Who would imagine it could be so chilly in the Keys in mid-February? At the end of last week Bob and I spent a few long days at the Miami Boat Show, and so I rummaged through the back cabin where I store all my ‘supplies’ to find something small to work on while ashore. Nothing is worse than having idle hands while stuck ashore for hours and hours on end at a convention center. So I found a ball of sock yarn and started a sock.
Now, just a few days later, I really could use a nice pair of wool socks for my frozen feet! First one is just about done….better get craking on the second. I just cannot get over how cold it is most days. We left a small harbor just south of Miami Beach this morning and headed about 45 miles south to Rodriguez Key which is right near Key Largo. Poor Bob had to stand at the wheel all day in gusty northwest winds. Tomorrow promises to be colder, barely 60 degrees, and the wind will be considerably stronger at over 30 mph. Try standing outside in gale force winds in the low 60s with no warm clothing and see if you don’t get hypothermia. We surely thought by now, down in the Keys, we’d be warm!
One way to keep warm is to turn on the oven! So a couple of mornings ago I made the King Arthur coffee cake that is on the unbleached flour package. There is a crumb mixture made of sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and walnuts that gets sprinkled in the middle of the batter and then on top before baking. It made the whole boat smell terrific. I did not have walnuts so I used slivered almonds, and I put a little almond extract in the batter, but kept the vanilla in the crumb mixture. Great recipe– It’s a keeper!
And one evening I made a dinner that I used to make quite often–in fact decades ago–when Bob and I were in college in the 1970s. It’s from the book The Vegetarian Epicure–who rembers that gem??? It’s called RussianVegetable Pie. The wonder of the internet is that I don’t even own that book anymore, but I was able to find the recipe online. I may not have the sharpest memory anymore, but the recipe looked very familiar and the finished dinner was as good as we both remembered.
This recipe starts with pastry crust made with both butter and cream cheese. There is a layer of cream cheese on the bottom, then a layer of hard cooked eggs. Next you add the layer of cabbage, onions and mushrooms that were sauteed beforehand. Place the pastry top and in the oven it goes! If this brings back good memories of the 70s, you can find the recipe here
Dinner is ready and the cabin is warm! Luckily there was enough for two nights, so I got to turn on the oven again to reheat it the next evening.
Seems that I’m on a roll of beating things to death these days. Must be brain freeze.
Speaking of cooking onboard, since I cannot bring all the cookbooks I might want to have on hand, I have been on the lookout for years for how to have recipes onboard. Writing or typing out my favorites to put in a notebook or recipe file was absolutely NOT a solution. Last year I discovered an iPad app called Paprika. You can type up your own recipes in it (but that’s not for me) or you can take recipes off the internet and store them in the app. This way you can access recipes even when you cannot go online. I have been collecting recipes from various magazine websites–my favorite being Cooks Illustrated– and various blogs, such as Orangette and Dishing Up the Dirt. I even have my much loved and vintage Russian Vegetable Pie in the app.
When we arrived in Rodriguez Key this afternoon I had hoped to make my next tapestry warp, but I am stuck on how to do it. I want to do the kind of warp that can be pulled around the loom as I progress. I normally tie the first and last warp of a continuous warp to the bottom of my copper pipe. If I do that I cannot make the kind of warp that can be advanced. I am stumped! I tried checking the internet, but had no luck with that. Maybe I’ll remember how to do this in my sleep tonight…..or maybe one of my Wednesday Group friends will come to my aid!
So instead of warping, Bob and I took a dinghy ride in to Key Largo and as we headed in to the harbor we saw the African Queen coming out. We were freezing but we had to take a detour and follow her so we could document the moment!
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