Janet Groene's BoatCook

Friday, January 24, 2020

Boat Cooking Made Easy

Galley Recipe of the Week
Salmon Pancakes with Dill Dip

Wrap in lettuce and serve as an appetizer

4 eggs or equivalent
½ teaspoon each salt, pepper
2 cans salmon, drained and skin removed
1 cup chopped celery
½ cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons panko or other dry crumbs
Oil for frying

    In a bowl, whisk eggs with salt and pepper. Add salmon and use a fork to mash bones. Stir in celery, onion and crumbs. Form into patties and fry in hot oil until golden on both sides. Serve with dipping sauce.
Dipping Sauce
½ cup lemon flavored yogurt (not Greek style)
½ cup plain yogurt
1 tablespoon Dijon style mustard
1 teaspoon dried dill weed
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
    Whisk together and serve with hot salmon pancakes.

Tips for the Galley Cook

    * To make oat flour,whirl oatmeal flakes in a blender or food processor.

    * Don’t overlook farina, also sold as Cream of Wheat, as a thickener for making pudding or stiffening a soup.

    * Kids on board? Serve them green eggs and ham. It takes just a drop or two of blue food coloring when whisking scrambled eggs.

    * For calico color and extra vitamins, grate a sweet potato and fold into your own or store-bought coleslaw.

    * Add a splash of dark rum to your black beans and rice. In a North County Fish Fry they add a thimble of whiskey to French toast with maple syrup.
Pantry Recipe of the Week

    Fresh sweet potatoes are better, of course, and they keep well in the pantry for a while, but this recipe is a way to use canned sweet potatoes from the emergency pantry. A well-stocked food locker is good cruising insurance.

How to get started in a provisioning regimen? See Survival Food Handbook, a guide to stocking your camper, boat or home pantry with supermarket staples for emergencies.

Swazi Stew

28-ounce can sweet potatoes in juice (not syrup)
1 or 2 cans, 10 ounces each, chunk chicken
3 cups water
2 bouillon cubes (chicken, beef or vegetable)
10-ounce jar peanut butter (1 1/4 cups)

Empty juices from canned foods into a roomy saucepan, add water and bouillon and bring to a simmer. Whisk in peanut butter until it’s well incorporated. Add cut-up sweet potatoes and chicken. Heat through and serve as is or over rice. Serves 4-6.

Farley Halladay and her husband operated a charter ketch in St. Thomas. Now Farley is a widow and landlocked. While cooking, cussing, caregiving and crime solving, she takes readers to the world’s waters on the charterboats that are her online booking business. Second in this cozy mystery ebook series is February Felony in formats including Nook and Kindle, https://amzn.to/2BCkacN

Skillet Meal of the Week
Smoky Asparagus Omelet for Two

1 cup fresh asparagus tips
2 tablespoons butter
4 to 6 eggs
1/4 cup cream, milk or evaporated milk
½ teaspoon each salt, pepper
2-ounce jar diced pimentos, drained
1 cup shredded Smoked Gouda

Sizzle asparagus briefly in melted butter. Whisk eggs with salt, pepper and cream and pour over asparagus. Dot with bits of pimento and the shredded cheese. Cover skillet and cook over low heat just until omelet “sets”. Serves 2.

See news tidbits from the world of boating, sailing and cruising at https://farleyhalladay.blogspot.com

Friday, January 10, 2020

Easy Meals for Boating, Cruising, Living Aboard

GALLEY RECIPE OF THE WEEK

Valentine Game Hens
for Two
    When you want a special supper but the oven is too small for a large roast, Cornish game hens save the day. Buy small ones that serve one person each, roast then just put them on the plate with an oven-roasted sweet potato and a steam-in-the-bag vegetable. Start the stereo, light the candles and pour the wine.

2 Cornish game hens, about 14 ounces each
1/3 cup peach jam
Juice of half a lime
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

    Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Remove giblets and pat the hens dry. Brush lightly with melted butter and roast 30 minutes. In a small pan, mix remaining ingredients over low heat until well mixed. Brush over hens and roast 30 minutes more. Plate hens and spoon on remaining sauce. Serves 2.

PANTRY RECIPE OF THE WEEK
Tomato Corn Chowder for Two
    I recommend low-sodium canned goods for pantry provisioning. You can always add salt to taste later.

Garnish with sliced avocado, basil leaves, lime

2 tablespoons dried onion bits
2 tablespoons dry red wine
1 can condensed cream of tomato soup
1 soup can water
Small can evaporated milk
15-ounce can cream style corn
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg (optional)
Salt if needed
Freshly ground black pepper

Soak onion bits in red wine until soft. In a pan whisk soup, water amd evaporated milk over low heat while adding corn. Continue heating over low heat (it scorches easily) while adding nutmeg and onions. Cover and heat gently to blend flavors. Serves 2 as a vegetarian main dish, 4 as a soup course. Pass the pepper mill.

Farley Halladay is Janet Groene’s pen name. A fictional widow who once operated a six-passenger charter ketch out of St. Thomas with her late husband, Farley now operates an online boat charter business. She takes readers all over the world on virtual boats while working from home, cooking, caregiving and crime solving in this cozy mystery e-book series. Read Book 3, March Malice, while waiting for Book 4, April Avenger. https://amzn.to/2BCkacN

SKILLET MEAL OF THE WEEK

West African
Beef Ragout
1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Medium onion, diced
1 tablespoon minced garlic
½ teaspoon each ground ginger and curry powder
6-ounce can tomato paste
4 cups water
3 beef bouillon cubes
1 cup raw rice
Small can crushed pineapple in juice
1 cup roasted peanuts, chopped

In a large skillet, fry out ground beef in hot oil. Break up beef and keep stir-frying over high heat while adding onion, garlic and spices. Add tomato paste and water. Stir to mix, Bring to a boil and add bouillon cubes and rice. Stir to dissolve bouillon, then reduce heat, cover and cook until rice is tender. Stir in pineapple to heat through. Sprinkle with peanuts. Serves 4 to 6.

Saturday, December 28, 2019

Sailing and Motorboating Meals for Mariners

Survival Food Handbook (International Marine) s a guide to stocking your boat with shelf-stable foods from the supermarket. No high-priced doomsday survival rations needed to create an ample pantry for every day or emergencies.

How much is enough food for how long? What lasts best?

The book covers a full range of food emergencies (alternate stoves, flooded bilge, fridge failure) and is packed with tasty recipes that can be made with no fresh food supplies. http://amzn.to/1WdYqbe

Galley Recipe of the Week

Artichoke Quiche
2 cups cooked rice
1 teaspoon flour
1 egg

    Mix rice, flour and beaten egg and press into a cold, buttered, heavy skillet to form a crust. Cover and cook over low/medium heat about 5 minutes until it begins to set.

14-ounce can artichoke hearts, drained, chopped and drained again
1 cup grated cheese
3-4 scallions, chopped
2 to 3 eggs*
2 teaspoons dijon style mustard
3/4 to 1 cup light cream*
½ teaspoon each salt, white pepper

    Scatter artichokes, cheese and scallions in crust. Whisk eggs, mustard, cream, salt and pepper and pour into crust. Cover skillet and cook over low/medium heat until crust is toasty on the bottom and quiche is set, as for custard. Cut in wedges. Serves 4-6.

*Use larger amounts for deep skillet

Pantry Recipe of the Week
    These recipes are not meant to impress gourmet cooks but to fill up the crew in emergencies, using only shelf-stable ingredients that you can always have on hand for the proverbial rainy day.

Spam 'n Rice

12-ounce can of Spam
1 can baby carrots, drained and chopped or grated
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons each soy sauce, white wine vinegar and honey
½ teaspoon each garlic powder, ground ginger

    Chop Spam fine or grate it on the large holes of a box grater. Stir-fry in hot oil to brown well, gradually adding carrots. Whisk remaining ingredients and add to the pan, stirring over high heat until it forms a glaze. Stir into hot rice or pasta. Serve 4 to 6 depending on how much rice is added.

Hot Dog! Boat Galley Tips of the Week

    * To make an easy dessert, “butter” the inside of hot dog buns with Nutella. Lay in half a banana cut in half lengthwise. Stuff with miniature marshmallows. Drizzle with chocolate syrup. Wrap tightly in foil and heat over the grate. Open carefully. Steam will be hot.

    * For tastier weenies, cook them in sauce. Sizzle a chopped onion, add a 14-ounce bottle of ketchup, heat up with 1/4 cup pickle relish, a blob of mustard and some shakes of hot sauce. Simmer, add hot dogs and heat through. Remove hot dogs with tongs, place in buns and spoon on sauce to taste.

    * Make a one-dish meal by adding sliced hot dogs to prepared foods such as baked beans, packaged scalloped potatoes, pouches of Spanish rice or mac ‘n cheese.

    * Combine three cans of condensed soup (invent your own combo) in a kettle with 2 soup cans of water and a 12-ounce can of whole kernel corn with juice. Heat through, spoon into bowls and garnish with sliced hot dogs. Serves 4.

* Make a corn dog or hot dog buffet. Thaw and heat corn dogs according to package directions Then set out dips in individual cups. Everyone can dip to taste. (Dips such as honey mustard, ketchup, salsa, ranch dressing, Buffalo wing sauce, etc..)

* Make hot dog Sloppy Joe. Finely chop hot dogs and cook with a can of condensed tomato soup, 1 tablespoon each steak sauce and mustard and 1/4 cup water. Serve in buns or spoon over split biscuits.

Skillet Meal of the Week
Honey Pork Medallions

12-ounce pork tenderloin
10-ounce can chicken broth
1/4 cup each white wine vinegar and honey
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 to 2 tablespoons finely chopped crystallized ginger
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 cups (or more to taste) cooked rice
Sliced scallions (optional)
Chopped black olives (optional)

Pat tenderloin dry and put in a plastic bag with 1/3 cup of the broth, vinegar, honey, soy sauce and ginger. Seal bag and refrigerate several hours or overnight.

Remove tenderloin with tongs, shaking off excess liquid. Save marinade. Sizzle pork in a skillet in hot oil until it’s browned on all sides

Add marinade, cover, and simmer until pork tests done (160 degrees). Remove pork to a cutting board. Add remaining broth to the skillet and bring to a boil. Add rice and let it simmer, covered over low heat, while you slice pork. Slice porkin medallions and serve with rice. Garnish with scallions and/or black olives.

Friday, December 20, 2019

Sailing Recipes, Boat Galley Meals

Galley Recipe of the Week
Apple Celery Appe-Teasers
A tiny dot of black caviar goes a long way in these party-worthy appetizers. Don’t add it until the last minute or it will bleed black stains.

1 bunch celery and/or several heads of Belgian endive
1 pint deli egg salad
1 tablespoon grainy mustard
½ teaspoon dried, crumbled thyme
2 red apples, cut in small dice.
Small jar black caviar

Wash and prepare celery ribs and/or endive to make “boats” to hold the filling.. Dry well. Mix mustard with the egg salad and fold in apples and thyme. Fill “boats” using two spoons. Keep cold. When ready to serve, top each with a thimble of caviar.

Sweet Potato Sunspots

Large can pineapple rings canned in pineapple juice
Large can sweet potatoes
½ stick butter, melted
½ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Spray a baking dish about 9 X 13 or 10 X 14. Drain pineapple, saving juice for punch. Drain sweet potatoes and discard juice. Arrange pineapple rings in a single layer in the baking dish. Mash sweet potatoes with butter and brown sugar and use an ice cream scoop or two spoons to put a mound of sweet potato in the center of each ring. Bake until lightly browned and serve hot.

Tips for the Galley Chef

    * Solve a cozy mystery in your cozy bunk tonight with Farley Halladay, the spunky widow who copes, cooks, cusses and solves crimes while operating her online charter boat booking business. She lives ashore and her virtual reality is at sea as she takes readers with her to the world's oceans. Three books in what will be a 12-book series are January Justice, February Felony, and March Malice. Start with one, then read the other two while waiting for Book 4 to be released. https://amzn.to/31J5d3D

    * Chop coconut macaroons and sprinkle on bowls of fresh or canned fruit for an easy dessert. Add a splash of butterscotch schnapps for adults.

    * Add pomegranate seeds to almost anything for a surprise burst of flavor. Good in salads, pork or chicken casseroles, fruit salsas.

* There’s still time to order a gift subscription to Good Old Boat magazine, a gift that continues for an entire year. The highly respected magazine is hard to find on news stands. Find it at https://amzn.to/36SlsxG

Skillet Meal of the Week
Turkey Patties With Salsa Rice

    Now that pre-cooked rice comes in a packet, it’s an easy addition to a one-pan meal. If you'll be serving patties on buns, omit rice or serve rice salsa on the side.

1 pound ground turkey
2 tablespoons cornmeal
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 egg
1 teaspoon each dried thyme and salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Small red sweet pepper, seeded and diced
2 cups cooked rice (optional)
14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes with onion and green pepper
1 cup whole kernel corn, thawed

    Mix turkey, cornmeal, lemon juice, egg and seasonings. Make 4 patties and brown in hot oil, After turning patties, nestle red pepper in the pan. When patties are crisp, add rice to the skillet if using, then add tomatoes and corn. Cover and cook until everything is headed through. Remove patties to plates, stir rice with sauce and spoon over patties.

Friday, December 13, 2019

Sailing and Motorboating Meals and Menus

Galley Recipe of the Week
Hasty Rice Casserole

Here's a quick, one-pot vegetarian main dish or a healthy side dish with meat from the grill. A touch of mustard gives it that just-right tang.I like this topped with a thin slab of shaved extra sharp cheddar.

2 1/2 cups water or broth
10-ounce package frozen, chopped broccoli, thawed and drained
2 cups instant white or brown rice
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1/3 cup milk
2 or 3 eggs
1 teaspoon dry mustard powder

Grated, shaved or shredded cheese ad lib

    In a saucepan bring water and broccoli to a boil for 3 minutes. Stir in rice For brown instant rice, continue boiling for one minute, then remove from heat, cover and let stand until rice is tender. For white instant rice, remove from heat at once and let it stand, covered, 7 to 10 minutes for rice to absorb liquid.
    In a bowl whisk soup, milk, eggs and mustard. Fold into rice mixture, cover and heat gently over very low burner until heated through and eggs are set.
    Pass the cheese. Serves 4 to 6.

Tips for the Boat Chef

* The next time you make French toast, make a double batch. Then dice leftovers to make a breakfast strata the next day. It will have a different texture from strata made with plain bread.

    * Make shortcut stuffed cabbage. Wrap each limp cabbage leaf around a slice of deli corned beef. Roll up, place in skillet seam side down, cover with marinara sauce and heat until cabbage is tender. Serve over rice.

* If a cake turns out too moist press tightly into walnut-size balls and dip into melted chocolate to make truffles.

    * Make dessert quesadillas. Spread a thin layer of pumpkin puree on warm flour tortillas and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Fold, heat, drizzle with caramel syrup. Sprinkle with more cinnamon sugar.

* Get cozy with Farley Halladay, Janet Groene’s pen name. She’s a widow who mourns the life she once had on board a charter ketch in St. Thomas. Farley now operates an online charterboat business as she copes, cusses and cooks a virtual life at sea worldwide while caregiving a crusty old seaman and solving cozy mysteries. The salty Yacht Yenta series is now three books: January, February and March. Start with March Malice, then go back and read the first two while waiting for the release of April Avenger. https://amzn.to/2BCkacN

Pantry Recipe of the Week
This is today’s recipe made entirely from stowed foods. Emergencies happen. See Survival Food Handbook (International Marine) for an entire book on how to choose, stow and use everyday supermarket staples in your standby pantry. Lots of tips too on alternative stoves, cleaning up after a fire or flood, refrigerator failure and much more.
https://amzn.to/2BCkacN

Deviled Peas

Canned peas aren’t anyone’s first choice in a green vegetable but I stock some in the pantry just for variety. Serve this is a side dish with canned chili or make it a vegetarian main dish by adding diced hard-cooked eggs, diced firm tofu or shredded cheese.

1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon Dijon style mustard
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
2-ounce jar diced pimento, drained
15- to 20-ounce can baby peas, drained

Heat oil and stir in mustard, then stir in bread crumbs until toasty. Add pimento. Fold in peas and heat gently. Serves 4 o 5 as a side dish.

Skillet Recipe of the Week
Christmas Cranberry Crunch

1 can whole berry cranberry sauce
1 can pie-sliced apples (not apple pie filling)
1/3 cup sugar mixed with ½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 ½ cups rolled oats
1 stick butter
Pinch salt
½ cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
Chopped nuts (optional)

In a greased skillet mash cranberry sauce with a fork and mix in the apples. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. In a bowl cut butter into a mixture of the oats, salt, brown sugar and flour until it’s mealy. Sprinkle over apple layer. Cover and cook until fruit is bubbling and oat topping is moist and buttery. It will not brown. If you wish, put a toasty finish on the topping with a kitchen torch. Spoon onto serving plates. Serves 6.

Friday, December 6, 2019

Maritime Meals, Menus for Boat Cooks

Love a good sea story? Farley Halladay and her husband operated a charter ketch out of St. Thomas, then he was killed. Farley now copes by running an online charterboat business, cooking, caregiving, cussing and crime solving. Newest in the Yacht Yenta cozy mystery e-book series is March Malice.

Galley Recipe of the Week

Green Goddess Seafood Sauce
It’s a sensation on shrimp, scallops, crab cakes, fish prepared in every way from fried to poached, and even on sardine sandwiches. Turn a plain-jane galley meal into a gourmet sensation.

    Use a sharp knife and cutting board or a food processor (used carefully so it doesn’t liquefy). The yogurt and sour cream both come in regular, low fat and nonfat. Your choice. I make a double batch and use it on salad greens too.

½ cup minced parsley, firmly packed
2 green onions or more to taste, finely minced
8-ounce carton lemon flavor yogurt
1 cup plain yogurt
1 teaspoon dried dillweed
1 teaspoon dried tarragon
½ teaspoon garlic powder
Salt, pepper to taste

    Finely chop parsley and green onion and fold in yogurt, sour cream, dillweed, taragon and garlic powder. Season to taste. Chill. Use as a sauce or dip with seafood, raw vegetables, chips. Makes about 3 cups.

Pantry Recipe of the Week

Haitian Bean Gravy
    Make this tasty pleasant dish with almost any dried beans you have on hand (black, fava, navy, great northern, pinto, etc.) Smaller beans tend to have more tender hulls for a finer gravy. To use fava beans, hull them after cooking.
    In wealthier Haitian homes the “gravy” is pureed in a blender and served over rice. In poorer homes it’s mashed by hand and served over cornmeal mush, also known there as polenta or cornmeal porridge.

4 cups drained canned or cooked, unseasoned beans
1 cup water
1 teaspoon chicken, ham or beef bouillon
1 tablespoon vegetable oil, lard, bacon fat or butter
4 cloves garlic, mashed
½ teaspoon ground cloves
Small onion, diced, or dried diced onion
A few grinds of fresh pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon additional fat or oil (optional)

    In a pot, sizzle garlic in hot oil or fat, stirring in cloves, onion and pepper. Add beans, bouillon, cloves and water. Stir, bring to a boil and cover. Reduce heat and simmer until garlic is well cooked and flavors are blended. Mash or puree beans, adding liquid if necessary to make a thick gravy. Stir in fat or oil if desired and spoon over rice or whatever starch you have.
    .
Cook’s note: If you have an immersion blender on board (and I recommend one for compact size and many uses including mashing, chopping, whipping cream and pureeing), it’s ideal for pureeing this dish.

Cooking beans from scratch? Rule of thumb: depending on the bean, 1 cup dried beans swells to about 2 ½ cups cooked beans

Tips for the Galley Chef

    * Make sandwiches and add grated cheese. If weather changes and you need a hot meal, simply heat sandwiches until cheese melts and you have a completely different meal. To reheat in a skillet or oven, wrap in foil. To reheat in microwave, wrap in waxed paper.

    * Before stowing cans with pull tops, protect the thin area with waterproof tape. Just a drop of salt water can eat through the aluminum seal in a day or two.

    * Mix instant tea half and half with Tang. Add boiling water to make a bracing thermos drink for a cold night watch.

    * Use an insulated metal ice bucket as a fireless cooker. Bring potatoes to a boil in a pot, pre-heat bucket with a little boiling water, then place potatoes and hot liquid in bucket. Cover tightly and surround with cushions or towels. With a well-insulated bucket, potatoes should be ready mash in an hour.

    * Rib knit caps cost only a few dollars in discount stores. Keep a couple in the galley. They make a great tea cozy, insulator or a temporary catch-all sack for loose items. Easy to wash.

     . See more galley recipes and boating news at https://farleyhalladay.blogspot.com

Bonus Dessert Recipe
Banana S’More Quesadillas
    Don’t overload the filling. The mashed banana helps hold things together until fillings melt into a delectible glue.

8 flour tortillas, 8 inches each
2 large bananas
Miniature chocolate chips
Miniature marshmallows
Cinnamon sugar (optional)

Lay out tortillas. Spray one or more nonstick skillets. Cut the two bananas into 8 pieces. Lightly mash and spread a piece of banana on half of each tortilla. Working one at a time (or use a couple of skillets) place a tortilla on the skillet over low heat, banana side up. Press some chocolate pieces and a few miniature marshmallows into the mashed banana.
As soon as the tortilla is warm enough to be pliable, fold it in half to cover the filling. Continue heating over low head until it’s golden on the bottom. Carefully flip the quesadilla and brown the other side while fillings melt. Cut each quesadilla in half. Makes 16 pieces. Serve or or two per person. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar if you wish.
Cook's note: for a richer sweet, cook quesadillas in butter instead of pan spray.

Friday, November 29, 2019

Boat Cooking Makes Waves

Galley Recipe of the Week

Tutti Fruiti Carrot Salad

Now that shredded and grated carrots are available in packages in the produce section, boat cooks can throw this salad together in minutes.

12- to 16-ounce package grated carrots
11-ounce can mandarin oranges, drained
Small can pineapple tidbits, drained
1 cup shredded coconut
½ cup golden raisins
6 to 8 maraschino cherries, drained and quartered (optional)
1 cup (or more to taste) lemon or orange flavored yogurt

Fold everything together and serve now or chill. Serves 6 to 8.

Skillet Meal of the Week

Lumpy-on-Purpose Mashed Potato Skillet

Serving idea: Add eggs

    What fun! Serve it as a side dish or a vegetarian main dish. Use a tub of ready-made mashed potatoes or make them from scratch or instant potatoes from a package. Canned, diced potatoes add texture. Black olives add eye appeal.
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Medium onion, diced
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon curry powder
3 cups mashed potatoes
14.5-ounce can diced potatoes, drained and rinsed
1 tablespoon vinegar
Small can of chopped black olives, well drained
Fat for frying (butter, vegetable oil or bacon drippings)
Salt, pepper to taste

    In a large, nonstick skillet, sizzle onions in hot oil until they are limp. Stir in garlic until it’s fragrant, then stir in curry. In a bowl, mix mashed potatoes with diced potatoes, vinegar and black olives. Stir in onion mixture and wipe out skillet.
    Cover bottom of the skillet with a sheen of hot oil or fat and spread potato mixture in an even layer. Cover and cook until crusty on bottom and sides. Season to taste.
    Optional: After potatoes are browned, use the back of a spoon to make depressions in potatoes and fill each with an egg. Cover and cook over low heat until eggs are poached to taste.

Tips for the Boat Chef

    * Did you know that the Yacht Yenta cozy mystery e-books are dotted with recipes from Farley Halladay’s charterboat days? Book One of the series is January Justice   https://amzn.to/2XqCl1y

* Know your whisks, especially if you don’t have an electric mixer. I like a good, strong balloon whisk for batters or beating eggs and a heat-tolerant, flat-bottom whisk for stirring sauces on the stove

    * Make easy Ruebens. Open a tube of pizza dough, unroll and cover with slices of corned beef and cheese. Top with drained, rinsed sauerkraut. Do not over-fill. Roll up, slice, arrange on a baking sheet, bake.

    * Make a quick, nut-free crunch topping by browning rolled oats in butter in a nonstick skillet.

    * Slice small jelly rolls (such as Little Debbie) and make individual trifles in plastic glasses. Layer with instant pudding or yogurt, fresh fruit, whipped cream or what have you.

    * Make your own dried herbs for the galley. Remove stems from fresh herbs, microwave between layers of paper toweling. Keep cool and dry.

    * See new boating news, views and cues every week from Farley Halladay, the charterboat Yacht Yenta. She posts recipes too. https://farleyhalladay.blogspot.com

Pantry Recipe of the Week
    Each week we present a recipe made with no fresh ingredients. Stock your pantry with balanced meals in mind. Be prepared for all the Doldrums that life hands us out there, whether on a day sail or a transoceanic.

See the Survival Food Handbook for lists, tips on supermarket staples for provisioning on a budget, emergency measures for many scenarios. http://amzn.to/1WdYqbe

Chicken a là King

    Creamed chicken goes well with crusty biscuits but any starch will do: crisp Chinese noodles, instant mashed potatoes, instant grits, rice, baked potato, toast, zweiback, ad inf. Here’s a suitable creamed chicken with no fresh ingredients.

1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
2 tablespoons diced dried onions
1 tablespoon dried parsley
15-ounce can peas and diced carrots, drained
15-ounce can mixed vegetables, drained
10-ounce can chunk chicken
1/2 cup liquid *
2 tablespoons flour
Freshly ground black pepper

    In a cold pan place the condensed soup, onions and parsley. Drain vegetables and chicken, saving 1/2 cup liquid. Whisk liquid into soup, then whisk in flour. Heat gently, stirring until the mixture is bubbly, then fold in vegetables and chicken. Thin to taste with water, broth, milk or cream. Stir in freshly ground pepper and spoon over the starch of choice. Serves 4 to 8.