Hi and goodbye Petersburg

It's been a rough couple of days. Life on boat not all sunsets and rainbows. 

Melt down in Baranof

French toast and the breakfast from hell 

    Breakfast is my least favorite meal to cook. It usually involves getting up earlier than I would like in the morning. I am not a morning person and never have been. The guys usually have to wait a little too long before I actually feed them. In my own defense on the topic of timing, most of us need time to wake up and aren’t ready for a full breakfast until after our coffee or tea. The boys know, if they are hungry, there are plenty of breakfast snacks and I will deliver a hot meal … eventually. This morning I wanted to use fresh herbs from my little herb garden I bought in Petersburg. So I cut fresh rosemary and chives for the fried red potatoes. If only it had been that easy. I decide to complete the meal with sausage and French toast. Jeff had thawed out a nice, thick Texas toast and it is one of his favorites – freedom toast. I hope he enjoyed it, because I’m not making that mess again for a long time. For some reason, submerging bread in a thick, egg-custard concoction is incredibly tedious and not very appetizing to me. Sweet breakfasts make my stomach turn. I realize I may be reporting things that cooks are not supposed to openly admit, but I could care less today. I am not a real cook anyway, I am just pretending to be one for a very small, forgiving audience. 

     When things start going awry, it happens fast, there isn’t a lot of counter space or room to maneuver. Organization, timing, and having ingredients close at hand, but not too close because of the tight quarters is a delicate balance. While cooking, Ty came down for coffee and I handed him the box of 5 dozen eggs and asked him to please get them away from me before I threw them out of the galley. Not long after, Jeff came down to “get something” and I promptly shooed him out because there was not enough room in the galley for both of us. He retells it differently, of course, and it all sounds so dramatic. 

     After what seemed like an eternity of cursing, rushing, flipping, stirring, splattering grease everywhere, and using more dishes than I could count, I announced breakfast was ready and they could come down at their own risk. Then, I hastily went out on deck to my favorite hiding place, striping off my apron, earphones, fleece and burst into tears.

On our way again

We are leaving Petersburg for Amalga Bay, north of Auke Bay which is NW of Juneau. This is new territory for me and I'm excited to check it out. Beautiful sunny day in SE Alaska. Got my boots on and ready for work. 

During those rainy, cloudy days, I loke to make soups pr stews for us. I made pho twice and everyone enjoyed it. The beef stew was average, so if anyone can recommend a hearty recipe for the slow cooker, I'd  appreciate it. Jeff made his awesome Okinawa chicken tonight and I had a break from doing the entire meal. Spoiled the boys yesterday with biscuits and gravy, bacon, scrambled eggs with red potatoes and cheese. So this morning it was a yogurt Greek style with berries  and honey. 

Mornings like today are a great treat. Jeff and I got to walk to the coffee shop and wander around town. We walked back to the boat, and I had some time to spare. So I headed to the flower shop and book store for some quiet time. It was delightful. 

So happy.... Aloha. 

Crossed the gulf again

All went well. Working out of Petersburg now. Enjoyed Baranof Warm Springs yesterday - amazing!

Gratitude.

I said it last year, and it bears repeating. It is a wonderful feeling to be thankful for all the blessings you have in your life at the time that you have them.

For all the blessings in my life, beginning tonight with my husband, I am grateful. 

Cooking too

I realize I haven't told you all about my culinary feats of late. After the chicken pot pie, I was not cooking for a while, until after I felt better. Since then I've gotten good feedback for a few new dishes. 

No surprise, the boys like hearty, put meat on your bones types of meals. I have tried a couple of chicken casseroles with stove top stuffing in top - that was a big hit. Also an awesome salmon sandwich with sriracha mayo, fresh greens and salmon grilled with a rub made with brown sugar, cumin, red chile. There have been countless pasta dinners and I even made meatballs from scratch! I'm not sure I would follow that recipe again, very fatty meatballs, but the boys enjoyed it. We were working when dinner was ready, so I pulled the cooked meat balls out and placed on paper towels to drain. By the time we got to eat 5 hours later, they were a little dry but tasted great. 

I've come up with a pretty good egg scramble for the mornings. I much prefer savory breakfasts to sweet ones. Lately I have been perfecting my breakfast sandwich. Scrambled eggs, sausage or bacon in Texas toast served open face with cheese on top. This was a hit too. 

Perhaps one of my favorite things to cook is taco meat. Ground beef and onion cooked, drained and then add the taco seasoning with water and let all those flavors come together. Whenever I'm making taco meat, the boys seem to instinctively gravitate to the galley more. They peer in, asking what's for dinner. Once the meat is done, I mix in rice and black beans for burritos or pull out the taco shells. This all usually comes with the regular garnishments, hot sauce, sour cream, lettuce, tomato, and avocados. 

Yesterday, I harvested a bunch of herbs from my little herb garden and blended the with butter, olive oil and a little salt. It was delicious on toast but I added it to the mashed potatoes. I loved it but I fell asleep before I could get feedback. 

The way I know if a meal is a success is by asking the boys if it's worthy of eating again. So far only only a few dishes haven't made the cut. There have been so many meals by this point, I forget which ones they didn't like. Oh well. 

The cheeseburger pie is another favorite, again, ground beef gets their attention. It's and incredibly easy recipe I found in good old Betty Crocker. But that book makes me think of another Betty, my grandmother, Betty Jo Kelley. She passed away this last January and I miss her terribly, especially when I'm cooking. I haven't written about her death because it still hurts too much. I worry about Pa, on his own, but we found his dog Sandy a few weeks after she disappeared. 

We are headed out again. 

Aloha

Taking fish

Rainy day

So far away....

This post is late, I actually wrote it 3 or 4 days ago. I didn't realize it didn't go thru....

On deck making my phone calls before we are out of range again. Thinking about my Mom and hoping she feels better soon. It's very hard to be so far away and out of communications range when difficult things are going on. I know I can't do anything about the fires threatening the cabin, but I could certainly help my Mom when she's not feeling well. Can't do anything from here but worry and try to focus on work. 

So, leaving for Prince William Sound with a heavy heart and thinking of home and the people I care about. 

Glaciers. Amazing. 

Nick

I miss you big brother. And I always will. 

Waiting in Valdez

Waiting for fish in Valdez. Not much to report on this foggy, rainy morning. Thinking of all the firefighters, those lost and those still on the line. 

I want to thank Gin Getz for her blog, GinGetz.com, for providing perspective and prose during this fire season as it threatens so much of the San Juan Mountains. The cold, wet weather here seems like a gift compared to the hot, dry weather they are dealing with... 

That's all for now... Got to get back to work.