Marina Time & Being a Good Boat Guest

I have mentioned a few times that we are spending all of our free time at the marina and wanted to share more specifics about that actually means since I am sure everyone has different ideas of what I am talking about.

Dan goes to work in the morning like always and I get right down to the business of “life administration”. For those of you unfamiliar with what I mean by life administration that means anything I have to do for our lives, things like laundry, grocery shopping, doctor appointments, checking on my parents, exercising, and planning and cooking dinner. I think you get the idea of what I mean now. I also include in life administration nutrition reading, studying, and catching up with friends.

Once I get the life administration under control and have things packed up to the go the boat I head to the marina. I try to take food with me every day that is easy to make on board. The galley (kitchen) on the boat is actually pretty nice (as boat kitchens go) but I would rather relax on the boat so reheating or using the Crockpot works well for me.

I typically get the marina between 3 and 4 in the afternoon and that is when the relaxing begins. As soon as I get things put away (because I take a lot of stuff to the boat every time I go which means I often look like a bag lady) I turn on the electric kettle and get some green tea brewing. Then I set the timer for 10 minutes (to maximize the amount of EGCG that gets into the hot water) and kick back and put my feet up. I spend the next few hours reading (which you know I love) and chatting with other boaters until it is time for Dan to head to the boat. Now that we have a wifi booster I can also use this time to update my blogs and Facebook accounts as well as socializing.  :-)

Fortunately Dan’s office is walking distance to the marina and I sometimes walk toward to his office while he heads to the boat and we meet in the middle and walk back together. The view from the promenade walking between the marina and the Inner Harbor is just beautiful at night. I need to take some pictures so that I can share the view with you. It takes my breath away every time I see it.

Once we get back to the boat we have dinner, relax with some tea in the cockpit and talk until it is time to head for home. This has become our usual evening and we both enjoy it quite a lot. There is something incredibility relaxing about being on the boat. I love the sound of the water lapping on the hull. Our marina is surprisingly peaceful during the week and I couldn’t ask for anything better.

We take the boat out on the weekends but during the week we just stick around the marina. The boat has everything we need to be comfortable, a kitchen, bathroom, dining area, stereo and TV (with cable). But the best part of being on the boat is the view. I love watching the sun set over the water. There are few things in life that I enjoy more. Any time I can spend on the water I am there.

We always head home to sleep because the fur babies haven’t been to the boat yet. Since everyone knows how spoiled they are I am sure you understand why we go home. Our cats always sleep in the bed with us so we need to be home at night. We both keep saying that we need to get a litter box for the boat and take them with us but we haven’t done it yet. If Binky decides to spit up hair balls on the bed in the boat cleaning up won’t be quite as easy as it is at home. *shakes head* Those of you who follow me on Facebook understand why I brought that up. LOL

I grew up on the water (Lake Michigan) and vacationed on the water every summer as a child (Garden City, SC which is near Myrtle Beach but was less commercial back then don’t know what it is like now). I think this is why I love the water so much. We have other friends that grew up near water and they still love it. I think there is some validity to the notion that you get salt water in your veins, which a saying I have heard many times before.

There are quite a few people who live aboard their boats at our marine which is very nice. It means that there are always people at the marina during the week. So if you are someone chatty like me you always have people to socialize with. Additionally having live aboards at the marina means that there are people there all the time and that reduces the likelihood of theft which is also great. It is very nice to have neighbors to look out for you. When I was in graduate school I lived on my power boat to save money. If you can manage to part with most of your stuff (the kitchen gadgets would be the most difficult for me to give up) living on a boat saves money, and means you are reducing your carbon footprint which is a win-win for everyone.

A few of the people at our marina already know that we are vegan and they took it better than a lot of our old friends. I had one woman tell me that after knowing me she could see herself giving up meat. *woo hoo* I think that because I am a laid back vegan makes the lifestyle less threatening to omnivores. Of course it also helps that I am always willing to share food with people and good food it good food be it vegan or omnivore. As my grandmother always said you get more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. I guess I need to change that to brown rice syrup from honey now. ;-)

Speaking of boat friends here is my best dog buddy at the marina. This is Peyton who is the most precious dog I have ever met. His human parents (Chris and Tim) told me that he is a Woodle and is hypoallergenic. You all know that I am a cat person but Peyton could make a dog lover out of me. He is so precious and always greets me with a rapidly wagging tail when I am coming down the dock.

Patoot (duck in Arabic) and I have also bonded. I was talking to Louis on the phone today when my little duck came to see me and when I started to talk her as though she was a toddler Louis immediately inquired when I was bringing her home. Apparently all my friends realize that I have bit of Doctor Doolittle in me. Am I that transparent? LOL

Being a Good Boat Guest:

I thought I should write this because our friends are always asking us what should I bring, do, etcetera when coming to the boat. This is what I think makes a great “boat guest”:

• The first thing that comes to mind is to wear non-marking soled shoes. Those of you who own boats get this immediately but landlubbers don’t so I will explain. When you wear shoes that leave marks this means a lot of work for your boating friends. Black marks frequently need to be removed with polishing compound and that means a lot of rubbing for your friends. Since most of you don’t have boat shoes wear white soled sneakers those work great. :-)

• Show up when your friends ask you to arrive at the marina. Our last boat had a deep draft keel and because of where she was docked we had to leave and return at high tide. When people were late we ran the risk of hitting the bottom and causing a lot of damage to our boat. Please be timely when boating with friends so everything starts off well right away.

• You need to realize that sailing is pretty much an all day affair. Sailboats go really slow so there is no way you will be back to the marina in two hours. If you are an impatient person and your friends invite you to go sailing be prepared to sit back and relax if you accept their invitation. Sailing definitely required patience and time. When Dan and I go out a short trip is 5 hours and normally they are more like 10 hours if there is good wind.

• Don’t forget to bring sunscreen as well as a cover up in case it gets cold. You will be out in the sun a long time and people tend to burn. Additionally the wind on the water makes it cooler than being on land so you need to be prepared to add layers just in case.

• If you have children and your boating friends do not make certain that your kids come with properly fitted life jackets. Most boaters have plenty of adult sized life vests but children come in various sizes so it is always better to bring your own life jackets to be safe.

• Boating and intoxication don’t mix. I am not saying that you can’t enjoy an adult beverage of two while on board but getting drunk on a boat is dangerous since you could go overboard. Also drunks on the water tend to get nauseas and if you do that on your friend’s boat you will probably not be invited back for obvious reasons.

• If you bring food on the boat come with your own cooler and ice. Cold storage is at a premium on a boat so your host will really appreciate your thoughtfulness. Additionally if you bring a dish that you know that your host likes you will get lots of points. At least you would from me but then again everyone knows how I am about food. ;-)  LOL

• What should you do if your friend asks if you want to steer? Go for it! They probably want to share something with you that they love and you don’t have to take the wheel for long. Also maybe they just need a break for a little while so they can relax. Standing at the helm, scanning the water for debris and other boats can be exhausting. Give your friends a little break and chip in. Don’t worry about hitting anything they will be watching to make sure that you are safe.

• Last but certainly not least don’t clog the toilet on the boat. Ask your friends what you need to know so that this doesn’t happen on their boat. Clogging the boat toilet means your friends have a nasty job on their hands. This would be another way to get yourself officially removed from the guest list. Boat toilets are relatively easy to clog so be sure to ask your friends what to avoid doing so this doesn’t happen to you.

I hope that gives you some ideas of boating guest protocols 101. Since I didn’t know these things before we got our first boat I wanted to share them with you so you can avoid any potential unpleasantness.

You Are Here:

If you are a fan of Eckhart Tolle’s “The Power of Now” or if you just want to learn to be a calmer person I highly recommend this book "You Are Here". I picked it up from the library a week ago and I can’t put it down. I am on my second reading of the book and will probably buy it to add to my lending library. This book was written by a Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk and was my introduction to Buddhism. However if Buddhism is always like this where do I sign up?

Signing out:

It is very exciting to have high speed internet access at the boat now. I can’t tell you how nice it is to be connected again.

How is Life?

What a crazy busy life I have had recently. I am not complaining mind you because most of it has been fantastic but it has also kept me away from home and off the computer. I did take many pictures so I can fill you in on our adventures.

Almost every day we spend some time at the boat. I love sitting in the cockpit and watching the sunset while digesting dinner. The best decision we have made in a very long time is keeping the boat at the Inner Harbor 15 minutes from home.

Speaking of the marina my little duck friend took food right out of Jackie’s hand on Sunday. It wasn’t a fluke because she did it twice. Jackie (Walid’s wife) and I have given her a name “Patoot” which is Arabic for duck. Patoot now comes when I make that kissy sounds that people make to call cats (though they rarely come when called)….talk about adorable! She is really a precious little duck.

Okay so enough duck gushing here is some of the other stuff I have been up to lately.

Ferran and Jose:

The end of September Dan, Will and I spend the day together. We started with Vietnamese (at Me Kong Delta Cafe) for lunch which Dan and I love and Will agreed. In fact he said the Pho was the best he ever had. Will used to work for Ian and used to create many of the dishes you saw on my blog before May 2011 when he went to work at Woodberry.  As you see above we ordered a veggie stir fry.

After our Vietnamese lunch Will and I hung out at the boat until we picked up Dan to head to DC. Ferran Adrian and Jose Andres were having a talk at George Washington’s Lisner Auditorium and we got tickets to the sold out event. Will borrowed by copied of El Bulli 2003, 2004 and interviewed Jose for his thesis so he was looking forward to the event as much as we were. It was fascinating to hear Ferran talk about his thoughts on food, recipes and philosophy. My favorite part was watching Jose as Ferran spoke. The admiration Jose has for Ferran was absolutely touching.   I love stuff like that.

We all came home with signed copies of Ferran’s new book “The Family Meal” which isn’t vegan but the ideas I will get from this book will be invaluable. Dan’s copy will be going to my best friend Louis who loves cooking as much as I do and will go into his signed cookbook collection.  Love you Louis!  :-)

After the table we went to Jose's restaurant Jaleo for dinner because Will hadn’t been yet. We were there during the tomato festival so we had to get the watermelon and tomato caviar skewers which were delicious.

Will ordered the dessert which was a tomato and strawberry sorbet (which didn’t seem to have any added sweetener) over olive oil cake with yogurt foam and macerated strawberries. I just love how Jose’s mind works.  I always get ideas eating at Jaleo.

The Boat:

As you know I absolutely adore my husband. He asks so little of me that when he does I do my best to comply. Recently we have been spending every spare moment on the boat. Like I said Dan asks so little from me I really couldn’t say no, nor did I want to. Spending time at the boat has meant working on, shopping for, sailing as well as relaxing at the marina. We have made huge progress on the boat so far and have really been enjoying relaxing in the cockpit (the back) watching the sunset while sipping mugs of green tea. The back of the boat has become our floating deck and we both just love it. Docking the boat 15 minutes from home has been fantastic in case you missed my earlier comment. ;-)

The only problem with spending so much time on the boat has been the wifi speed which was painfully slow. Seriously slow doesn’t accurately convey the problem. It was so bad I gave up taking my laptop to the boat. This was both good and bad. The good part was that I was able to relax and/or be productive on the boat depending on my mood. The down side was that I got so far behind on the blog that I had difficulty pushing myself to get back into the habit. However we now have a wifi booster on board and that should make it easier to keep up the blogs. *fingers crossed*  Today went well so let's hope that continues.

Aimee and Michael ("the kids") were the first visitors to the boat which was very fitting I thought. We took the boat out for a quick trip to the Inner Harbor at sunset and Aimee enjoyed it which was a miracle since she isn’t a huge fan of water other than pools.

Here are a few photos of what the boat interior looks like at the moment. We still have more work to do but we are making a lot of progress I think.

Food on the Boat:

We have been eating dinner on the boat most evenings and I am still getting my sea legs in the galley (kitchen). However I am starting to come up with some shortcuts that would work at home or on a boat and here they are:

• Premade spice mixes has been a life saver. I have come up with three mixes so far (Mexican, Southern Italian and Indian) and those have been key to make quick dinners on board.

• Keeping dried mushrooms on board has also been very useful. Not only do they take up little space but they add a lot of flavor to a variety of dishes. I soak them in hot water in a sealed container for 30 minutes before I start cooking and they are ready to go.  The dish above was a whole wheat noodle soup with dried mushrooms.

• I took an electric hot water kettle to the boat and that has also been very helpful. It boils water faster than using the propane stove which is great for making tea or preheating water for making risotto or pasta on the stove.   This pasta dish was topped with red sauce, fresh greends Tatsoi I think, and nutritional yeast.  Fast and delicious, does it get any better than that?

• We bought a pressure cooker for the boat and that also is great. It means that meals cook quickly and with much less propane. Additionally it means I can keep dried beans on board and those take up less space than canned beans which is also fantastic since you know how many beans we eat. ;-)

• Peanut butter sandwiches on whole wheat toast with either apple slices or bananas have also played a big role in food on board. They make a quick nutritious breakfast that is easy to keep on board.

• I have been keeping whole wheat pasta, soba noodles, and risotto on board as well. These are take up little room and I can cook a partial package and have just enough for the two of us with no leftovers to store. Additionally when you combine the dried mushrooms with the risotto you can whip up something when guests stop by which isn’t your typical boat fare.

• We have been eating a lot of hummus with crudités. This really is the ultimate boat food. Collard wraps with pecan nut meat are also great to have in the refrigerator. Raw meals come together quickly on board if you do the prep work at home.

• Additionally I have also been making a lot of raw cashew and veggie based sauces to keep on the boat. One was cilantro, lime, garlic and curry and that turned out very well. Another one was tomato, balsamic and garlic which I really loved. There is also a roasted red pepper, sherry vinegar and smoked paprika sauce. These are great for dipping veggies into, or for topping sandwiches. This was a veggie burger topped with a tomato, raw cashew, balsamic and garlic spread and veggies.

• Roasted portabella mushrooms have been very popular with us lately. These can be cooked at home or on the boat. I have come up with a few different marinades for the mushrooms to add flavor. One is balsamic and Dijon and we like this one a lot. Another is balsamic and Worcestershire (vegan of course) and that one is more “meaty”. These roasted mushrooms are good hot or cold and work well on toasted bread, topped with one of the sauces above and some arugula. They are also good sliced and slipped into a rolled collard leaf. This time I used the roasted veggies but sliced them and added Swiss chard, kale, onions, garlic, crushed red peppers and served it over quinoa.

• For snacks I am keeping the following on board: roasted seaweed, dried fruit, trial mix and nuts (both flavored and plain). These are all very handy to munch while sailing. When I also have peanut butter on board I have been stuffing dates with it and that makes a nice snack.

I hope this gives you some ideas for quick and nutritious food. Trust me if I can do this quickly in a little galley on a boat you can definitely do it at home.

Dr. Greger:

I mentioned that Dr. Greger was looking for volunteers to help with his site Nutritionfacts.org and since I love his work I felt compelled to lend a hand. Dan thought I was biting off more than I could chew but it was such a good cause how I not help? I have been enjoying my interaction with Dr. Greger. He is as nice or possibly nicer than I expected him to be. If any of you have a little free time to help out please do. It is a great cause and you might just learn something in the process….volunteering is definitely a win-win in my book.

Here are a few shots I took for an upcoming Dr. Greger video. These will be posted on his site (nutritionfacts.org) on December 2 if you want to check them out. I will put a link up to the video when it is posted.

Phil was in Town:

Last week our buddy Phil was in town from Springfield, Missouri. It is always wonderful to see Phil. I picked him up at the airport, we stopped at the marina so he could see the boat and then we went to dinner at the usual place. I know I have said this before but it is a shame we live so far from Phil. However I suppose because of that we appreciate the time we spend with him more.

Dan and I ordered our favorite appetizer the antipasti platter which they make vegan for us.

Ian has also added a daily vegetarian special. The night we were there it was a whole wheat pasta dish with olives, tomatoes and feta. We had them substitute mushrooms for the feta and it was perfect.

Phil got the garden Caesar salad and the chicken and olives. I just love that we have a neighborhood restaurant where we can get vegan food and our omni friends can order something with meat.

What if Life isn’t Perfect?:

I am constantly surprised by the number of people who seem to believe that my life is without problems because nothing could actually be further from the truth. The only difference in my life is that I refuse to dwell on the negative, but trust me there is plenty of it there. I think that when you dwell on what is wrong you give it more power over you. Instead of focusing on cancer, my aging parents, my ever growing to-do list and complete lack of free time I choose to put my attention on what is good in my life. This positive focus doesn’t make my problems go away but it does help me to forget about them. There are times I go weeks and don’t think about cancer and that is a great thing. Stress isn’t good for anyone’s health and the more you can reduce it the better off you will be.

No I haven’t always been like this in fact for most of my life I was the opposite. I would obsess about what was wrong and this just seemed to made things worse. It finally occurred to me one day that my own behavior was causing me more harm than the things which I was upset about. It took me months to train myself not to focus on what was wrong. Believe me if I can do it I know you can.

I try to write my blog as I live my life. Since I don’t dwell on my problems in real life I do the same thing on blog. Now I am curious have any of you tried not to focus on the positive rather than the negative in your life? How did it work for you? Do you feel more at peace with life when you don’t give the negative aspects more focus than is necessary? What do you use to keep life in perspective? When I have difficulty letting go of what is wrong I find that quietly meditating works wonders to clear my mind. Sometimes all I need to do is concentrate on my breath and that is enough to quiet my mind. I am very curious to hear what techniques you use to bring more peace into your life.

Happy Thoughts:

Wow, life has been very good lately I am not sure where to start, but here goes:

• Spending evenings on the boat means that my husband is taking time to relax each day and this is huge. Dan works entirely too hard and too much so any time he relaxes I am thrilled. Deciding to keep the boat at the inner harbor was one of the best decisions we made.

• We have been doing a lot of work on the boat and it is really starting to show. She is definitely starting to come together and is feeling like “our” boat.

• I have made some friends at the marina and I love that. One of the ladies I met has been very curious about our food and said recently that she can see herself giving up meat since meeting me. *woo hoo* You have no idea how happy this made me. I get so excited when I hear things like this.  

• I love that I have a duck friend at the marina that follows me to the boat when I arrive. She did this on Monday and I thought it was the cutest thing ever!

• Hearing Ferran Adria speak was a once in a lifetime treat that I will never forget. How often do any of us get to listen to the father of molecular gastronomy talk about his philosophy about food? I am such a foodie geek. LOL

• We are becoming friendly with the captain (Robert the retired MD) who brought our boat up from Grenada. He is a wealth of information and a very kind and generous man. Sometimes you just never know where you will meet people with whom you will click.

• The weather this past weekend and today was in the mid 80’s. We had fantastic weather for sailing over the weekend and we used that to spend time with Walid and Jackie.

• I took some pizza almonds that I made to Pam (our CSA farmer) this past Sunday and she really enjoyed them. These has been so popular with everyone that I might investigate what is involved in selling them. Clearly I would need to have a commercial kitchen make and package them and I am not positive I have enough free time to make that happen soon. But it is definitely worth investigating.

Signing Out:

It is a nice walk around the Inner Harbor from the marina to Dan’s office. I am going to get a few miles in this evening but walking over to meet him and then we will walk back together. Nothing like face time with my hubby to put a smile on my face.

More Nautical Stuff and Another Spice Blend

I am sure you will not be surprised to hear that we were on the boat again. Our to-do list currently has 78 items on it. Thankfully many of the items are small and 17 have already been accomplished. Still… there is a lot left to do. It is funny somehow when you enjoy sail you only remember the part you love and not the work. However I will say that the good definitely outweighs the bad when it comes to sailing.

Monday night after work Dan replaced the pump on the toilet. I went to the boat with him for moral support. Talk about a dirty smelly job. No wonder he had no desire to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a plumber. :-P Can’t I say I blame him one bit after being onboard while he was doing this plumbing job. Here is the new pump in place.  Next up... breaking out the steam cleaner.

After he had his job taken care of it was my responsibility to clean the head (nautical speak for boat bathroom) and the bilge. We get all the fun don’t we? ;-) We could have paid someone to do this stuff but really that just seems incredibly wasteful and lazy to both of us so we did it ourselves. Sometimes I think neither one of us has good sense. LOL

Sorry I haven’t been posting much but the wifi speed at the marina is not the best. I have been calling the wifi provider and hopefully they will do something about it soon so that I can get back on a regular schedule. I tried uploading a few photos to Facebook on Tuesday and they timed out. *argh* The slow connection is extremely frustrating. I am trying to just go with the flow but I can honestly say I feel a little odd being so out of the loop electronically. On the bright side our friends Christine and Tim also had wifi problems and those have now been resolved so I am hoping that ours will also be resolved quickly.

The food recently has been nothing much to speak of. We have been eating leftovers and quick meals, nothing really worth sharing. I do need to get back into the kitchen soon and make something interesting if for no other reason so I don’t get bored. Dan will eat anything as long as it tastes good and doesn’t mind repeats one bit. I am the one who needs to change things up in the food department.

What do we eat when I am not in the mood for cooking? Since there is definitely a pattern to what I do I thought I should share it with you. We almost always have a salad with both lunch and dinner. These can be anything but I typically combine: raw greens, veggies, fruit and nuts or seeds and sometimes quinoa.

I also gravitate to soup a lot since that is easy and reheats extremely well. Beans make a very filling and nutritious addition to soups and stews. If you want to make it more hearty you can serve the soup/stew over quinoa and not only it is more filling but you have then covered your bases in terms of essential amino acids. I just love quinoa which you probably guessed based on how often you see us eat it.

Dinner on the boat was a simple meal that I could make easily given the limitations of using a propane stove. I brought cooked quinoa, a sweet potato and kidney beans from home. I made the Mexican spiced tomato and bean sauce on the boat. Cooked a small spaghetti squash in the oven. Our dinner was spaghetti squash and quinoa topped with the Mexican tomato and beans to which I added diced sweet potato. This was easy to make because I now also keep a Mexican blend of spices on board that includes: dried minced onion, powdered garlic, no-salt seasoning, cumin seeds, paprika, oregano, cinnamon and cocoa powder. With the spice blend and little hot sauce dinner came together quite quickly.

Next I am going to make an Indian spice blend to keep on board and I should be able to make a decent variety of meals from standard pantry items. At least that is my plan we will see how well it works on in practice. However so far the Southern Italian and Mexican spice blends have been very handy as well as not taking up much room which is very important on a boat.

After dinner we lounged around the boat for a little while and then cleaned up and headed for home. We have been spending almost every night on the boat. It is fabulous being about to sit in the cockpit every night and enjoy the lights twinkly on the water. Now I can’t imagine why we ever had a boat that was over an hour away from home. What the heck were we thinking? ;-)

Happy Thoughts:

• The boat smells much better since the toilet has been fixed. Dan got major points from me for resolving that problem so quickly.   Having scented candles on board also seems to help.

• We are making good progress on our boat to-do list. While we would rather be sailing than doing work be both also want to get everything taken care of sooner rather than later. Not to mention it is incredibly relaxing being at the marina. We both love sitting in the cockpit, sipping tea and looking at the water. Additionally we have nice boat neighbors and that helps make the work part a lot more palatable.

• The fur children are starting to get used to mommy being gone more during the day and are much less panicked when I get home. This makes me feel less guilty about leaving them home. Realistically I know that they spend most of their time sleeping during the day but I see feel bad leaving them by themselves.

• The weather on Tuesday was absolutely magnificent. We had temperatures in the upper 70’s with a gentle breeze. It was one of those days where you just couldn’t get enough time outside.

Signing out:

Now I need to get productive. I have lots to do at home before I head back to the marina to meet Dan for dinner. Oh yeah, I also have more work to do on the boat but that doesn’t even bother me since I will be on the water. Talk with you again soon.

Another Great Weekend and a Few Recipes

Saturday was for sailing:

Time has been flying by recently. We have been getting a lot accomplished but very little of it has been at home. I have gotten pretty good at making food that is portable or taking the ingredients with me and whipping things up on the boat. I will need to write a post about that soon so I can share what I have learned with all of you. There are definitely some tricks that I have picked up.

Saturday we had good wind and took advantage of it to figure out what the boat would do. Did we have a good time? No doubt about it! When we left the dock the wind was about 5 knots but it reached 13.6 knots so we had a great day to try things out. We got rid of the prior boat over a decade ago so we really needed to “get our feet wet” and it was the perfect day for it. We had the boat moving at 7.6 knots which wasn’t bad for our first trip out. I was pleased with how she handled which was a little bit of surprise. Since the last boat was a racer I assumed she would have been much easier to handle but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Here is Dan behind the wheel.

This is me trying my best to see over the cabin. The world is just not made for short people. ;-)

I loved this picture of the Inner Harbor as we were coming back to the marina.

Here are a few more shots I took while we were out.  Sailing out of the inner harbor is definitely different from having the boat on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

We go right by Fort McHenry on our way to the bay. It is great be surrounded by history. It isn’t like being in Italy but we have our share of American history at least. ;-)

While we were underway I made us a salad of: tatsoi (an Asian green), quinoa (which I cooked at home), marinated mushrooms (also made a home), tomatoes and pine nuts. I was able to toss this together while Dan took the wheel.

We sailed for about 4 hours and it was getting cold (temps in the mid 60’s and a lot of wind), and we weren’t really dressed for it, so we headed back for the marina.

I couldn’t get warm so I made us some hot green tea. When that didn’t do it I decided a mostly raw dinner was out of the question. Thank goodness I had stashed some of the Tasty Bites packaged vegan food on board. See even we eat “packaged” food sometimes. ;-) I am sure you know me well enough to realize that I didn’t eat it as it came out of the package though. It wouldn’t be me if I didn’t tinker with it now would it?

Sunday:

We started our morning at the farmers’ market like always. Fall is definitely fast approaching as the winter squash is plentiful now. *boo hoo* It is always sad to see summer end. However I am consoling myself with the good wind we always have in the fall. On the Chesapeake sailing is better spring and fall than it is during the summer. Additionally the powerboats don’t seem to come out as much and that makes for less dodging them since many of them don’t seem to understand the “rules of the road”.

Here are some of the fun hummus flavors I picked up at the market on Sunday.

After the market we came home and lounged around for a while since neither of us got much sleep last night. There was a new episode of Dr. Who on so you know Dan couldn’t go to sleep. I am not sure what my excuse was for getting into bed so late, but I am going to blame it on Dr. Who keeping Dan up. ;-)

Dan ran out to the hardware store to pick up some materials to make a device to hold the spring line up at the marina so that it will be easier to dock. Good thing one of us is handy isn’t it? As you probably guessed I am not the handy one in our family. ;-)

While he was gone I made another batch of curried split pea soup because it travels really well. I measured this time so that I can share the recipe which you will find at the end of this post.

Since it was so cold last night I thought some hot chocolate would be nice to have on the boat and whipped up a batch of almond milk and part of that became hot chocolate. This recipe will also be at the end of this post.

I also wanted to make a sweet and spicy pickled salad of sorts. I had something similar at Jesse Wong’s a few months ago and knew I could make it my own, and dare I say improve on it from both a nutrition and taste perspective. I have also shared that at the bottom of this post.

When we got to the marina it was much later than we had intended it to be. I got busy stowing everything on board so that we could go out if we decided to. Dan took care of installing his new device on the dock. While he was busy with power tools I took a little time to write this post and get some veggie chili with mushrooms in the crock pot. The boat came with a crock pot on board so I wanted to test that out and see how it would work on board since that was a new idea for me. For some reason I never used a Crockpot on the prior boat. Since it seemed to work fairly well on high I may start making more meals in the Crockpot on the boat.

Before I forget Dr. Greger is looking for unpaid interns for his site nutritionafacts.org to help spread the word about the health benefits of a whole food vegan diet. As you have probably guessed I don’t have a huge amount of free time but helping Dr. Greger is a fantastic cause so I am thrilled to be able to lend a hand. If you can spare 10 hours a week for 10 weeks please join me in volunteering for Dr. Greger. I am sure you will find it very rewarding. I hope to see you there soon. :-)

Recipes from this weekend:

Curried Split Pea Soup
Serves 8

Ingredients:

2 cups Bob’s Red Mill “Vegi Soup Mix” (green and yellow split peas, barley, lentils, and whole wheat alphabet pasta)
8 cups water
2 bay leaves
1 onion, peeled and minced
32 ounces homemade canned tomatoes (or 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes no or low salt)
2 tablespoons garam masala
½ - 1 tablespoon turmeric (this can be bitter so start with less how much you need will depend on how much is the garam masala you used)
½ tablespoons fresh ground black pepper (to make the curcumin in the turmeric more bioavailable)
2 tablespoons black mustard seeds
fresh lime wedges to finish

Directions:

Combine the water, bean mix, and bay leaves in your pressure cook and cook on high pressure for 10 minutes. Use the quick release method, remove the bay leaves and add the remaining ingredients, except the lime and cook until the onion is tender. Serve the soup with wedges of lime to bright the flavor.

Almond Milk Hot Chocolate
Serves 2 – greedy vegans ;-)

Ingredients:

3 cups homemade almond milk, with the oats to thicken it
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
a pinch of mace
stevia to taste, depending on how much of a sweet tooth you have

Directions:

I combine this in Mason jar and shake well to combine. By doing that you can shake the jar and pour out the amount you want to heat and store the remainder in the refrigerator. Also it travels well this way.

Spicy Sweet and Sour Salad of Bok Choy and Carrot
Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 cup white vinegar
1 cup water
1 cinnamon stick
approximately 10 whole cloves
whole dried chilis (like you see in Asian stir fry), add these to taste depending on how much you like heat (I used 15 or so but I love heat)
2 carrots, cut into sticks
4 cups shredded bok choy
¼ cup golden raisins
sesame seeds for garnish
spicy greens to be a bed for the salad (I used tatsoi)

Directions:

Combine the water, vinegar, spices, and heat on high until the liquid is just beginning to bubble. Now add the carrots so that they will begin to soften. Once the vinegar has cooled add the bok choy and raisins and store the salad in a jar in the refrigerator. Periodically turn the jar over to distribute the marinade. To serve place the salad on top of the greens and dust the salad with sesame seeds. Don’t forget to tell your family not to eat the hot peppers as they are very hot.

Happy Thoughts:

• It was another fantastic weekend for us. Dan didn’t spend any time at work so we had lots of face time and you know we loved that. ;-) We had a great sail on Saturday and a very relaxing dinner on board on Sunday.

• I have a new little feathered friend at the marina. The most adorable mallard has decided that she needs to greet me every time I come down the boat. I am sure it has nothing to do with my feeding her the leftover pancakes that the delivery crew left in the refrigerator. ;-) Thank goodness Michelle can to the rescue to tell me what I should be feeding the duck. My little friend (who I now need to name), hung around with me for an hour under Sunday after I gave her the end of the pancakes on board. I swear one day I am going to arrive at the marina and she will be waiting for me on the boat.

• I have a new human friend at the marina as well. Chris, two slips away, and I are really hitting it off. We both love to cook, and talk and have been spending a lot of time together. It is very nice to make new friends.

• The wind has really started to pick up on the Chesapeake which is fantastic. After all sailing is no fun when you don’t have wind. ;-)

Signing out:

I have been spending so much time at the boat that things at home are now out of control. Time for me to get busy and get some things done at home so that I can relax at the boat. Talk with you again soon.