Kaimusailing

After our trip South to get a $10 patio table plus $35 in gasoline, we returned to Amelia Island and I looked at the Hobie Cat I had won on Boat Angel's online auction. It was at the end of a desolate muddy dirt road that ended with a million dollar house on a man-made hill. The Hobie was near a pond. The no-see-ums were out and attacking. Eloisa and Blue, her dark curly haired gorilla baby pet, no, American cocker dog, went off exploring while I checked out the catamaran. The main thing I was concerned about was hull delamination which seems to happen from time to time on these older Hobie's.
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I found the main halyard was parted, shredded, and jammed in the mainsail track. The decks on both hulls had delaminations, especially at the bows. When this happens a bow can snap off, usually when you really don't want it to, catastrophe. I knew how to fix such things, but I was going North soon and wouldn't have time to do that kind of repair. Maybe someone else will benefit.
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I killed the deal the next day and I am grateful for Boat Angel to make it easy to pull out of it. The previous owner, the donor, also was beneficent.
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I was going to make salmon cakes oriental style using rice instead of bread crumbs to bind the cakes together. Then I thought it might be better to make fried rice with salmon and those ingredients I ordered for the cakes. I had cilantro, shallots, some leftover celery, and various liquid ingredients.
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I prepped the shallots and celery, chopped the cilantro and added to the others in a zip lok bag. I had already cooked brown rice to a soft consistency. Everything was set aside for the final stir fry and assembly.
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Robert said he doesn't eat salmon, cross him off the invite list. Eloisa is busy deep cleaning on Roughrider Lynn's boat. I take Blue out for a bike ride through the boatyard. I can cook on Kaimu I the galley, or on the hot plate which needs power. I ended up in the woodshop and brought all the myriads of ingredients down here. Eloisa thought I had set up a bar. Liquids in bottles, sherry, fish sauce, soy sauce, chili paste, merlot, sesame oil, and of course olive oil. The hotplate had my new large 14 cup nonstick pan.
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Oil in it, let it get hot. Throw in the veggies and rice, spread them out to cook and soften, cover to get it hot. The can of wild caught salmon had a lot of liquid which I poured off. It was time to continue, the veggies were soft, mix the ingredients in the pan. I saved the aromatics for last, the sherry, fish sauce, and sesame oil. The salmon was canned and came out looking very complete, almost like whole caught fish stuffed in a can. I broke it up into the pan and mixed it in with the previous ingredients. Finally the aromatics went in after I scrambled an egg on one side of the pan. A taste revealed a spicy asian influenced flavor. I had also chopped up romaine hearts and used a vinaigrette dressing that is easy to remember and make, one cup of good olive oil, one cup of balsamic vinegar, one packet of Good Seasons Italian dressing mix.
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Eloisa didn't show up, Blue did, what was the hold up, I left on the bicycle. The aromatics will go off and the dish will lose an important part of its flavor. Blue accompanied me, as usual, up to Doc's Chop Shop where Eloisa was parked. She was not there. I circulated back. She wasn't at the stone table where the food was. I walked around the corner and she was talking to Big Dave, a prospective boat job for her. I peeled her away, "The aromatics".
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The fried rice was more like an oriental rice pilaf. Overcooked, aromatics long gone, Eloisa liked the salad dressing, Blue got his share and didn't mind the red chili paste kick to the dish, and amazingly, we ate the whole thing. It was kind of pasty, maybe add rice last next time. Good flavor, good nutrients.
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I left the pots, pans, and dishes for cleaning the next day.
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The next day I slept well and got up late. Ham and cheese omelet with chili mayo on marbled rye bread. It was a beautiful day with no-see-ums ganging up if you choose to go outside. I ended up at the communal rest room and then biked around.
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I had an urge to make my chicken cacciatorre and looked up the Winn-Dixie weekly flyer to see what was on sale. Not chicken, but pork chops. I would make pork chop cacciatorre. I made a shopping list that also included pizza ingredients. We went to the mexican restaurant for Eloisa's brunch, I had some salsa and chips. We went to the dollar store for reading glasses for one dollar, then to the grocer's and CVS, me to get my shopping list, she to get lemongrass oil. It turned out CVS did not have that at their local store.
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I started the cacciatorre with 4 lbs of pork chops in the large saute pan, then heaped on a large box of sliced mushrooms, priced for a quick sale, onion cut into eighths, three multicolored sweet peppers, julienned, an equal amount of thin sliced celery, and a large can of Italian style whole tomatoes. The large pan was full to the brim and bubbling. I let it bubble with the lid off to reduce the liquid. The aroma was amazing. I used "A Touch of Rome" Italian spice mix, sparingly, it's got some heat, and some garlic salt to taste.
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Eloisa brought her beach umbrella and the no-see-um netting that fits over it and we set that up at the stone table near the woodshop, it has a hole in the middle for the umbrella. After setting it up we noticed a roll cloud, a storm cloud, coming from the North. Robert arrived and said the storm would blow over. He was right, a huge blast of wind blew my wine glass right off the table and the netting billowed like a full sail. Clouds of dust blew up. We attempted to eat. The 3 of us and the 2 dogs polished off the huge pot of pork chops.
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The rain seemed imminent but Robert said no rain with this one. Wrong. It began raining and Robert went back aboard his boat to escape the tempest. We retreated to the other side of the building, alee. A full on thunderstorm was underway while we were safe and dry on the communal porch. After it let up I gathered the leftovers and dishes.
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The next day I began work on clearing Kaimu's decks. I had a dock cart but it was full of water with various trash floating in it. I packed the trash in a 5 gallon bucket to the dumpster, then drained the water and parked the cart near the starboard bow. I tossed down anything that I would never use again into the cart. After a while I needed a break and retreated to the forbidden Breezeway. Eloisa had parked there, under cover, during the storm and was now working on clearing it out and cleaning the renter's apartment.
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She was now on break with a crystal glass of wine and offered a plastic glass of wine to me. I guess my workday was over. She said she wanted to make Caesar salad and maybe salmon cakes. She needed spicy mustard, celery, dill, and maybe more wine. I had those items and biked back, loaded up, returned with them and she got to work making dressing from scratch. I helped mince onion and celery. I chopped parsley. She demolished a pack of crackers in a zip lok bag to make cracker crumbs. She mixed the salmon with egg and the other ingredients. She mixed the romaine and dressing. Mmmm. I stayed off my feet as much as possible and sat out back of the Breezeway looking over the marsh and the late afternoon sun. I took a photo or two. It would be a while before the sunset would be underway. Suddenly I was presented with salmon cakes and Caesar salad on a paper plate. Mmmm. Excellent.
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We enjoyed a meal along with Willie the cat and Blue the dog. Black crows and blackbirds were flocking to the tree limbs overhead as if they were trying to get closer to the sun as it got lower in the sky. A pair of shorebirds flew out and away over the marsh until they disappeared on the other side.
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The sky started to redden, but there was a large dark cloud obscuring most of the sunset while lightning stabbed down to the North of us. It was time to pack stuff up and retreat for the night. I did have one shot of the portion of sky that had color.