I really don't:

have anything against personally cauliflower. But like anything, in sufficient excess, I just get sick as hell of it. It seems like, for some odd reason, that every donation in the last week has brought cauliflower. I can't explain it. But I've stuffed cauliflower into practically all of the last six meals, and I am, persnally, sick as hell of it.

The last four days of meals:

Wednesday:
LUNCH: veggie burgers; tofu burgers; string beans sauteed with garlic; salad; bread
DINNER: enchiladas with tofu, yellow bell peppers, onions, and sauteed mushrooms; fresh bread, salad

Thursday:
LUNCH: miso soup with onion and tofu; sauteed broccoli with garlic; baked butternut squash with soy sauce annd chili sauce
DINNER: chili; fresh bread; deep fried potato chips; salad with fresh croutons (thanks, mama!)

Friday:
LUNCH: stuffed peppers with rice, onions, garlic, and butternut squash; deep fried french fries; salad with croutons; and fresh canteeloupe juice
DINNER: cream of broccoli soup; stuffed mushroom caps; fresh bread; homemade hummus

Saturday:
LUNCH: fusilli pasta with sauteed broccoli, cauliflower, and garlic; garlic bread; fresh gaucamole; (leftoveer) stuffed mushrooms
DINNER: stir fry with with broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, and both rice and noodles; salad; fresh bread; fried veggie chips -- potatoes, sweet potatoes, and parsnips

A good few days, I think, and judging from crew response. Every day, I wake up in the morning, and lay in my bunk thinking about what to make that day. Tomorrow, to be cliche, is a new day. We'll see.

More soon!

Food update:

After all, what else matters?

Today for dinner I made a gigantic pot of chili, and salad, and sauteed onions
with fresh sage leaves donated from a school tour group's garden, and baked two loaves of whole wheat bread.

Now I have to get back to the ship and get to sleep so I can cook tomorrow' food. I'm thinking about boring lunch (veggie burgers) and dinner remains unknown.

So much water around us...

...yet none in the ship. Yeah, so, we ran out of water. The other ship left port for a campaign against illegal whaling in Iceland, and in the days leading up to their departure, much water was consumed. Wednesday night, I got back late from a live music show, and tried to clean up some dishes in the galley around 2am. There has been minimal, and then zero, drinking water since. We're re-filling it, but it takes a LOOOOONG time, and then time to re-pressurize the tanks.

So my life in the galley has been challenging, to say the least. Not only is it damn difficult to cook for six to twelve people without water, it's surprising how quickly you can use every clean dish and utensil, even in a large galley. Last night was leftover surprise night, basically just about anything I could heat up in the microwave without needing more pots and pans. Needless to say, I wasn't thrilled with what I was able to put out.

Well, enough complaining for now. Really, things are challenging, but not bad: after a lovely hot shower at the Y, and free wireless, and clean clothes, I have to get back to the ship. More soon!

Cooking up a vegan storm

Some notes on recent dishes, per request (you know who you are!)

• chili with kidney beans and navy beans, and rice/tofu burgers ground up, with celery, onion, and carrot.
  
• garlic bread with fresh garlic slices and 'nuttelex' (vegan butter subtitute)
  
• numerous salads, usually with spinach and/or salad greens, and various fresh vegetables
  
• fresh squeezed juice in our crazy expensive, fancy (donated) juicer
  

Upcoming dishes, from my random notes in my notebook, based on the donated vegan ingredients available:

• deep fried tofu
  
• bean dip
  
• nachos, with beans, onions, and sauteed tofu chunks
  
• pita wraps with roasted vegetables
  
• home-made chips (sweet potato; potato; parsnip, etc.)
  
• more fresh squeezed juice
  
• lots of fresh lemon juice from a case of donated lemons
  
• mixed fruit sorbet; tangerine sorbet (pureed fruit, sugar, lemon juice, and a small bit of water, frozen, and re-blended in the food processor for consistency)
  
• potato leek soup
  
• home fried potatoes
  
• chocolate chip cookies
  
• stir fry, with tofu, and rice or crispy noodles, depending on my whim
  
• rice pudding
  
• more chili
  
• muesli bars
  
• coffeecake
  
• deep fried polenta
  
• home made salsa
  
• fruitcake (really, it needn't be just a disgusting holiday joke!)
  
• pies: apple; tangerine; etc.
  
• carrotcake
  

The weather is turning a little grey and rainy, but life aboard ship remains fine. More later!

Sometimes life gets in the way

Today is A's birthday; I'm drinking a Guinness Extra Stout out of a Heinekin glass in the Mission to Seafarers to celebrate. I plan to try to track down something better this afternoon to properly celebrate. If I'm lucky, perhaps a Little Creatures, or Red Oak Boutique Beer Cafe.

I'm now the chief cook on the Robert Hunter, however dubious a distinction that is. 100% vegan. 98% of the food is donated, and when I cook, I keep saying to myself 'you have to play the cards you're dealt, you have to play the cards that you're dealt.' Today's lunch was chili, garlic bread, fruit salad, and leftover spinach salad with "rocket" (a.k.a. arugalu) from dinner last night. Tonight's dinner is sweet potato fries (we have a commercial deep fat fryer!) and possibly vegan pizza, if I get off my ass and go get some sugar for proofing the dough.

As usual...

Spent the last few days doing carpentry, moving steel, and cooking. Today I spent much of the day cutting and cooking down apples to applesauce and for use as an egg substitute.

I've showered twice in five days, which seems a bit of a luxury now, but is amusing relative to showering daily at home.

I'm sitting at the Mission to Seafarers, drinking a AUD$3.50 Guinness Extra Stout, quite a good price by local standards.

Today I rode a beater bicycle to pick up our organic groceries donation, as I do almost every day, and it struck me how nice it is to be able to leave ship every day as I do.

Need to finish this up now, and get back to the ship for a good night of sleep, before a long day tomorrow.

Routines

It's interesting to me how adaptable people are. I've been on the ship for just a day over two weeks as of today, and it basically feels like living in a home situation. Well, not really, and I miss J immensely, but what I mean is that it feels like... just the place that I live.

I have a pretty basic and standard routine. I wake up most every morning by 7:15am, a little earlier if I'm going to cook a hot breakfast for the crew (usually home fries or pancakes; and/or juicing a lot of the fresh fruit we get donated.) I put out breakfast when it's my day to do so (currently I'm still able to rotate this with the other two cooks on board.) I then ride the bike that I put the exceptionally rickety milk crate on (tearing up my finger) to Flinders Organics, where they are exceptionally generous and give us a daily food donation at 9am. I ride this back to the ship, and working with another cook, prepare lunch. Clean up, and then I have a couple of hours I can take off to shower, check e-mail, go over to the other ship to do carpentry (which is nearly done) or bake/cook some special dessert. Then prep for dinner begins around 3pm, is served at 6, and generally cleaned up by 7pm. Unless I have a watch shift, the rest of the night is mine, and is often spent hanging around in the crew lounge, or reading, or playing Maelstrom, and occasionally doing laundry (the tea towels for the galley.)

The daily trip to the organic grocery is a bit tiring, since I have to wake up earlier than I otherwise would on days that I don't have to prepare breakfast, and I have to brave the rude and distracted Melbourne drivers, like the jackass this morning in the 'ute' delivery vehicle that very nearly ran me over TWICE while he was texting on his cell phone on a busy central Melbourne street. But it does get me off ship every day, which is really nice, and reminds me of the world off of the ship.

I just had a lovely hot shower at the YMCA, and have the rest of the day off. Unlike my only other day off so far, when I foolishly hung around the ship and ended up working, I'm going to try to avoid the ship like the plague. I need to try to track down a decent bicycle pump, and some blank CD-Rs. In other words, yes, basically routine.

Okay -- off to run errands.

A pound of flesh

Well, okay, only a few ounces in truth. Last night I was working on a bicycle in the bosun's locker, with tools that are often, at best, moderately adequate. I was trying to piece together a few nuts and bolts that fit one another to put a rear rack and milk crate on a bicycle that has been donated by a local bicycle collective. Long story short, the screw with the extremely frozen nut slipped in the vise, and my right forefinger slipped right along the top of the very sharp machine bolt head, tearing out a good sized chunk of flesh right on the main knuckle. I dressed it, and got various laughs, mostly sympathetic, today.

I have spent most of the last two days doing carpentry on the other ship, installing wood framework for a new autopilot unit, and filling in the hole where the old (and much larger) unit was removed. It's a nice change from the galley, but in truth I'm also looking forward to returning to the galley tomorrow for a few days while another cook is away.

My last foray into the galley was to cut and prep (soaking in vinegar, salt and water) an entire 20 kilo (44 pound) sack of potatoes. A number went into another cook's potato salad, a good portion were cooked and then frozen for future use at sea, a sizable chunk were pan fried one morning, with the remainder being deep fried for the next day's lunch. In the prep process, I got to use my "cheese" slicer, which it's amusing to re-purpose for vegan uses, in this case, slicing some potatoes thin enough to deep fry them as potato chips (or crisps, depending on your frame of reference.)

Life aboard ship remains interesting, with something new every day. Between food, carpentry, occasional first aid, and random tasks here and there, things rarely get boring.

Okay -- the YMCA, where I've had a lovely shower and free wireless, closes shortly, so I'll finish up. Likely more exciting posts to come soon.