While Dave would spend evenings reading the complete works on Diesel engines, I was much more interested in planning what and how we would cook on the boat. I am not sure if my cousins Chris and Liz even remember but they gave us The Cruising Chef Cookbook by Michael Greenwald as part of our wedding gift 5 years ago. This book has been invaluable! He covers everything from provisioning, to how to make stock, to how to buy a live chicken and prepare it in a foreign port. I sure hope we don't need that last one. This is where I learned the value of a pressure cooker on a boat.. essentially he stated that if you only have room for one pot, make it a pressure cooker. It uses less fuel, cooking meals much faster and you can use it as a regular pot with a lid that locks in place (pretty important in a rolling anchorage).

So I did my research online and soon enough Amazon sent us our pot accompanied by my second favorite book on the boat, Miss Vickie's Big Book of Pressure Cooker Recipes. Apparently Vickie Smith is the end all of pressure cooker knowledge. As a reference to anything you may want to cook in a pressure cooker, this is your book!

It took a little experimenting, but I have to agree this is one pot I wouldn't do without on the boat.

One of my first successful dishes and one of our favorites we often cook on the boat follows. Maybe my Polish roots will show here...

Kielbasa Sausage Supper courtesy of Miss Vickie (slightly altered for two portions)

• 1 piece kielbasa (about 1 lb)
• 1 tbsp butter or oil
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup to 1 cup apple juice
• 1 to 2 tsp mustard
• 2 carrots, peeled and sliced in 1/4 inch pieces
• 2 potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 1/2 cabbage (green), cut in wedges

Cut the kielbasa into bite size portions. Brown the kielbasa in the butter or oil in bottom of pressure cooker. Add the onion and cook till slightly soft (~3 min). Mix in the juice and mustard. Add remaining vegetables to the pot in order as listed above, layering, with cabbage on top. Lock the lid and bring to 15 psi over high heat. Once at pressure, maintain for 4 minutes over low heat. Turn heat off and let pot naturally release pressure and its ready to serve.

A quick hot meal!

The sausages keep well on the boat (even without refrigeration) and all the veggies required are very hearty and could survive a long voyage should we need them to. I have varied this by using different sausage and using concentrated chicken stock with water when there is no apple juice. The other night we cooked this without potatoes but had potato pancakes on the side (a just add water mix we found at Cost Plus).

Last night I made a sausage dinner with linguiça, brussel sprouts, and onion flavored with balsamic vinaigrette we had leftover from a previous salad. Cooked to pressure as above for 4 minutes. Served over garlic and oil pasta with shavings of parmesan and Irish cheddar. The pasta gets cooked first and set aside while rest of meal is cooked. The same but completely different!

**Always make sure there is plenty of water or liquid in the pot before locking and bringing to pressure. For these recipes about a 1/2 to 1 cup water, juice, broth combo is enough for our little Magefesa 3 quart pot.