rudderless

A Year

How fast it goes. That round baby is now walking, talking, using the potty. Ridiculous.

Today:

Happy almost Valentine’s Day!

Treehugging Tuesday

A simple reminder to turn off any lights you don’t need, inside and out. Imagine the stars we’d see if more people did such a thing. I remember the Milky Way, as seen from the coast of Maine, on the night before our wedding. And the stars at Joshua Tree. Spectacular. Keep the sky dark. Click on our sidebar “Need Less” animation to learn more.

Our other sidebar feature: Fuelly. We track our fuel consumption on Fuelly and are like super-geeks when we see our mpg go up. Breaking 43 was worth some high-fives and a glass of wine. We LOVE driving diesel. Enter your stats and play along. It’s good clean fun.

Making it Home

A few corners of the boat. This is truly the first home John and I have made together- something that isn’t a rental, or a loaner, or a boat that first belonged to him. It’s been great fun sewing, decorating, polishing it into something that belongs to all four of us.

The cushions are Ultrasuede (big splurge, but so worth it), sewn in the most basic way possible on my Sailrite Ultrafeed machine. I have had a long and tenuous relationships with the sewing machine. But after five years and a few dozen projects, I am proud to say that I love it with all my heart. Cockpit cushions are next on the list.

Pictures of my grandfather, grandmother, John’s mom, my family. My other grandmother resides in the galley. And I’ve noticed a strange absence of pics of my parents. Perhaps we need to schedule a photo shoot for next month, so the girls can have their beloved Goonie and JoePop framed up onboard. We hang pictures with velcro so that they stay put when the boat rocks. I need to reframe something for the left corner.

Art. By my lovely friend Meg Winnecour. The bluebird has found a home on our bulkhead.

Now, on with the living, and the adventuring.

Week of Love

Today this old man has been on my mind. Perhaps it’s the LOVE theme surrounding Valentine’s Day. He hated “Hallmark Holidays” but appreciated the calls and cards from his “Chirrun” (children) just the same. He would have enjoyed watching my girls diligently coloring their Valentine’s yesterday. He would have hung them on his credenza behind his desk with a straight pin and told anyone who’d listen that his GREAT-granddaughters sent them to him.

He asked me to help him write his memoirs about ten years ago. We didn’t get far- just some notes and a few precious tape recordings I need to transcribe. He never mastered the art of talking to a tape recorder. Every episode starts out with, “Ellen, I can’t get this DARN CONTRAPTION to do what I ask it to do.” But I have letters, notes, his Chirrun, and many, many images to get me through. I will write his stories down so that my Chirrun will know one of the most beloved people in my life. My oldest Valentine.

That’s the book I am writing in my head, on long bike rides, on my sunrise walks with Rosy. I am writing the stories of my three wonderful grandparents. I hope there will be some vignettes along the way. I need to sort through the blog my sister and I started about my grandmother and then abandoned- one more corner of the Internet gathering dust. I need to give my mom some time before I start extracting the tales of her Mother. They are just too fresh. But him, I am starting with him. With a picture, with a promise to finish what we started.

Local Harvest!

I’ve never gotten completely comfortable with South Florida’s upside-down growing season. It just seems counter-intuitive to stock up for the summer months and have local stuff in the market in the winter. But that’s what we do. We go strawberry picking on the first week in February. And what a wonderful harvest it was. This morning we are eating our “jam toast” and drinking smoothies, all with the berries we picked a few days ago. Knaus Berry Farm is in the only part of Miami-Dade I really enjoy. The Redlands is a paradox- a gorgeous, flat and fertile swath of agricultural land above Homestead, made possible only by diverting water from the Everglades in a network of canals that effectively ruins the natural flow of water from Lake Okeechobee. We have seen some moves towards restoring the natural environs of this area, but honestly, it wouldn’t be America without big business entering the picture . . . That said, I love visiting the Redlands and we patronize a co-op of organic producers, along with the Berry Farm. Occasionally when I’m going north and need to extend the drive a bit for a sleeping baby, I find reason to get off the main roads and drive through the green. Green in winter, that is.

Red Pot Meals- Chili!

First off, thanks for the well-wishes and support when it comes to living aboard. We will be back and forth for the next month as we close out the land base and try to get the mast on the boat so we can live at a mooring (where the breeze is better!). But I can’t tell you how amazing it was to see the ladies loving the boat. The most gratifying thing EVER.

I’m concerned that the big red pot won’t fit in the boat’s oven, as I’ve recently become a fan of slow-cooking in the Dutch oven by putting it inside the oven (my version of a crock pot). Perhaps it will work out, and perhaps the pressure cooker will give me a similar effect in a fraction of the time. We’ll see, eh? Yesterday we cooked this chili all day long and it was, hands down, the best we’ve ever made. Try it-

Chili in the Red Pot

2 tbs oil
2 medium onions, chopped fine
1 medium red bell pepper, diced
6 cloves garlic, minced
¼ cup chili powder
1 tbs ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp dried oregano
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 pkg. ground turkey (or beef, i suppose!)
2 cans beans- dark red kidneys, pintos, whatever you please
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can tomato puree
salt
condiments: scallions, cheese, etc.

1. Heat oil in Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onions, bell pepper, garlic, veggies are softened and beginning to brown- 10 mins. Increase heat and add meat. Cook until no longer pink and beginning to brown.

2.Add everything else and bring to a boil, reduce heat, simmer for 1 hour. Remove lid and simmer for 1 hour longer. Alternatively, put the whole pot in the oven at 225 degrees for 6 hours or so. You won’t regret it.

We eat ours alone with sour cream, or in true Southern form- ladled over a hot dog, in a bun, in a bowl with onions and mustard on top. My grandmother would insist on putting oyster crackers over the whole thing. A true Scrambled Dog- famously served at the small-town pharmacy in Columbus, GA where she took her children and grandchildren to dine at the lunch counter.

One Small Change, and one rather large one

Last month we joined Hip Mountain Mama’s One Small Change project- one earth/family/environmentally-friendly change per month leading up to April and Earth Day. Ours was to try some new recipes from Nourishing Traditions and continue to make organic dairy and meat a habit, not a splurge. Even if it means forgoing snack foods and other luxuries. After watching Food, Inc., buying decent meat seems to be a moral imperative.

The cooking went great- I’d recommend the cookbook to anyone and everyone- we made a beef stew, pot roast, potatoes, and a chicken dish that John loved. We played with sauces and marinades. Everything was from scratch, and it felt good to expand the repertoire a bit more. The premise of the book is to resurrect “traditional” recipes, simple, and from scratch, that optimize digestion and overall health. I look forward to many more meals from its pages.

I did my best to reach for the organic stuff despite the cost. I am enormously frugal, but have come around to appreciate quality over CHEAP. I put less meat in a dish to be able to recoup the cost of organic. I am heartened to see the natural meats picked over and the supermarket debuting its own line of organic dairy. All good signs. It’s still a matter of considering most everything I pick up- but once it becomes a habit, it will get easier, I’m quite sure.

This is the month of THE BOAT! We spent last weekend living aboard, getting adjusted, and are so excited about our new home. February brings the challenge of outfitting the boat in the most earth-friendly way we know how. Re-rigging our solar panels and fitting the DC system to run from our batteries (currently we have shore power that runs our insanely efficient fridge, a TV and 2 lamps- not bad!). Smalls things too, like using dish soap that won’t hurt fish. Reducing our laundry (potty trained babies help in that department!). Driving less (moving aboard shaves 500+ miles of driving off the odometer every week). Buying pillows and sheets that aren’t full of fire-retardants. So many things to consider in a 33-foot space. But we love it. And we’re living it.

The Yard Sale Continues!

Diapers, anyone? I just listed my medium pockets on diaperswappers.com- here’s the link.

For the locals, I have an enormous vat of Thai sticky/glutinous rice that I need to pass on. We have always made it in a bamboo steamer and the girls love rolling it into balls and dipping in soy sauce. We just don’t have room. Let me know if you want to try it.

I’ll be back later with pics of our FIRST WEEKEND Aboard! It went swimmingly, with the icing on the cake being Sophie this morning, “But I don’t want to go back home. I like the boat better!” She WAS at home.

And to put KSue’s and my mom’s minds at ease, boating does not mean the end of blogging. If anything, it should mean a beginning of sorts, as a boat trip was what inspired this whole business!

Nineteen Months

Dear Roo-

Happy Nineteen Months! What a crazy awesome month it’s been for you. 2 more molars. Speaking in complete sentences, about everyone and everything. You have a little work to do in the pronouns department, but for now, nothing in the world is more eloquent than, “My do it? Rosy do it?” I love hearing myself in your language- the way you mutter, “Careful” to yourself all day long. The constant, “Happen? What happen??” And the joyous shout of “I take a WALK!” when I ask if you’re interested in a stroller ride (at 7AM).

Then there’s “Right here” and “Right back.” The other day we were having our special predawn time and I’d been clipping your toenails. When I was done, you grabbed the clippers for yourself and said to me, “Wait here. My right back.” You ran into the kitchen and hopped up on Sophie’s stool to get the dish sponge, which you proceeded to rub between my toes (ewww . . .) while tickling me with the clippers. A baby who administers pedicures. There is simply SO much going on in your head, and in your world. It’s hard to keep up.

The big deal this month- the potty! Next week will ostensibly be our first week living on the boat as a family of four. Karma is truly catching up to me, as you decided to bless me with the gift of “peepeeinthepotty!” What a glorious achievement. I knew you were ready physically and when words started pouring out like wildfire, I knew you were ready intellectually. So here we are a week later and it’s like old hat. Two girls, two potties, one very happy mama.

The tiny moments I want to put in a time capsule for when you’re fourteen and threatening to drive away in the family car:
-The way you touch your nose with your finger and scrunch your face and say, “Shhhh.”
-On New Year’s Eve at Diana’s when you looked over at her sleeping pup and said, “Doggy sleeping. Shhh, doggy quiet.”
-The M added to everything- Mogurt, Morange, Moga (yoga), Melmo. I wonder how long that will last.
-The tippy toe dancing and insistence on being a ballerina just like Sophie. This weekend you were on her bike saying, “Rosy the princess . . . Rosy the PRRRINNNCESS!”
-Your mad love for Tubtubs, Caillou, Brown Bear, Bus Stops and Choochoos.
-It must have come from the Once Upon a Potty book, but the way you gasp when a box comes in the house and say with such excitement, “A new present!”
-The demands for “Booby ON THE couch?” This evening your Dad and Sophie were playing hide-and-seek and you were nursing. You looked up to count- “1,2,3,4,6,7,Booby?” You count everything, with a tiny finger pointing, always, “2,3,4 BEARS!”

I wish I could bottle it, freeze it, distill some of its essence. It is all so lovely right now. Watching the silly, charming, SMART you emerging by leaps and bounds. What a goofball, happy and lovely as the day is long. Every day less of a baby, yet still wanting to snuggle into that cradled spot where you can nurse, “on the couch!” a few times a day. We are at such a crossroads in your life. The moment between baby and kid. Between part of me and all of you. We are all happier people because you make us smile so many times a day. Intense and light all at once, silly and cerebral, joyous through and through. I love you to no end.

Here’s to our adventures ahead. I can’t wait!
love,
mama

Red Pot Meals- sausage and beans!

As boat life becomes our reality once again (T minus THREE days!!!), I am trying to remember the best of the one-pot meals. I have a Le Creuset cast iron dutch oven that is my favorite kitchen item, ever. I use it five time a week- for soups, stews, braises, popcorn. The inside bottom is dark brown, seasoned with five years of use and goodness. It’s my baby. So without further ado, here’s a favorite red-pot meal. We made it last night and will be making it again, on the boat!

Spicy bean stew with sausages
adapted from the River Cottage Family Cookbook

2 tbs olive oil or veg oil
1 lb mild Italian sausages, we’ve used both pork and turkey; of course the pork is slightly better, but the turkey seems healthier!
1 medium onion
2 garlic cloves
2 14 oz. cans beans, cannelini, pinto, kidney- whatever you love.
1 tsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp dried thyme
2 14 oz. cans diced tomatoes
salt and pepper

1. Fry the sausages in the oil, over medium heat until browned all around. Set them aside on a plate,
2. While the sausages cook, peel and chop the onion and garlic as small as you can, drain beans into a colander and rinse.
3. Add onion to the pan (same pan you cooked the sausages in). Turn heat to low and cover, sweating the onion for about 10 minutes. Add garlic and fry for another minute or two, until fragrant. Stir in brown sugar and the spices and thyme.
4. Pour in tomatoes and beans, season, and add sausages. Turn the heat up to medium until stew simmers, then put the lid on, turn to low, and cook for 1-2 hours (longer the better). Stir every now again, but if you cook it gently enough, it shouldn’t stick.
5. You could leave the sausages whole, but I like to pull them out at the end and cut them into bit-size pieces, then add them back in (this makes feeding a toddler simple).
6. This is exceptional with potatoes, mashed or roasted, and a good beer.