Our plans to sail to Rockhall and eat crabs with friends were scrapped when the weather forecast showed 80% chance of rain with 50% of thunderstorms all weekend.  We are not simple fairweather sailors, but a forecast like that just looks like no fun at all.  So, with a long list of chores aboard anyway, it became a working weekend in the slip.  We still ate well — Saturday dinner at Anne Arundel Seafood up near Gibson Island, with oysters, shrimp, and scallops, and Sunday after church I insisted on a civilized brunch before the work began.  Time to work with what you have on board.

Time for Mom’s Magic sauces!  One, a fruit sauce, and another a “mock” hollandaise.

Here are the ingredients for the fruit sauce: juice and rind of one lemon and one orange, an egg, and a cup of sugar.

Grate the rind of the citrus and then juice directly into the pan.  The mashing the fruit gets while you are grating will only make the juicing easier.  There is something immensely satisfying about ending up with a fruit looking like that…I got ALL of it!  No waste aboard Upward Wing.

Beat and then add your egg and add the sugar; beat the egg thoroughly to avoid having bits of cooked egg white in your sauce, but if you do have them, just pick them out…no harm.  Stir over medium heat just until sugar dissolves, about 5 minutes, without boiling.  Chill sauce for best flavor.

For a fruit salad for two, I used about a couple soupspoons full of sauce — the sauce is an accent, so you don’t want or need too much.  I had a couple of very ripe peaches, three far less ripe plums, watermelon, red grapes, and a couple of bananas.  That list allows a perfect illustration of the magic of this sauce.  It will sweeten any fruits that are a little too tart (my plums), will keep the banana from browning (the plates served above were 20+ minutes after the banana had been cut), and it will “polish” and make a presentable dish out of an oddball mix of fruits.

Kept in the icebox in an airtight container, this will last at least a week, giving you a quick fallback when you need it.

Now the hollandaise; ingredients are 3/4 cup mayonnaise, 1/3 cup milk, 1/4 teaspoon salt, dash of white pepper, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and 1 teaspoon of grated lemon rind.

Cook mayonnaise, milk, salt, and pepper over low heat, stirring constantly, just until heated, about 3 minutes.  Stir in lemon juice and rind off-heat.

Chill for best results, it will thicken nicely and again will last in an airtight container in the icebox for a week.  Here I didn’t take time to chill so it was a little runnier, if still tasty.  You can use this sauce to dress up so many things: we had it on plain, grilled chicken breasts; it enhances chicken and fish wonderfully, hot or cold, and is much lighter and fresher than tartar sauce for fish.  It’s also great on vegetables like blanched asparagus or green beans or steamed broccoli.

As with the fruit sauce, the magic lies in its ability to make something plain or maybe imperfect fabulous and presentable…which of course is what moms do!  Enjoy, impromptu-ly!