Author: ortolancat

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Too hot to cook…..

… and food has become way too expensive anyway!  I read that the first six months of 2012 broke records for being hot, damn hot! Connecticut, as well as much of the east coast has been experiencing what seems like weeks of temps in the upper 80s and low 90s- every day and with a bit of humidity tucked in for good measure, we’ve started to wilt.

My desire to use the oven- gone. My ability to create tasty cool meals- diminishing. My hair up and off my neck- all the time! Most days, the breeze dances through the cockpit with our front panel rolled up. Scattered thunderstorms find their way south- looks like Canada is sending them our way every few days.

Cooking or baking takes place in the morning or with the A/C on.  My usual method of resorting to cold salads is stymied by the small fridge. Rather full of ingredients, beverages, fruit, veggies and cheese, it fails to offer much space for bowls of salads.  Digging out a seldom-used item can take a full minute, in which time the fridge temp has risen 4 degrees.

We’ve discussed purchasing a plug-in portable Engle fridge/freezer and thought we’d finally settled on buying a knock-off. Fortunately we come to our senses (those things are pricey) and decided to buy a cube fridge to keep in the cockpit during summers and to use during haul-outs. A few years ago I’d won a $100 gift cert to the local appliance store- we’re selling everything; what are we going to do with this? I kept it, figuring if we or Benj didn’t use it, we’d give it to friends. Long story short, we ended up with a GE white cube fridge and it fits on top of our cockpit side bench seats. Love it. Extra drinks and those cold dinner salads have found a home!

Salads or sides that I can assemble at the last-minute have been my go-to options lately. My strategy is to buy a few key ingredients such as goat cheese, bacon or arugula and use them over the course of 4-5 days in various meals. Russ was with me the last time I bought bacon and was shocked at the price, a whopping $6.69 for Oscar Mayer Select Cut. He was so blown away that he asked Benj how much he thought that bacon cost. “$7” was Benj’s answer- boy was Russ amazed. So was I, but not as much!

Here’s my recipe for Shrimp, Bacon and Arugula Salad:

Cook 2-4 (depend on how much you  love bacon) slices bacon in a nonstick skillet until crisp, then crumble

Using the pan drippings (removing any excess) add peeled raw shrimp and sauté until done

While this is happening, with your other hand, or before, arrange arugula (mixed greens works OK) on plates, adding halved cherry or grape tomatoes.

Arrange shrimp and bacon over the top and drizzle the dressing over all.

Before you begin or if you’re really good, during the process- make the dressing: 2 T plain yogurt, 2 T balsamic, 2 tsp EVOO and ground black pepper. (enough for 3-4 servings)

Serve with crusty bread, a fine wine or whatever you have and voila! Dinner in no time.

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“out there” vs “tied down”

Benj might win “best job” as he’s joined the POB crew on weekends

During our summer “tied to the dock” season we experience life on the fence; not quite as cruisers and not quite landlubbers.  On more than one occasion I’ve felt like saying “please pardon my appearance. I know my hair is less than perfect but I no longer wash it every single day and spend 15 mins styling and drying it.”

On the other hand we no longer walk everywhere; our 9yr old MINI Cooper, Bonny, allows us unlimited access to every place we wish to go. So I got to thinking about “out there” (OT) vs “tied down” (TD) while I was in the middle of mega errands the other day and this is what I came up with. Maybe some of this will strike a chord with other cruisers, or not… perhaps for those still with strong land ties (read: landlubbers) you will be enlightened!

The three most striking differences between OT and TD are 1) for much of the five months of TD we are three, making life aboard more cozy, dynamic and replete with family conversations, mostly at dinner time; 2) we smile at how no money is being spent on diesel and try to ignore how much we are spending on food and all the summer’s misc boat projects and routine maintenance and 3) working! all three of us work part-time and that feeds Kitty for Russ & I and helps keep the dream alive for a few more years.

OT= virtually constant awareness of weather and sea-state.  TD= we can’t easily turn off our attention to weather but we do take it down a few notches, to the point of knowing if we need to bring rain gear in the car.

OT= being part of the expansive community of cruisers. TD= not sure how we fit in. Living opposite lives of nearly all our marina neighbors, we are 24/7 on board, work summers, play all winter and fondly watch the boat traffic.

TD= no worries about water, electric, heat or cold, propane while when OT we conserve on all these. Even with a water maker we can’t run all water through it. Muddy, silt-y, polluted water is a no-no as well as water that contains bleach. Water usage and production management is important when we are “out there”. Underway with the engines charges the batteries, makes hot water and provides enough juice to make coffee, run the microwave and use cockpit lights and small fans if needed. If we sail too much – yes, that does happen J – then the poor batteries get wimpy and we fire up the genset; although that still gives us a net fuel savings.

TD= having a car and access to all the variety we miss while in the Bahamas. Worth mention is that in CT we don’t have Publix or The Fresh Market; those we do miss. Stop & Shop simply does not compare; prices are higher and not the great B1G1Fs we find at Publix. Maybe you detect a little whine with that complaint! Oh, but that reminds me that once we leave CT we can buy wine in the grocery stores; I love that one stop shopping. Big news in CT is that now liquor stores can open on Sundays; leaving Indiana the lone holdout.

Life is good!