and a smoothness of 7 (or whatever looks good to you!)
  6. Image > Adjustments > Threshold.  Adjust the slider to whatever looks good.
  7. Filter > Pixelate > Mosaic Effect.  Set the square size to whatever works best for you.
  8. Image > Adjusments > Threshold one more time.
  9. Delete the white (or black, if you prefer)
  10. I like to rotate the layer approx 45 degrees.
  11. Duplicate layer. Using Image > Adjustments > Selective Color, to whatever color you like.
  12. Duplicate the original layer, and do the same thing.  Rotate the layers, as well as flip vertical & horizontal to achieve the effect you like.  When rotating, use the 90 degree or 180 degree options only for the best effect. Re-arrange the layer orders as well.

Here’s one example of what I came up with using this technique:

 

 

Urban camo created in Photoshop CS4

 

Play with the settings, and layers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Popularity: 20% [?]

July 18, 2010
by Ray
0 comments

Transcend – great coffee, AND Waffles!

Well, I finally made it to Transcend Garneau this weekend.

Picked up some coffee, and had a quad shot americano, and a waffle with apple brandy butter.

I think this was probably the tastiest waffle I’ve had anywhere!

It was a pretty tiny waffle though. Next time I’ll order 2, maybe 3. A single serving of the apple brandy butter would still be plenty!

Popularity: 1% [?]

July 10, 2010
by Ray
0 comments

Working on Andreja

Well, things still aren’t back to normal with the espresso machine, but I think that I’m making progress, albeit slow. My Aeropress is definitely getting a workout.

Chatted with Joe @ CaffeTech earlier today, and have a couple more things to do to get the leaky machine fully operational again.

First and foremost is descaling the grouphead and the boiler. I was mistakingly under the impression that supplying the machine with water from the whole house water softener, that this wouldn’t be necessary.

Then, I’m thinking that I might want to add some insulation or heat protection to some of the wires. The plastic shields around some of the connectors have completely disintegrated from the heat of the boiler.

Found some a great link that should be very helpful as I undertake the descaling – Espresso Passione’s Descaling the Andreja Part 1 and Part 2.

Popularity: 1% [?]

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