on baking bread...

 A good article on the Coleman folding stove top oven.

Some kind of seriously boat friendly...

 Now, is this recipe boat friendly or what?

Man, I sure cook a lot of cakes...

Yesterday I baked a cake and it got me thinking.about my Omnia stovetop oven and how it's made it easier to bake onboard. So easy, in fact, that I use it about twice a week.

For those of a number crunching bent, that would add up to something like three hundred times or so in the last three years.

That's a lot of cake!

Aside from a couple of tiny dents it's still good as new and I'm pretty sure it will continue to provide baked goods for a long time to come.

Of course, nothing is perfect as there was a pretty awesome recipe I just read and adapting it to the Omnia is going to take a bit of thought but rest assured I feel a cunning plan coming on...

I'll let you know how it goes.

a different kind of bread maker that certainly seems perfect for a galley...

Now, does this make sense on a boat or what?


The big question is whether or not it will fit inside my stove top oven...

Pressure cooker wonderfulness...

Our favorite pressure cooking resource Hip Pressure Cooking tells you what you need to know and shares the recipe...

A better way to bake onboard...

I've been on something of a baking binge of late and it's nice to have that smell that says "spice cake" and suchlike...

Part of the reason for the baking is that I recently purchased a stove top oven and it has worked out so well that I actually want to bake. The secret is the new oven does not heat up the boat's interior like our old oven did. Trust me, when it's 85 degrees outside the idea of making a carrot cake is seldom on my list of things to do, and it is always about 85 here in the tropics...

There is not much to the oven in question... a pan with a hole in it, a bundt pan, and a cover. In a word, simple.

Of course, on a boat, simple is no bad thing! Speaking of no bad things... so are pans and suchlike that stow easily, and in the case of the Ominia oven it even comes with it's own little nylon bag to keep the bits together.

While the bundt pan is not huge it does make a full sized cake or, to be more precise, is just the right size for a standard cake mix of the Duncan Hines/Betty Crocker variety.

All in all, this is an excellent product and very well thought out. So much so that I've decided not to bother getting a new stove with an oven in the current round of galley makeovering as this one does the job so well!

What's not to like?

Biscuits...

My dad used to make ham biscuits for New Years and I've been looking for a recipe for quite some time...

Baker's Banter has just the thing!

If you have an oven...

Stone Soup is talking sourdough and we should be listening!

Well Key limes are green...

Shelly ace chef on the charter yacht "Three Moons" just sent me a great recipe to share... Good stuff!

Kiss-Me Key Lime 'n the Coconut Chocolate Cheesecake
Serves 16
Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Baking Time 55-65 Minutes

Crust:
1 Pkg plain devil's food cake mix
6 TBS butter, melted
1 large egg, at room temperature
Filling:
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2 Pkgs (8oz each) cream cheese at room temperature
1 can (14oz) sweetened condensed milk
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup Key lime juice, at room temperature
Meringue Topping:
8 egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. coconut flavoring
Garnish: Toasted coconut & twists of lime

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Set aside a 10-inch springform pan.
2. Place the cake mix, melted butter and 1 egg in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 2 minutes. Stop  the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. The batter should come together into a ball. With your fingertips, pat the batter evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the springform pan, spreading it out with your fingers until smooth. Set the pan aside.
3. Place the chocolate chips in a medium-size glass bowl and heat in the microwave on high for approx. 2 minutes. Remove the bowl from the oven and stir with a small rubber spatula until they are melted. let the chocolate cool slightly. Place the melted chocolate, cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk in a bowl and blend with a mixer on low speed until just combined, 30 seconds. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 1 minute more to thoroughly cream the mixture. Add the 3 eggs and the lime juice to the batter. Beat on medium speed for 1 minute scraping down the sides of the bowl periodically. Pour the filling into the crust and place into the oven.
4. Bake the cheesecake until it looks shiny and the center barely jiggles when you shake the pan, 55-65 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool for 30 minutes.
5. Preheat broiler. Beat egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar and coconut flavoring until stiff peaks form. Spread on top of baked cheesecake. Place under the broiler and watch carefully as the meringue browns. Remove when when lightly browned and cool.

More chicken... PIZZA!

I was just working though this weeks coming menu on "So It Goes" and the word pizza just kind of resonated...

Baker's Banter had a recent post on a Thai fusion pizza that is just the sort of thing to use up those chicken leftovers... Spicy!

I'm still working out the best way to bake on our BBQ and it is an ongoing project but the big advantage is that it does not heat up the interior of the boat...

Bûche de Noël

Having lived in France for as long as we did it seems like a lot of the Christmas must do's are of the French variety.

Being that, in the Caribbean, we don't have a patisserie on every single corner (or island in most cases) going out and buying a Buche Noel is simply not an option so making your own is the order of the day because Christmas is simply not Christmas without one!

Luckily Baker's Banter comes to the rescue!

Why not crumpets?

Living on a boat and liking bread is sometimes just a little problematic. Ovens on boats tend to be small and seldom big enough to make two  decent sized loafs so you wind up using fuel and heating up the cabin and when all is said and done on Thursday you still don't have bread to make a sandwich with...

Which is why I tend to favor breads like Pita as they are much easier to make in an ongoing basis and are quick so don't use a lot of fuel or heat up the cabin while doing it.

So why not Crumpets? Not any harder to make then pancakes, able to be sliced for a sandwich and for breakfast they simply rock!

Which is why you should boogie on over to Bakers Banter who has the definitive "How to" on making crumpets!

Catching rays... Solar ovens

The idea of being able to harness the ample sunshine we have in the tropics and use it for cooking has always made all sorts of sense. Though sadly most of the various solar cooking solutions have been somewhat not quite boat friendly so it is one of those must haves that has crept to the back of the ever present list...

"The Adventures of Sailing Vessel Macha" recently added a solar cooker to their galley arsenal and it got me thinking. More than a good time to dust off my solar cooking links and see what was about these days.

The best place to begin on any solar cooking quest is the Solar Cooking Archive which is a solar cooking hub and if its not there ...well it is not anywhere! You'll find everything from recipes to cookers (and plans for cookers) as well as a country by country supplier linkage... Very cool!

One of the new additions that has BOAT written all over it is the Molly Baker Solar Oven which really does seem to cancel out all of my various issues with the various solar cooking hardware that is out there.

The buzz is that the cookbook that just about everyone really likes is "Solar Cooking for Home and Camp" and as long as I'm getting that what better time to get "The Solar Food Dryer" as the idea of making Tuna and Mahi Mahi Jerky makes all kind of sense on a boat of a limited size...

Perfect cockpit munchie...

Food to go along with cockpit entertaining is something of an art form and I am always on the lookout stuff exactly like this...

Caponata with bread grilled on the BBQ is perfect for solving the problems of the world while relaxing in the cockpit and watching the sun go down!

For the recipe check out Bakers Banter which is just an amazing resource...