Greens O’Gratin

One thing about a long-running food blog … there are only so many quintessentially Irish dishes you can make for St. Patrick’s Day year after year, particularly when you aren’t all that Irish.  I’m also waging a protracted campaign to use up my winter greens before the beds need to be turned for tomatoes and…

Pressure Cooker Beef Short Ribs

Sometimes a crew just  needs meat and potatoes, ya know?  And no better cut than short ribs for flavor, well marbled and bone-in, but that’s IF you have a good long time to braise them until they fall off the bone.  Tonight I did not have that time.  We had a great afternoon sail and…

Cantaloupe Cocktail Hour

In Pirate Caroline’s anchorage, it’s Eastern Shore ‘Loupe season; in Pirate Kristin’s it’s not nearly so romantic.  We have four seasons here in southern Louisiana: football, Mardi Gras, crawfish, and hurricane; and we’ve just entered the latter one.  No storms yet — it’s early — but the heat and humidity make sailing a very catch-as-catch…

Cordon Bleu Chicken Fingers

Or as our guest sailor today would call them, “Doigts de Poulet Cordon Bleu.”  Ace and his dad Wendell joined us today to see how fast we could cross Lake Pontchartrain, sailing to New Orleans and back.  Your Galley Pirate wasn’t quite sure what eleven year olds eat, and surveyed several scalleywags who reliably reported…

Ratatouille, His-n-Hers

  The crew of Upward Wing are very compatible; few sources of friction; all maritime marital bliss.  I say this so that you will know I’m NOT complaining but…Captain Peter doesn’t eat eggplant.  This is something I can generally live with, but not during Indian summer when eggplant, summer squash, tomatoes, herbs and peppers are…

Asparagus Soup With Lemon and Dill (Asparagolemono)

Spring has very much sprung here in the South — beautiful weather with just enough warmth, no humidity, and some great winds!  That means two things: get the diver out to scrub our bottom (go ahead…indulge your inner 12-year-old boy and giggle…), and asparagus season.  This soup is from the Old Farmer’s Almanac and is…

Cajun Singapore Noodles

So by now you all know Pirate Caroline is spending the first two months of her 2018 lounging about a luxury yacht on the passage of a lifetime.  I, on the other hand, have two months full of business travel (and alas, I am not a professional sailor).  That said, some of my destinations have…

Pork Tamales in Banana Leaves

We have pressure cooker madness onboard our sailing vessel today.  Nothing illegal or sinister about this pressure cooker, but I have to admit these Tamales Wrapped in Banana Leaves are so good they should be outlawed! Pressure cooking is a go-to method onboard a sailboat, using less time and energy than conventional cooking. Plus you can lock down the…

Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Rum Cherry Glaze

While Pirate Caroline’s Wiki Chick’n last week looked delicious, and we have nothing against vegetables in their rightful place, we felt the need to balance all that excess nutritional virtue generated by the faux meat product with something unabashedly meaty. A few weeks back we anchored out together off our favorite Eastern Shore town of…

Sweet Potato Salad

Struggling to relate this post to Columbus Day (or Annapolis Sailboat Show) weekend, I typed “Columbus Sweet Potato” into Google…and got the following history of the sweet potato.  I shouldn’t be surprised; I knew it was a great cruising recipe because sweet potatoes store well and are found in most parts of the world where…