Little Galley, Big Cookin'

It wouldn't be right if I didn't report on our Thanksgiving day.  Although it started out a bit weary, with the waves kicked up and the weather turned sour again, I managed to pull through the blues (of course, calls from my kids certainly did help!) and we packed up and braved the dinghy ride to take a walk through town.

St. Augustine was hopping.  The stores were open and people were everywhere!  We found a couple shops we hadn't searched through before and even found a Christmas present treasure or two.  Exercise and a change of scenery is a good fix for "what ails you" and it did just that for us.  We spent a couple hours wandering in and out of the streets around town and worked up at least a bit of an appetite before heading back to the boat.


Now we haven't done much talking about the logistics of boat life.  If you haven't visited Moonshadow, it might be hard to imagine the cooking setting we have aboard.  My "kitchen" consists of about 18" of counter space, a double sink, a cutting board area and a three burner small propane stove.  I have 2 refrigeration compartments that are like box freezers - they're deep with 2 shelves.  If you need something on the bottom, you first have to remove EVERYTHING on the top.

So I have to say that turning out a full Thanksgiving meal was quite an accomplishment even if I do say so myself!  Our dinner consisted of a chicken stuffed with a butternut squash/apple stuffing, sweet potato casserole topped with Rob's requested marshmallows, roasted brussel sprouts with shallots,  freshly made cranberry ginger compote, our traditional cranberry fluff salad and a warm wheat baguette.  Finally, as would be expected at any feast of it's sort, we had pumpkin pie with freshly whipped cream sweetened with maple syrup and a touch of cinnamon.  How'd I do?!

It was a really wonderful meal and it all managed to come to the table hot and fresh.  After a picture or two, we filled plates and took them up to the cockpit where the enclosure was cozily being warmed by the sun despite the conditions outside.  So after a slow start, we managed to pull off what ended up being another memorable day.