Galley Gourmet

Anyone who watches Rachel Ray knows that one of her favorite descriptions for one of her dishes is Yummo!

Warm Bacon-Swiss spread fills the bill and falls into the class of Yummo..

When putting something together for entertaining on the boat, it needs to be fast to whip up, have few ingredients, have no exotic ingredients and be cooked in a microwave.

Ingredients:

1 8 ounce package of cream cheese, cubed

3/4 cup of shredded swiss cheese

1/2 cup of Mayo

1 green onion chopped

8 bacon strips cooked and crumbled

Assorted crackers or whatever you like, to put the spread on.

Place cream cheese in a microwave safe bowl place in microwave on high for 30 seconds to soften. Stir in the swiss cheese, mayo and onion til blended. Transfer to an ungreased 9 inch pie plate. Microwave for 90 seconds on high, stirring once. Sprinkle with the crumbled bacon. Crush a few of the crackers and sprinkle that on too.

To save time, and ease of clean up, Use the Oscar Mayer bacon that is already precooked when you buy it. Or Hormel microwave bacon. Cook the bacon until it is good and crisp.

I don't use the packaged cheeses already shredded. You lose a lot of the flavor this way. I buy a small block of swiss cheese and pack my grater.

This receipe makes 2 cups. Reduced or Fat Free mayo is not recommended for this receipe.

Enjoy!

Slow Cooker---Beef Barbecue

Perfect On A Boat.  Think I am crazy? I'll tell you how to make it work for you.

No generator?  A small inverter connected to your battery can power a slow cooker.  West Marine sells a 700w inverter that will take a 1800w surge for $69.  This works for people who have a generator but don't want to run it all day while they are under way.  Start this dinner before you shove off for the day and it will be done when you arrive. Slow cookers are a great  idea if you are going to be arriving late after the local restaurants are closed! Even if you are staying put at the dock, you can turn on the pot at 10:00AM and by 4:00PM, dinner is done and ready to be served.  Or you can put it on hold for up to 2 hours and serve later when you are ready or when guests arrive.

I try to pick receipes that don't require a lot of ingredients. Or ingredients that are too exotic and I don't keep on hand.

1 boneless chuck roast (around 3 pounds)

1 cup of barbecue sauce

1/2 cup of apricot preserves

1/3 cup of chopped green pepper or sweet peppers. Add in some hot peppers or jalapeno if you want to add some heat

1 small chopped onion

1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard

2 teaspoons of brown sugar

12 sandwich rolls split

Cut the roast into quarters; place in a greased 5 qt slow cooker. In a bowl, combine barbecue sauce, preserves, green pepper, onion, mustard and brown sugar. Pour over the roast, cover and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours until meat is tender. Remove roast and thinly slice, return meat to slow cooker and stir gently. Cover and cook for another 30 minutes. If the sauce is too thick or dry, ad in 1/2 cup of water.

Serve beef on rolls.

A 3 pound roast will make 12 sandwiches.

Bring out some chips or fries and dinner is served!

No problem getting the kids to eat these!

Tom:

It really depends on how your galley is set up. Or it doesn't really have to be in the galley. Anyplace that you have close to an outlet would work if you can also secure it.

 Most people drop it in the sink and it works fine, but maybe some boats have a better place to put it while under way. The hardest part is keeping the lid on it. The lids aren't meant to stay on while you are moving around. But on a boat, everything in the galley is subject to taking a roll. If that lid comes off and the pot tips, there goes dinner! And here comes a mess !

 But really, I have never had my pot tip or the lid slip while it was sitting in the galley sink.......but I have an exceptionally deep sink.  If your sink is shallow, you may need to fasten the lid to the pot before sitting it in the sink.

Man, that buffalo chicken dip sounds good... I really like the taste of wings, but can't deal with the mess. I usually go for the boneless chicken finger route, but this sounds really good.

Thanks for sharing!

Bruce 

You are so luck with regards to your climate.

At this point in time, living on the north shore of Lake Ontario, 35 degrees is a long way off! I need an ice pick to open my recipe box -- just kidding! I have been cooking as a passionate hobby for 40 years and in the not to distant future (30 months) I will adopt the live aboard lifestyle.

Got it all figured out -- well almost -- type of sailboat, no problem -- s--t kicking nav. & charting system -- ditto. Galley -- PANIC STATIONS! From my land based kitchen I can nuke it, preasure cook it, infa-ray it, smoke it, crock pot it, rice cook it, air dry it, wok it -- blah blah blah. I have no problem letting go of material possession that will not work on the water. I just can't get my head around letting go of the fun stuff. Any input in this regard would be much appreciated.

One of my projects is developing recipes for my new lifestyle. Fast, easy, nice. As the Captain, Chief Chef and Bottle Washer I think I have my work cut out!

Will be posting recipes from time to time -- sharing is a good thing.

P.S.

Still trying to get my head around your slow cooker thingy. Do you have a powered cruiser?

Best regards

David 

RedBW - What crockery -- pots and pans -- do you consider essential aboard?  With space at a premium, especially aboard many not-so-well-thought-out boats, it's hard to decide what to bring.  Here's my list:

Pasta Pot - As big as you can store and actually get water to boil in.  Can't live without pasta and it forms the basis of so many combination entrees.

Fri Pan - Doesn't have to be big; 10" will do; your choice re non-stick or not.   With this and the pasta pot, I can do virtually everything I need.  For example, a nice pasta and prosciutto with peas can be done with the prosciutto sauteed in the frying pan and the peas added to the last 2 minutes of pasta cooking time.

Soup pan - Some want a small sauce pan for soups and things, but honestly, I'd rather just microwave soup in the dish I'm going to eat it in.  Which brings me to a pet peeve -- most of the crap sold in marine stores as "dishware" is NOT microwave safe, which means that, for me, it's nor versatile enough.  Gotta be able to put the soup in the bowl and zap it.  Same with leftovers.

Anyone else have a favorites list?

that's interesting.  Would never have thought of that.  Wonder why the frying pan version doesn't do well?  Is it hot spots?  Maybe the glass doesn't conduct the heat uniformly enough for that kind of application?

Are you using this on an electric stove?

Are there any propane stove galleys out there?

I am getting out my receipe box to get ready for summer entertaining on board.  We will be having company onboard for the Memorial Day holiday so I need something that everybody likes and is easy to fix. Even though cucumbers aren't in season yet, the stores seem to be well stocked with them so they must be in season someplace.  Here is a great way to use them:

Sour Cream Cucumbers

1/2 cup of sour cream

3 tablespoons of white vinegar but you can use apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon of sugar

4 medium size  cucumbers, thinly sliced. (I have a cheap mandolin slicer that makes them paper thin)

1 small red onion, thinly sliced and separated into rings.

black or white pepper to taste

Combine the sour cream, vinegar, sugar and pepper. Stir in the cucumbers and onion. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Overnight is even better.

And you have the perfect side dish for a picnic 

                                                                                                                                                                      Just returned from my local supermarket that was selling 3-12 inch English cucumbers for $2.00. Just couldn't resist! Now I know how to get rid of them in one shot.

Thanks for the recipe! It sounds great!

Well, the weekend is here and so is boating season. Company is coming by so I gotta think of something creative to go with the tortilla chips I got on sale today. So Cheddar Bacon Dip will fit the bill.

I cooked up a pound of bacon and crumbled it at home so all I have to do is put it together at lunch time tomorrow.

I'll take my 2 inch deep  13 x 9 inch glass dish with me too.

The receipe is as follows:

1 package (8 ounce) cream cheese

1 cup (8 ounce) sour cream

5 small green onions thinly sliced or a 1/2 cup of finely chopped red onions if you don't have green ones

4 medium tomatoes   chopped

1 large green pepper finely chopped (yeah I know, they are expensive this time of year)

1/2 cup of black olives if you like them

1 jar (16 ounce) of taco sauce. Pace  or Old El Paso

2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese

Directions: in a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and sour cream. Spread in an ungreased 13x9 inch  dish.  Combine onions, tomatoes and green pepper and spread over the cream cheese base in the dish. Pour taco sauce over the vegetables in the dish. sprinkle with cheddar cheese and refrigerate. Just before serving sprinkle with the bacon. Before serving, I have been known to put it in the oven for 10 minutes at 350 degrees, to take the chill off. Serve with taco chips or tortilla chips.

Goes great with margaritas or beer!