Screenshot

Screenshot, originally uploaded by simonroadkill.

Setting up my new computer today and I'm really quite pleased with it. Have Ubuntu installed and now tweaked to doing just what I want, which was surprisingly easy! More screen grabs soon - this is my Ubuntu environment, currently my windows one is very plain. LInks to the .conkyrc, theme and background to appear soon (e.g. probably never ;)). They're basically tweaks of things you'll find in my recent del.icio.us bookmarks.

Dead Simple Pesto

I looked around the net for some simple pesto recipes (mainly because we had an overgrown basil plant and wanted to not waste the trimmings) and they all basically boiled down to the following.

Ingredients

• roughly equal amounts of Basil and Parmesan cheese
• Olive Oil
• Clove or two of Garlic
• Salt and Pepper
• Lemon Juice
  

Chuck all the solid ingredients into a blender, add oil till you have the consistency you want. Season with the salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste. Blend it all up. Put into a container and pour some more oil over the surface to cover the pesto to stop it drying out. Put in the fridge, seems to keep for a few weeks...

Roasted Goats Cheese and Butternut Squash

Dead simple and very very tasty. Takes about an hour to cook, and almost zero preparation.

Ingredients (serves 2)

• Butternut squash
• Goats Cheese
• Homemade Pesto
• Pecan nuts
• Tomatoes
• Balsamic Vinegar
• Olive Oil
• Italian herbs, black pepper
  

Cut the Butternut Squash in half length-ways, and scoop out the seeds and pulp from the bulb. Drizzle both halves with the olive oil and season with the herbs and black pepper. Put in the oven at 180C for 30 mins or so. Chop the tomato up into smallish chunks, put them into the bulb of the squash (which should be roasting up nicely by now) and add a dash of the balsamic vinegar in with the tomato. Put back in the oven for another 15 mins or thereabouts. Take the squash out the oven again and put the goats cheese over the tomatoes (and any spare over the rest of the squash). Drizzle some of the pesto along the squash and sprinkle crushed nuts on top. Put it back in the oven for 20 mins, basically until the cheese melts and browns up a bit.

Serve with roasted crushed boiled potatoes and green leafy salad.

Aspirational Living

0% finance on boob jobs - who said there's a credit crunch!