Sunday, December 16, 2012

Christmas Pot Luck


Christmas Pot Luck---15/16th December 2012

Yesterday at 5 the marina Christmas pot-luck was scheduled to get underway.  I gave up sanding the hatch boards at about 2:30 to make apple-cranberry crisp.  (You’ve got to go with the ingredients that you have!) Cooking on the boat is a somewhat different experience.  The first step is usually assembling the ingredients.  As things are stored all over the boat, this might involve lifting the floor-boards or pulling off the cushions of the settee and ferreting in the storage space behind.  If you need a pan to cook in, you have to get down on your knees in front of the stove and pay homage to the cooker. Next you get started with the chopping and preparation on the countertop that doubles as the fridge top.  Inevitably just as you have loads of things on chopping boards or plates on top of the fridge you remember that key ingredient that is ---still in the fridge. 

By the time I had the apple crisp assembled, the oven thermometer read 400.  I popped the tray in and turned the oven down.  Forty minutes later (after a few temperature checks) the “crisp” looked like the underbelly of a flounder.  A fork prod at an apple revealed that even the apples weren’t soft.  I boosted the temperature further and went off to take my shower.  On returning, the boat was starting to have an apple smell (mixed with that unmistakable whiff of diesel).  Peeping into the oven, the white glare of the topping nearly blinded me. The heat dial went to max.  Meanwhile I spotted the butane burner I had been using for stripping varnish.  I found myself thinking, if it works for crème brulee why not apple crisp? It was only the risk of fire that stopped me.  After one hour and forty minutes in the oven, I gave up and took the pallid crisp to the party.  It’s boaters after all…

I ate and drank (diet sprite and tea) and talked to various people until it was well past my usual bedtime.  It’s uncertain what today will bring.  Perhaps I’ll start varnishing but then again maybe not. Football tonight if I can find somewhere to watch it!

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