Triple Berry Surprise  .... Sunday 19 August 2012

We had a lovely day. We made the relatively short trip from Biddeford Pool to Jewel Island, which is about 8 miles north east of Portland. Winds were very light  so we sailed some and motored some, arriving in a beautiful narrow cove on the west of the island at about 3pm. We had been here before on one of the legs of our journey up the coast of Maine in "Dreamcatcher" our 16ft Wayfarer. It's nice to be back, and the clouds at sunset were amazing.

Anyway, not so much to say about today, so we thought in the spirit of "Julie and Julia" that we'd share some of our culinary experiences, this one from our overnight passage. As experimental scientists we have learned that if you repeat the exact same thing you will get the same result. Our advice … don't repeat this!  Anyway picture this .. it's late, dark outside, the red glow of the nightlight bulb warms the inside of the cabin, and the freeze dried "triple berry surprise" talks to Mike. After many years on the shelf this was bound to happen sometime. He puts some water on to boil and carefully cuts the top of the pack. Then, less carefully, he picks the packet up by the bottom and tips the entire contents over the counter top . These are then scraped up and added to the boiling water. The resulting concoction tastes not bad … so he adds the "crumble" topping. Big mistake, ghastly, the taste is simply awful and after a few mouthfuls the remainder goes over the side. We can think of many reasons why this dessert might be labeled "triple berry surprise", most of them unprintable, but we came to the conclusion it had to be because of the crunchy bits. We like to think these were  apple, which last time we checked  wasn't a berry  … or at least that is what we hope the bits were, rather than something left on the countertop! On balance, we feel this recipe needs a little tweaking before it goes in the cookbook. In contrast, the steak tips we cooked on the grill tonight were excellent.

Mike

Clouds at Sunset - Jewel island