Dave and I have been honing our margarita recipe since we met. We tried the mixes.. not great. Then we worked with sweet and sour mix... still just not right. Then we found it at a friend's 30th... the perfect margarita which tweaked just slightly we made our very own.

Dave and Rosie's Margarita

• 1.5 shots Tequila. (High quality is best)
• 1 shot Grand Marnier
• 1 shot Simple Syrup
• 1 shot fresh squeezed lime juice

Mix, served on the rocks, salt rim.

I would often buy the bag of limes at Costco and juice all of them at once with my handy kitchen aid attachment. I'd mix up some simple syrup and combine equal parts with lime juice. Poured into a tupperware and kept in the freezer. Margaritas were always just a simple step away. Sometimes I might even juice in an orange or lemon with all the limes. This drink is pretty strong so if you want a little lighter on the alcohol, a floater of squirt or fresca is quite delicious.

On Crazy Love we lack a few of these amenities and have gone without. But with the convenience of an ice machine at this last marina I felt we could certainly come up with something.

Margarita Crazy Love Style

• 1 - 2 shots tequila (since we are on budget the $10 Sauza won out)
• 2 shots Crystal Light Lemonade
• Splash, Orange juice
• Lime wedge
• Splash, club soda

I filled the glasses with ice, poured in a shot or two of tequila. Then filled the glass mostly full with crystal light, added a splash of orange juice, a squeeze of lime and topped with some club soda ( I like bubbles). This drink certainly met my expectations.

Someone once said we needed a bottle of rum to keep on the boat, but I must admit Crazy Love is more a tequila girl!

The margaritas accompanied our chicken fajitas quite nicely.

These were thrown together by sautéing onion and green pepper, hash browns (leftover from breakfast...I love shelf stable dehydrated potatoes) and the remains of the whole roasted chicken we had bought for dinner the previous night. Salsa and sour cream toppers. Fill a tortilla, sip a margarita, and relax in the sun. Happy Labor Day Weekend!

Ok so it's really just creamy chicken soup with biscuits on the side. If I were a different cook I might try dropping the biscuit dough on the top, creating a dumpling topping, but I have an aversion to soggy bread and love my "crust" or biscuits on the side.

I had a potato and couple carrots that needed cooking so I threw this together last night after we anchored at McNears on San Pablo Bay.

Creamy Chicken Soup

• 1 can chicken
• 1 can cream of chicken and mushroom soup condensed + can water
• 1 potato, peeled and cubed
• 2 carrots, peeled and diced
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• Montreal steak seasoning to taste

Everything goes in the pressure cooker. Bring up to 15 psi and keep at pressure 4 minutes then turn heat off until pressure naturally releases.

While the soup is cooking you can fry up the biscuits. Yep I said fry.

Biscuits

• 1 cup self rising flour
• 2-3 tablespoons shortening
• 1/2 cup milk

I mix a heaping tablespoon of powdered milk into the flour, then add the shortening and gradually add water till it forms biscuit dough. Form into 4 flat patties. Pan fry in additional shortening. Take them on and off medium heat to prevent burning. About 4 minutes a side.

Not one of our heart healthiest meals but very good.

I've made the biscuits for breakfast before as well. Served with ham and cheese. They are a great bread substitute on the boat when a bakery isn't close by.

Pasta and sauce is one of our go to meals. It is great when we've just pulled into an anchorage.. start the water boiling and in less than 30 minutes you have a warm, delicious meal.

We try to buy the pasta in a plastic package or transfer to a plastic container as cardboard doesn't work on a boat.

For sauce I've found the 8oz can of plain tomato sauce in the tomato section not the pasta and jarred sauce section works best for 2 people. I season it with onion and garlic (that is if we have it or if I'm not exhausted after a long sail day) and my Italian Spice Mix*.

While I cook the pasta, I heat up and season the sauce in the skillet.

To make a "meat" sauce, a 1/4 cup TVP (textured vegetable protein) can be sautéed with the garlic and onion and added to the sauce. A can of mushrooms is also good to mix in. If we just came from the grocery like last night we had spicy, fresh Italian sausage. If we've just come from the farmer's market we love to add squash or zucchini.

Italian cheeses are great for storing on the boat with no refrigeration. The hard cheeses work well. A few shavings of parmesan or asiago with the veggie peeler usually tops off the dish.

But wait... While exploring Santa Rosa yesterday we stumbled into this great spice shop. They had a large selection of mixed spice blends for sale and encouraged tating! One was called Parmesan Pesto Sprinkle. This really added something special to the dish.. no refrigeration required. I also picked out a blend to restock my quickly disappearing Montreal steak seasoning. A great stop while we were waiting for our table at Russian River Brewing.

*Italian Spice Mix

• 2 Basil
• 2 Oregano
• 1 Rosemary
• 1 Thyme
• 1/4 Sage
• 1/4 Marjoram
• 1/2 Coriander

We made it under the Golden Gate Bridge and what better way to celebrate than with clam chowder and sour dough?

I can't believe I've never made this soup before. It turned out delicious and thanks to Mollie Stone's Market (a Sausalito local grocer) the bread met all of Dave's expectations for San Francisco (in the bread category anyway).

Clam Chowder - New England Style slightly adapted from Michael Greenwald's book

• 1 can clams (chopped in juice)
• 4 pieces bacon (chopped)
• 1/2 onion (or 1 small) (chopped)
• 2 Potatoes (peeled and cubed)
• 2 Carrots (chopped)
• 2 cups water
• Italian spice mix*
• Ground pepper
• 1 cup cream
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons flour

Sauté bacon and onion until onion is soft. Drain any excess fat.

Add potatoes,carrots, clams and their juice then add water till all is covered. Add in a couple shakes Italian spice blend. Bring to boil and let simmer for 10 minutes until potatoes and carrots are cooked.

In a separate bowl mix cream, milk, and flour (ensuring no flour lumps). Add mixture to pot and heat until a simmer. Do not boil.

Serve with sour dough and a nice stout. Dave chose the organic devout stout by Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing.

I used canned clams as that is the easiest :-). You can of course use any number of fish or shellfish replacements here.. fresh or canned.

I had planned to use powdered milk and had found a can of cream. I really doubt I'll find this again but it was on the shelves of a local grocery place in Half Moon Bay and worked really well.

Since we were so close to the grocery in Sausalito and Dave was craving real milk with his pancakes (yep Dave is the pancake expert on the boat) I actually had and used 2% milk that had been on ice less than 24 hours.

The flour I have on board is self rising flour. It still seems to work ok as a thickener.

I used the pressure cooker as a pot and didn't bring anything up to pressure but did use the lid to bring things to a boil a little faster. The recipe called for a bay leaf, but in its place I used my mix of Italian spices. It really turned out delicious and the excess bacon was a hit the next morning at breakfast too.

In the cold and foggy weather there really isn't much better for dinner!

*Italian Spice Mix

• 2 Basil
• 2 Oregano
• 1 Rosemary
• 1 Thyme
• 1/4 Sage
• 1/4 Marjoram
• 1/2 Coriander

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.