Kaimusailing

The grand plan to move Roughrider Lynn’s boat kind of evaporated with the approach of low pressure and a gale. We will have to wait for the storm to go through and try again in a few days. This is remarkable weather with strong NE winds, which would be right on the nose, all week. The weather report from Norfolk is NE wind 18-30.
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Lynn has an alarm from her engine and needs to fix that. When I googled “cruisers forum Volvo alarm” I found several postings of trouble with the MDI, which is a monitor panel that also has alarms for water temperature, oil pressure, and battery voltage. Apparently the panel malfunctions and is costly to replace.
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I cycled to the grocers in spite of the increasing winds and picked up a few items. I saw 80 percent lean ground chuck on sale, about ten bucks for three pounds so I got some. Back on board I separated the meat into two one pound packages and three burger sized packages. Of course one burger went on the grill and I had a nice sourdough meal. I had no ketchup, just mayo. Maybe I could come up with a sauce. I also had no worcestershire sauce.
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I decided to make a mole type of sauce that I could use on burgers and also to make chili.
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I looked at my ole mole chili recipe and found I had no onions or peppers, but I had garlic, so made my sauce with garlic and some medium salsa that had tomato and onion in it. This sauce was so quick and easy. The hard part is prepping the garlic, but after doing that, maybe 6 cloves, thinly sliced, I sauteed them in a sauce pan in a little olive oil. After I got the aroma coming out of the pan I dumped in a small jar of salsa, medium spicy, and rinsed the jar with a leftover glass of pinot noir. Nothing goes to waste here. Next the spices went in, about 2 tbsp each of chili powder, cumin, and cocoa. I added a dash of cooking sherry that I had on hand, couldn’t hurt. A pinch of garlic salt went in and the mixture was whisked until blended. The taste was a bit astringent from the cocoa. Next I added orange marmalade to taste, about 1 ½ tbsp. Orange marmalade is an authentic Andalusian flavor and its sweetness balances the bitterness of the cocoa. Next went in peanut butter, smooth style. This adds flavor and doesn’t really affect what is already there, but you don’t want to overdo it. The hot sauce quickly melts the peanut butter and soon after some more whisking the sauce is ready for anything. I will use half the batch for some chili in the future and the rest will be used as burger sauce.
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The wind kept on and rain came along, the whole Memorial Day weekend was a rain out. A “Kick Off the Crab Season” event that was scheduled on Saturday didn’t happen. I biked around the marina and it was empty. There was a group of maybe half dozen people hanging out at a couple of cars looking like they were ready to leave. Sure folks, nothing to see here, move along.
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The next day I made a batch of brown rice and then cooked about a pound of ground chuck in a separate pot. Let it brown on the bottom and then go a bit more, break it up, let it brown again. Your nose will tell you when it has lots of that sizzling steak aroma. Then I pour in about a cup of the ole mole concoction, mix and simmer. I have a bowl of the rice and the chili. Yum.
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I’ve been researching salsa as to whether I should make it from scratch or keep buying jarred salsa. It seems that jarred salsa is OK and one of the brands I have used is Herdez which gets good reviews from others. I have to check my local grocers. Walmart features it online.
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The weather continues its strange behavior. It’s been over a week of strong, even gale, NE winds and intermittent rain. This has kept me aboard and inside and eking out the groceries. I was out of ham and cheese for my morning omelets. I had hamburger meat and rice. I had a few eggs.
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There is a Hawaiian food called Loco Moco that was invented in Hilo in modern times. It is a scoop of rice with a hamburger patty on top and a fried egg on top of that. Brown sauce is poured over it all. It can be made with SPAM, Kailua pork, tuna, or almost any other protein. I decided that would be my breakfast next time.
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I was running out of water to make more rice. I was planning on using my mole sauce as the sauce for the Loco Moco. Wait a minute, my Ole Mole Chili has hamburger and mole sauce, and it is mixed with rice. So I made a test batch of the chili and rice and put a fried egg on top. Not bad.
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Cuddily texted she was going to Pocomoke to get her oil changed, did I want to come along, yes. She used Walmart and while her oil was changing I shopped for groceries. On the way back we saw Eve’s house under construction, like the whole roof was being replaced. Eve was long gone though we may see her later in the summer. We stopped at the marina where I offloaded my groceries and said I would go to the Legion later.
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I biked to the Legion against the breeze and was pooped when I got there. I had finished off a half liter of water before, during, and after the ride. Perhaps I was dehydrated. At a high top table sat Teri with a white wine. I grabbed a merlot and joined her. Cuddily came in and we lamented the loss of our chef, Eve. We did not have an appetite but had some onion rings and potato skins. I was able to bicycle back to the marina somehow.
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The image is a photo of the twilight at the Legion.