The Dog's Breakfast

Salad, Cauliflower & Cheese Sauce, Dog's Breakfast!!!



The picture below is before I cooked the casserole.



I call this the Dog's Breakfast because that is what my Mom use to call food all mixed up like this. The good news: it's all in one dish therefore not as many dishes to wash. Clever aren't I???? I'm using up all the turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberries, and mash potatoes. I have layered them in a casserole dish starting with the turkey in the bottom, then sliced up the dressing placing it in the next layer. I poured on the leftover gravy, then added cranberries to the next layer. Finally the mash potatoes to the top. I put into the oven at 350F for 40 minutes.

Also in the picture is the cauliflower and cheese sauce.

There is also a small spinach salad. If you want a single serving of salad dressing, use one tablespoon of olive oil, one tablespoon of lemon or lime juice, put in some salt and pepper, and maybe tarragon, basil or whatever spice you like.
Mix and pour over salad.

Turkey a la King

I make this recipe with leftover chicken or turkey.
To find Puff Pastry at the grocery store, look in the freezer section beside frozen pie crusts.

Puff Pastry

Follow directions on the puff pasty package.
For those of us who can't see anymore:
Preheat oven 400F
Remove all wrapping. Spray baking sheet with Pam, place pastry top up.
Bake for 20 to 25 min or until golden brown and puffed.

Use table knife to remove 'top'

Filling

Pour Cream of Chicken soup or Cream of Mushroom soup into a saucepan. In the empty can, fill it 1/2 full and pour into soup. If you add too much liquid the soup sill be too runny. Keep stirring soup until it is ready, warm with no lumps.
Cut up turkey and add to the soup mixture.
With a spoon, scoop turkey mixture into puff pastry and put the lid on.
Serve

Cranberries

One bag of Cranberries. Follow directions on the package, but if you can't see them because the print is too small, here you go. Rinse cranberries, in a pot boil 1 cup of water and one cup of sugar. Add cranberries, and boil 5 minutes, you will hear them popping. Pour into casserole dish. Put in fridge overnight.

Turkey Dressing

Tom's Favourite

I cut a loaf of bread into tiny pieces, cooked chopped onions, melted butter and poured over top. I bought Jimmy Dean Sausage, cooked that and chopped it up, and threw it into the bowl. Spices, rosemary, sage, tarragon, basil, salt, and pepper. To add moisture I used chicken stock. Mix in a bowl, cook at 350F 1/2 hour in oven. After the turkey had finished I put the dressing back in the oven to warm up. Remember we live on a boat with tiny oven.

Spinach Salad

Put Spinach in a bowl. Drain canned orange slices, and add them to salad. Chop cucumbers and add. Sprinkle with Feta cheese. Toast almond slices on cookie sheet in the oven, watch or they will burn. Add them to the top of the salad.




Dressing

1/2 small sweet onion chopped
1/4 t of salt
1/4 t basil
1/4 t tarragon
1/4 t oregano
1/4 t pepper
1/3 cup olive oil, or canola oil
4 T balsamic vinegar.........or any vinegar you like there are many flavors.
4 T sugar you might like it sweeter if so add more sugar if you do.

Mix in food processor. Serve with salad.

Whipped Shortbread Cookies

1 lb. butter
1 c icing sugar
1/2 c corn starch
1 t almond extract
3 c all purpose flour
1 c chopped pecans, or walnuts, or chocolate chips

Cream butter and icing sugar. Beat in corn starch, almond extract, then flour. Beat until light and fluffy.

Bake 325F 15-20 minutes or until a light brown, no need to grease the baking sheet.

Poached Eggs on Toast

These are easy to make when you are out at anchor or on shore. When we are anchored we use the Coleman stove, and a camping toaster made of wires you put over the burner of the stove.

I have an egg poacher to make life simple. I once ordered poached eggs in a restaurant here and believe it or not they blew up when I put my fork into them. I had egg all over my head. It was really funny, you had to of been there!

Bavarian Apple Torte

1/2 c butter or margarine
1/3 c sugar
1/4 t vanilla
1 c flour

Combine butter, sugar, vanilla, blend in flour. Spread dough on bottom and side of springform pan, I didn't have one I used a glass dish.

8oz. pkg cream cheese
1/4 c sugar
1 egg
1/2 t vanilla

Combine soften cream cheese and sugar, mix well. Add egg and vanilla, mix well. Pour over pastry lined pan.

1/2 brown sugar
1/2 t cinnamon
4 cups of sliced peeled apples, I like blueberries also
1/2 sliced almonds

Mix sugar and cinnamon. Toss over sliced apples coating them evenly. Spoon over cheese mixture. Sprinkle with almonds. Bake 450F for 10 minutes than reduced heat to 400F for 25 minutes. Cool then loosen torte from rim of pan with knife.

Top with whip cream, or ice cream

Lamb Chops on the BBQ

I was lucky to find some Lamb Chops from Australia on sale. I simply used mint sauce to marinade them.

Along with the lamb chops we are also having potato and onions on the BBQ. I put them in tin foil, and drizzle a bit of olive oil over them. A little bit of salt, pepper and rosemary on the potatoes.

Appetizer - Dates Cheese and Bacon Wraps

This is a quick appetizer to make. In this picture I made only 10, I find them very sweet. It is an odd combination of food, believe it or not it tastes really good. Make as many as you like or only a few at a time.

Pitted Dates - slice into dates lengthwise
Bacon strips cut into two pieces
Mozzarella Cheese - cut cheese into piece about 1 inch long and 1/2 inch wide
Toothpicks - wooden ones

Slice the pitted dates. then stuff with Mozzarella cheese. Wrap the bacon around the date. Put a toothpick though the date, cheese and bacon to hold it together.

Broil at 400F for about 15 minutes. You want the bacon to cook and the cheese to melt a bit. Usually, the cheese melts all over the pan if you don't keep an eye on it.

Appetizer - Basil, Brie, Tomato, on Bread

This is very easy to make and tastes so good.

Ingredients

French stick
Baby Brie Cheese
Basil Pesto
Tomato

Spread basil pesto on sliced bread. Slice Baby Brie Cheese then top with a slice of tomato.

Enjoy!

Homemade Soup

Don't throw your leftovers in the garbage!

Thanksgiving is over for Canadians and as long as the food hasn't turned green, you can make soup out of the leftovers. Get out the food processor, grind up an onion and brown it in the frying pan using a tablespoon of olive oil. I had some ground beef I fried then added it to the food processor. You could use turkey, but we ate all of ours.
In the fridge I had left over turnips, potatoes, and some Brussel sprouts. If you have more vegetables add them. Add one can of chicken stock, or enough to make the soup liquid. I added a bit of water because I didn't have enough chicken stock. (You can change the flavor of the soup by using vegetable or beef stock.)

Season to taste. I used, salt, pepper, rosemary, basil.

Bananna Loaf

2 cups of whole wheat flour or all purpose flour
1/2 cup of sugar
1 t salt
1 t of cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 c canola oil or vegetable oil
1 egg
1 c milk
1 cup of cranberries
1/2 cup of chopped walnuts or pecans
1/2 cup coconut
one or two mushy bananas

Mix all dry ingredients together in one bowl. Mash your banana, egg, milk, and oil. I use my chopper to do that. Pour wet into dry ingredients, throw in the chopped nuts, coconut, cranberries or whatever fruit you want, I use what I have available. Stir until all the mixture is wet, don't beat it. I spray loaf pan with canola oil, and pour mixture into pan.

Bake 350F 50 minutes. Use a tooth pick to insert into loaf. If the toothpick is dry when you pull it out of loaf it is cooked, if there is moisture on the toothpick cook the loaf a few minutes longer.

BBQ on Back of Boat

At one point we had two boats, we had to anchor one boat out, and raft up on the other boat. When you are anchored out you don't have power, so you have to use the BBQ on the boat, we also had a Coleman stove. We would have poached eggs for breakfast. To make toast we had a little wire camping toaster you could put on the Coleman stove, we were shocked to see it was made in Canada. Well, you know where everything comes from these days.



The black rectangular object at the left side of the picture is the BBQ on our last boat. It was attached on the rails of the boat. They are usually made of stainless steel. Tom hated cleaning it, all the grease got stuck in the corners.


Our boat neighbor Debra, gave us this little BBQ for the dock. We were so lucky, Debra and Dave gave us some steaks the other day for looking after their boat during the storm. Sorry no picture, all I had left was an empty bone on a plate. One thing I can tell you for sure, they were GOOD!

For steaks, I marinade them in a plastic bag, with soy sauce and 1 teaspoon crushed garlic. Keep flipping the bag over every so often to marinade both sides of steak. You can buy garlic all crushed up in a jar. I really like using that. Pealing garlic is not on my list of favorite things to do. I know plastic bags are not good for the environment but because they are smaller than a dish you can fit them into the tiny fridge, or cooler if you are anchored out. Make sure the bag is sealed or all the juice spills out making a big mess.

BBQ Hamburgers and Salad

1.32 lb of ground chuck, or ground sirloin
1 chopped onion
1 egg
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1/4 t salt
1/4 t pepper
1/4 t basil
1/4 t rosemary

Place ground chuck in bowl, sprinkle spices over top. You don't have to measure exactly. Add the spices you like.
Mix the onion, egg, salt, pepper, in the food processor. Pour over the ground chuck. With a fork mix the wet ingredients into meat. Form into 2 inch snow balls, flatten them when you put them on the grill. I make this in the morning to get the flavors into the meat.

Hot tip. Use ground chuck, ground sirloin, or higher grade of meat ground up. I don't use ground beef anymore. Here is why. We were anchored out one day and Tom was cooking hamburgers on the BBQ. There was so much fat in hamburger we had a fire. Tom opened the lid of the BBQ and the flames shot under the Bimini. He put the lid down, turned off the gas and the sides of the BBQ, where going in and out. Never, never throw water on grease fires, it makes it flame up worse.

We have enough meat to make 2 hamburgers for tonight, with the rest of the meat I will make meatballs for another night.

Apple Crisp

This is fast and easy to make.

4 big apples or blueberries, (fill dish almost full)
1/4 c brown sugar
1/2 c rolled oats
1/4 c flour
1/4 t cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg,
1/4 c butter
1/4 c chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans or coconut whatever you have handy)

Cut up fruit and put into 2 quart baking dish. If you use frozen fruit thaw it first. If you want to use a smaller dish then cut back on the fruit, the crust will be thicker.

With a fork, mix rolled oats, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a bowl. Melt butter, pour on mixture and blend it in. Sprinkle mixture over the fruit.

If you make it with blueberries you sprinkle three tablespoons of flour and 4 tablespoons of sugar on top of the berries.

I have made it with both apples and blueberries mixed together, extra good!! Of course you can use other fruit, you might need to add more sugar depending on the fruit you use.

Bake 375F for 30 minutes.

Mushroom Caps

12 big mushrooms, nice white ones don't buy those ones with brown on them!!!
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
1 small onion chopped
Chopped cooked shrimp or crab if you have it

Wash and cut out the steams of the mushrooms. Chop onion, shrimps, crab and mix with cheese. If you don't have shrimps or crab that's OK it still tastes good without them. Stuff cheese mixture into the bottom of the mushroom. Cook 350F for about 30 minutes until golden brown.

I made these last night, we gobbled them down so fast we had only three left before I remembered to take a picture, well that's old age for you!!

You can add more cheese and onion depending on how many mushrooms you have. Remember the mushrooms shrink when you bake them. If you use big mushrooms you don't have to clean as many and they are easier to stuff than small ones.

Pasta & Spinach Salad

Dressing

1/2 small sweet onion chopped
1/4 t of salt
1/4 t basil
1/4 t tarragon
1/4 t oregano
1/4 t pepper
1/3 cup olive oil, or canola oil
4 T balsamic vinegar.........or any vinegar you like there are many flavors.
4 T sugar you might like it sweeter so add more if you do.

I always make my own dressing, it is fresh, there are no chemicals, plus I know what's in it. Put in the spices you like. Mix all the ingredients in the food processor, I have a tiny one on the boat.

The Spinach Salad

Put the Spinach in a bowl. Add cherry tomatoes, red peppers, mozzarella cheese, and on top Parmesan cheese.

Pasta

Boil the Pasta and drain, put in serving dish. Drizzle olive oil over the top about 4 tablespoons, give or take. Shred mozzarella cheese over top, and put Parmesan cheese on top.

Bye the way, Tom said, "Are we going to film every meal? I'm going to be eating Good!"

The Galley

The little kitchen and the tiny fridge. Why do we have cloths pegs in the fridge? Well, I was making macaroni and cheese last week, the boat was rocking sideways, I opened the fridge and out came the macaroni all over the floor, I did manage to catch the dish. So you see the cloths pegs stop the dishes from falling out of the fridge. Next you need a volunteer to eat the food, that is Tom always ready and willing!

Good Morning Muffins

I don't have an official recipe, I use what is available at the time.

2 cups of whole wheat flour or all purpose flour
1/2 cup of sugar, you can add more sugar but I cut the amount in 1/2
1 t salt
1 t of cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 c canola oil or vegetable oil
1 egg
1 c milk, if you don't have enough use a bit of water with the milk
1/2 pkg. of cranberries about 3oz almost 1/2 cup
1/2 cup of chopped walnuts or pecans
1/2 cup coconut
one or two mushy bananas

Mix all dry ingredients together in one bowl. Mash your banana, egg, milk, and oil. I use my chopper to do that. Pour wet into dry ingredients, throw in the chopped nuts, coconut, cranberries or whatever fruit you want, I use what I have available. Stir until all the mixture is wet, don't beat it. I spray muffin tins with canola oil first, then scoop mixture into muffin tins.

Bake 375F 20 minutes or a little bit longer if the muffins are really big.
This makes 6 huge muffins.

Coconut Cream Pie

Super Duper Coconut Cream Pie.

1/2 cup of sugar
1/4 cup corn starch
1/4 t salt
3 cups of milk
4 eggs separated
3T butter or margarine
1 1/2 t vanilla
1 1/2 cup coconut
9 " pie shell
Whip cream

Separate the eggs, I throw out the egg whites because I use whip cream for the top of the pie. Combine sugar, cornstarch, salt, and milk. Cook over medium heat, stir constantly. After it bubbles and thickens cook 2 minutes more. Remove from heat.

Beat egg yolks slightly. Gradually stir in 1 cup of hot mixture to the yolks be careful not to scramble the eggs. Keep adding hot mixture into the yolks Return the egg mixture to the sauce pan and bring to gentle boil. Cook for 2 more minutes, remove from heat.

Add butter and vanilla. Stir until butter is melted. Add one cup of coconut and stir.

Pour into baked pie shell, cool in fridge.

Toast the remaining coconut in the oven, broil 450F. It only takes a minute so watch it.

Whip the cream, add to top of cooled pie. Sprinkle the toasted coconut on the top of the cream.

Find a willing volunteer to help you eat it!

Volcano Cake---flop

Well what can I say, I'm not perfect. I have more flops than I care to mention. One day I decided to make a cake. I even had a cake mix. Could things be more simple? I did everything the instructions said, then put it into my tiny oven.

It's ok you can laugh!

The boat was rocking a lot that day.

Tom says, "It was the cake from Mars."

Nov. 10th Canadian/American Thanksgiving Dinner

Yesterday we had our Thanksgiving dinner on the boat. Why did we have Thanksgiving on Nov. 10Th???? Well I'm Canadian, Tom is American, it was too hot here to cook Turkey on Canadian Thanksgiving..........so we picked a cooler day in between both of the days.

Due to size of our toaster convection oven I could only fit a turkey breast into the tiny oven, even that was a squeeze. I peeled the sweet potatoes, and put them around the turkey.

Timing is everything. I made the pumpkin pie. Simple I cheat, I bought a graham cracker pie crust. Bake the pie crust at 450F for approximately 10 minutes. pumpkin filling, a can of evaporated milk, eggs, and nutmeg. Bake in oven. I made the whip cream in the afternoon and put it on the pie and stored it in the fridge.

The cranberries, so simple. Buy a bag of cranberries wash them. Boil 1 cup of water, throw in 1 cup of sugar...........boil.........throw in the cranberries. Keep stirring you don't want them to stick to the pan unless someone else is washing the dishes. Cook until they are popping, remove and put in dish.

The stuffing was made in the morning. I cut a loaf of bread into tiny pieces, cooked chopped onions, melted butter and poured over top. I bought Jimmy Dean Sausage, cooked that and chopped it up, and threw it into the bowl. Spices, rosemary, basil, salt, and pepper. To add moisture I used chicken stock. Mix in a bowl, cook at 350F 1/2 hour in oven. After the turkey had finished I put the stuffing in the oven to warm up.

The potatoes, cauliflower, and turnip.........cooked in the electric steamer.

The cheese sauce, and gravy were made just before serving dinner. I use 1/4 cup of flour, melted butter, salt as the base of both sauces. Keep stirring you don't want lumps. For the gravy, I used the remaining chicken broth, plus the juices from the cooked turkey.

My biggest problem, not enough serving dishes. I had to use a pie plate for the turnip.

You will only understand this problem if you live on a boat. All boats LEAK!!!! Due to Hurricane Ida, I used all my storage containers to catch water from the leaks. The leaks appear depending on which way the wind blows. In other words, a leak in one rain storm will be in a different place the next storm. How long it rains determines how many leaks you have. Of course Tom always fixes the leaks, but the hot sun dries out the caulking, also people walking on the decks cause the caulk to break. Enough about leaks!!!

I washed all the containers and prayed it wouldn't rain anymore.

Tom had the fun of putting all the food into our tiny fridge, he is by far the better organizer.

About the Lifestyle.

Hi this is Nancy, my husband Tom and I live on a sailboat in Florida. Living on a boat presents many problems one of them is cooking. Now that I have more time on my hands, I make everything on this tiny boat. After all I like food. I try to use real food, not frozen packaged stuff. Therefore I thought I would share my recipes with you. Yes, I have some flops..........I blame it on the boat rocking. I have simple cheap appliances, mind you I would love the big fancy things but there isn't any room to store them.

We are in a marina, so I have power a true luxury. When you are anchored out of the marina, you have to use other sources, for example a Coleman stove works great, also a barbeque made for boats is wonderful.

The bigger boats have gas stoves and big galleys. We are on a very limited budget so nothing fancy for me. My dream would be to have a bigger kitchen with more counter space. On a boat you have to think.........ONE, there is no storage room for more. I have one bowl, one pot, one frying pan, you get the message. You don't need the best, the food doesn't know the pot was $100.00.

One thing I had found when you are in a small space, things can get messy very quickly. Wash the dishes and put things away as you go, then you will always have space to work.