Kaimusailing

I fell for the cheap chicken leg quarters at Walmart and ended up cooking all of them with a package of frozen vegetables, end of story. I had to doctor the resultant broth with its foam on top and trouble with the propane. But the main ingredients were the package of chicken leg quarters and a package of Walmart's soup vegetables, frozen.
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I thought I had to add more vegetables but the package nearly filled the medium soup pot. I could fit the chicken in there and some water, but I spent an hour lifting the lid for a bit, I was mothering the chicken soup, how nice.
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I watched TV or had YouTube on my phone. I found out an interesting clue to malware on your phone.
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If you get a request to download a game or something, even in a trusted game, don't do it. If you ever get a request to log in from one of your online accounts, don't do it, get out of there. The best thing to do is to restart your device. Of course they have already thought of that.
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So, how did the soup come out? Like Granma's. The old standard. Coulda put mushrooms in it, coulda creamed it with some half and half, coulda, coulda, but this is honest soup, chicken, vegetables, and some spices. No brainer. I think the next time I will cook the chicken in the pot separately and then set it aside. The frozen soup vegetables were OK, but I overcooked them. They should go into the soup later. So, saute the chicken first, set aside, then make the broth with the veggies, I think the frozen mix was 4 to 5 dollars, but it was a large amount and you could just get the usual onion mirepoix for half the price, but it was already cut up. I don't mind that. I do mind when they add chemicals, but a lot of times they are just doing what the old time butchers did back in the old days.
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The chicken soup went out on deck tonight, gonna get cold, like a mother nature refrigerator.
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When you get old you have to put as much nutrition into your food as you can. They say to eat nuts and berries, and fruit. So, a good breakfast would be a fruit salad, or fruit cocktail, but fruit is fruit. What about the grape, a monumental fruit. You might have to change your morning routine and have a glass of wine for breakfast, maybe with cheese and a bread sauteed with Irish butter and some parmesan on the bread. The other cheese that I would like right now is the Gouda, the Dutch cheese.
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I had an inquiry about doing a yacht delivery with my old captain and I said I was interested. Later he asked if I had a current captain's license. I never have had one. I put him in contact with my old friend Tom who did have a license, but unfortunately had let it lapse, so none of us three had a current captain's license and the delivery, for us, was canceled. Some other crew will be sailing through the Caribbean on a catamaran for 3 weeks.
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This brief flash of sailing opportunity got me out of my shell, out of my neglect, if I were going to crew on a sailboat I would have to perform. And so I started fussing around on Kaimu, cleaning off a shelf in the galley that had been left like it was for too long. I put the shelf's contents in a 5 gallon bucket. It hadn't taken very long so I continued on the shelf next to the galley stove. There was an attractive wooden cigar box that I had intended to use in the future. I opened it and there were 4 large palmetto bugs in it, scurrying around. I had a spray bottle of denatured alcohol on hand and gave them the business. I think I demised 3 of them. After that I was hesitant.
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The galley stove was from Harbor Freight. They don't sell them anymore, so it is 15 years old, at least. It was encrusted, and I use that term lightly, with layers of congealed cooking oils, spills, and looked like hell. I sprayed it with Awesome cleaner from the Dollar Store and scraped and scrubbed it clean. It is stainless and now is shiny clean.
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The spices that were stashed willy nilly on the shelves were put on the top shelf. There are still more. I have to sort them out. I must have 10 chili spice jars. Of course there are missing spices that I should have. Not a well run galley.
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When I shopped next time I thought I should make something, but I had no idea what. I should make something I like. Meatballs. I had a recipe on my phone that called for 1 pound of ground beef and 1 pound of ground pork. I normally like to use meatloaf mix. There was none of that available, so I ended up with a pound of ground beef and 1 1/3 lbs. Of ground pork. I would be cooking this as soon as I got back to the boat, there was really not much else on board that would qualify as dinner.
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I was cooking like a sailor, one pot, and a pan, I mixed the ground meats and Italian breadcrumbs along with one egg in the pan. I spiced with Italian spice mix and black pepper. When I formed it into meatballs I had a dozen meatballs the size of a baseball.
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I set them aside and heated the large stainless skillet up until the Carapelli EVOO almost began smoking, then I put in the meatballs, all save one that wouldn't fit. I kept it aside, we'll cook it somehow. I had prepped an onion and that went into the pan. Then I prepped a small box of mushrooms and they went in. About a tablespoon and a half of garlic went in. Mix. Get those vegetables to expel their liquid and shrink, caramelize, then add a large can of crushed tomatoes. Keep scraping the bottom.
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I had the cooking pot with garden pasta in it, cooked, drained, and now the meatballs went in. I had finished off the last meatball in the pan while cooking the onion. It and the onion mix went in on top of the meatballs and pasta. I simmered the pot for about a half hour. At that point I couldn't stand it anymore and got out a meatball and some of that onion mushroom sauce. I went back for seconds.
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I had a viewing party of sorts with my older brother in Hawaii. I was watching the new NBC nature series, "The Americas", when I got the urge to call him and get him to watch it. It turns out the airing in Hawaii wasn't for about 3 more hours. I stayed on the phone and we just talked and talked. I described the meatball cooking while slaking it down with some pinot noir. When the show came on we broke it off. He could watch the show and I could sleep it off.
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The next morning was difficult. The forecast was for rain all day and it was chilly. I got several phone calls to ordeal. I didn't want to go out in the rain, but on this boat the fridge is in the pilothouse and you have to go on deck to get there. I got the kettle boiling to make coffee and quickly got a portion of meatball and sauce, plus a stick of Irish butter.
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I could have shaved some parmesan onto the meatballs, but instead I made ciabatta rolls sauteed in butter and put the meatballs and sauce on top of that. It turned out to be more of a meal than a breakfast, but that was OK, it was 2 o'clock in the afternoon.
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The image is of sunset across from the boatyard, but also across from a local street which housed the pirate ship from Pirate's Point. More to follow.