Laying In Supplies

July 15, 2007

We have had a couple of incidents involving food on the boat. Star managed to drag her shirt through the mayonnaise while making a sandwich. We have been teasing her a bit about taking the term "laying in supplies" a little too literally.
The other food event was the attack of the wild paprikash. I was enjoying a bowl of the lovely chicken parikash my husband cooked for us, and I managed to spill a good bit of the bowl all over me. I hope paprika sauce is good for the skin, because I managed to wear quite a bit of it. After we cleaned up the mess, we all had a bit of a chuckle about the "wild parikash".

David suggested I call this the food fight afloat.

About cooking and eating on a small boat

When tied up to a dock, the town restaurants are handy, but over time they get expensive. Our solution is to cook our own meals. We have a two burner alcohol stove, and a selection of cookware to do this.

After last year's adventure with the soup, our senior captain declared 'no more soup' for meals. We manage without resorting to soup. (Just a side note - I happen to like soup, with a particular fondness for one brand of ready-to-eat minestrone.)

For breakfast and lunch we mostly have sandwiches, fruit, something with peanut butter or maybe kippered herring from a can. Easy food that a person can put together when they are hungry, without having to wait for everyone to be present. Particularly during this first part of the process, we all have our own task list, and we end up going different directions during the day. When we are out sailing, I like to be sure we have our dinner eaten while there is still enough sunlight to clean up by. Here on the dock, we sometimes eat quite late, at least by my reckoning.

The menu has been quite varied. We take turns cooking, and with three experienced cooks we get quite a range of food. So far we have had beef stew, chili, chicken paprikash, pork chops, steak, pot roast and tonight's menu features curry. One night we had a seafood chowder as guests on someone else's boat. He sent us home with the leftovers, so we had chowder two nights in a row. I had a vague idea that I might lose a little weight on this trip. If I keep eating like this, I may not.

Many of the meals we cook are possible, or at least easier, with the lovely thermos pot we bought previously. Heating things up in the inner pot, then set it in the outpot for a while. We ran a test in Colorado to see how long it held the heat. After 5 hours the water inside was still 135 degrees. This works really well for slow cooking food.

One of the fun things about being on a boat is all the other people with boats who share our situation. The trials of fixing things, the fun of meeting new people and getting reaquainted with folks from previous years, the things that work and the things that don't. What works for one boat and crew may not work for another, but it is interesting to see what people come up with as solutions.