Salsa! Or, Alternatively: Abundance Demands Action

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Here’s a potluck item or a nice little crafty gift for people you meet. At the end, I’ll get to what I was doing there with the packaging.

There’s a great farm stand in Oriental, NC that’s a good bike ride away, a 5 minute drive, or a very long walk. We had the luck of meeting someone at this cafe who offered us a ride to Paul’s Produce stand, and when we got there, we picked out a bunch of stuff and all of it was very fairly priced.

“See that box over there?” said, I presume, Paul himself when we brought our things to the counter to pay. “You can take the whole thing off my hands for a dollar.”

So we did, and when he tallied our bill up it came to $7.50. Whoa. We walked out of there with two huge bags of produce and this box, that was mostly made up of long-in-the-tooth tomatoes.

“Does that sound fair to ya?” Yeah Paul, TOTALLY.

SALSA. That’ll use these up. We wouldn’t eat them all in time if it was just the two of us cooking with them. We were in Oriental, where every day you meet new people, other boaters, cruisers who are now living on land… I had salsa ready for every social occasion, including a great time aboard s/v C:\[esc]. This recipe goes out to Ellen!

Now, just like all the other recipes on this blog, I’m laying this out like a roadmap, not a set of directions. You can double this or back off on some of the flavors. However, to get this to taste like what we shared in Oriental or what you’ve had at one of my Dia de los Muertos parties, then you need the first 5 ingredients on this list. The rest is variation and you don’t necessarily need it.

2 tomatoes, chopped (about 2 cups, yeah I know, tomatoes are all different sizes)

2 scallions, in nice small slices showing off their little ring shapes. Don’t just use the greens, cut right down into the whites where the flavor is. (Only have onions? COOL. Do a nice dice to 2-3 tbsp of them)

juice of 1 lime (No limes? Put a few dashes of apple cider vinegar or wine vinegar in there. about a tablespoon or so. Lime is key. If you think this should be more zesty, throw in more juice or vinegar. Too much? Balance it with the oil.)

salt to taste, start with a teaspoon

2-3 tablespoons of olive oil (count that? we’re to 5 ingredients. BAM, simple salsa.)

about 2 tbsp cilantro (more if you love it!)

1 finely diced jalapeño, or a few tablespoons of diced poblano or anaheim peppers, or a chipotle pepper from one of those little cans of chipotle

a clove of fresh garlic (If you do this, have it pickle with everything overnight so the garlic isn’t so pungent. Garlic powder is also pretty good if you’re in more of a rush. More garlic tips below.)

mango, pineapple, black beans, corn, or somesuch fancy thing chopped and added. Adjust your dressing (you know, your citrus and oil and salt) to cover this extra stuff. But yes, this is is one way you could make any salsa you’d like, really.

I don’t think I need to write directions here, because you just mix these things and put them in a bowl so you can proceed to delight your guests. Having it chill or pickle in its juices for a little while is nice but not necessary.

When I made this in Oriental, I made a batch with cilantro, then ran out of cilantro, so to get a nice distinctive flavor I took the couple tablespoons of oil that I’d be using and put it in a pan first. On a low and slow temperature, I added a couple of cloves of minced garlic to sweat into the oil, then when I went to dress the salsa with it, I poured the garlicky oil in there. Boom. Garlic salsa.

Jars to Leave as Gifts

Above in the picture you can see that I made some labels for jars of the stuff.

I collect a couple of things that makes this easy. I always have magazines on hand that have colorful photos in them so I can make tags or wrap small gifts (these came from a diving magazine) and I always have glass jars saved for all kinds of uses around the boat. I pick a page that I think will work, with some space in the photo that gives an opportunity to put words in, and I fold the paper and bend it around the jar to approximate the lines where I’ll have to cut so it fits around the jar. A bit of tape at one end, pull the strip of paper around and neatly tape the other end, then write on it. Write on it ahead of time and you might trim some of the lettering off.

If you don’t process the cans give your gift receivers a heads up that it’s fresh salsa and not for the cupboard. It should be eaten within a week.

Also, don’t process salsa that’s made from tomatoes like the discount ones we got. Canning and preserving should be done, always, with the freshest ingredients for the best results and for your health.

Salsa is easy, do play with the flavors. It’s just enough work and it’s so nice and fresh that it’s always received with a lot of joy. Mix and taste, add dashes of what you think might be missing, and make it your own.

Tell me where you take it, I’d love to hear your salsa tips!

Postcards: New Rules & How to Build Yourself a Writing Kit

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Joy. Absolute joy.

An object in the mail, there in your mailbox… Just because. Just a note of hello. And OH! To be the sender!!

When I talk to people who are also travelers, whether they’re cruisers or otherwise, they see me throwing a fist full of postcards into the mailbox and they intimate that they’ve always thought about sending some, but just don’t get around to it. When I dig more as to why, the following points come up and I’d like to address all of them and give some pointers for joy-slinging success.

You’ve already left the place where you bought the postcard.

And you’re afraid that it’ll look like you were absent-minded and forgot to send it on time. On time? Hm. The other classic variation on this is that you’ll be home before the post card gets to its recipient. Question: Do YOU care? Like, have you ever checked the postmark on a piece of mail from a friend and scrutinized when it was sent? The answer is no, most likely. Heck, even if it was your birthday and you got a card a week later, you wouldn’t think anything bad of the friend who sent it, would you? I think that’s all a bit outdated now, for sure.

You never seem to have the right things on hand.

Set yourself up for success with a letter writing kit. If you’re the sort of person who really truly wants to send post cards, then here’s my method, the way I came to have a fairly good postcard practice. Firstly, addresses. Collect them. Think of five people who you know would adore getting a post card and ask them for their addresses. Get a notebook you’ll enjoy using, nothing fancy or particular like an address book unless that’s what you really want, and just start jotting them down. You’ll find you want more but my first few addresses were my grandmother’s, my parents of course, my penpal and soulmate Lori, my west coast Lori, my best friend Jo, and the list goes on. Once I started thinking of people with whom I had exchanged fun mail like valentines and stuff, it just kept rolling. I even send letters to the pubs I love.

Now that you have a list, get stamps. Now. Don’t wait to get cards. Postcard stamps are cheaper than regular stamps. Forever stamps are a good concept but who cares if the price goes up, now you can stamp on all kinds of neat tiny denomination stamps like this:

Now you just need cards and words. When I get to my destination I look for cards that are either 4 for a buck or 3 for a buck, in that kind of price range. I also have blank note cards, just in case someone has a birthday. In the picture below, you can see that I found awesome vintage post cards. They were an unbelievable 25 cents a pop so I sent to my whole list and used them as Christmas cards. That was for about 50 recipients.

Now that you’ve got your supplies, you might want to think about making them accessible so you can write on a whim. I have a little file-o-fax type box with sections and keep all my stuff in there. I have a section for stickers, note cards, stamps, envelopes, etc. I have a section for the cards I receive, and they serve as a reminder that I need to send a reply.

For on-the-go post card mailing, I also keep some stamps ready to go in my moleskine notebook that has a little pocket on the back cover.

But Anne, I really think I don’t have time to write cards.

Well, for this one, I’m going to have to say that you should just start by writing one or two at a time. When you start recounting your adventures via postcards, it becomes a really enjoyable activity and a meditation of sorts. In some towns, I only buy postcards that are really great or that specifically remind me of someone, so that cuts down how much I write sometimes. Plus, postcards have so little writing space that you can really only communicate a few little thoughts, so really, it’s not all that much of a time commitment. In the picture below, I’m stamping and writing while we were underway.

Other Details

I like using sharpie extra fine tip markers instead of pens. They do well on both the papery and glossy backs of cards without smudging.

On the papery-type cards (not glossy), if you’re into doing water colors at all, consider not writing words but maybe just doing a nice painting in the writing space- maybe of a pelican or a monument that you liked or of a building you enjoyed. I’m not great with watercolors, so sometimes I just put hearts, trees, or pen drawings of the dog.

Traveling internationally? Consider buying just one post card and making the rest out of interesting paperboard packaging from things like cookies and snacks. You can trace the right size out, cut, and make something really interesting and cheap.

Interesting stamps: If you go to the post office and ask for stamps, start your inquiry by asking if they’ve got anything new and interesting in. Sometimes you can get really pretty stamps. In my opinion, getting the letter rate for a stamp is worth it even if you’re just sending the post card, the post office could use the extra 10 cents or so anyhow.

Stickers: I also keep, in my little writing-supply-file-thing, a section of stickers. Great for holidays, seasons, birthdays and congratulations, you can slap one of those on and it communicates extra words you can’t fit on a small post card.

If you’re on a long trip and intend to send cards in waves as you travel, consider putting the date and location where you’re writing the note. It gives some context to the writing. Like I said way at the beginning, don’t worry too much about sending it right away or about the date being a kind of expiration date. It’s just not true. Pop it in the mail when you can, and it’ll be loved all the same.

Well, that’s about it for now, I suppose. Have questions or ideas about this? Have other stumbling blocks or success stories? I’d love to hear about it!

Earth Day is Everyday

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As I write this, the boat is rolling for its umpteenth hour since the wind started kicking up from the northeast here in Oriental, NC. It’s a little calmer now. Pelicans are having breakfast. The anchorage is pretty full, and we’re at the edge of it, getting the brunt of the occasional rumpus still coming in from the Neuse River.

Rachel Carson, hero and scientist (photo from wikipedia)

I live outside. The tides, the wind, the animal life are all things that are a part of my daily life. If 11-year-old Anne could see 34-year-old Anne, she’d probably be gobsmacked. It was around 11 years old that I became enamored with Earth Day, which started in 1970 and by the time I came around to knowing about it, we had already forgotten about it for a long time (I feel like the 80s were more about serious consuming) and a new awareness had started gaining traction. Recycling came to our tiny New Hampshire town. A few people I knew even used their own shopping bags when they went shopping. Earth Day tee shirts were a big part of my wardrobe.

You don’t have to be a scientist to grasp or an activist to act on the concept that we only have so much and that there are so very many of us. Boats have brought me to places where I can see, first hand, the ways that we affect the planet. I’ve seen dead and dying coral not far from thriving tropical reefs, banks of dredging spoil made into angular, fake islands, remote beaches with plastic debris on them, evidence of animal bites on beach trash mistaken for food, high salinity water near desalination plants that choke out marine life, plumes of smoke outside of St Marys, GA and resulting ash on the windward side of Cumberland Island, and the fisheries of Maine on their knees for the lack of cod. I’ve also hiked a re-forested White Mountain National Forest after we laid off of her slopes for a while, I’ve seen a CFC ban slightly inconvenience some propellant manufacturers to everyone’s benefit, and it’s been a banner year for North Atlantic Right Whales.

Truth: we have an impact. We can make that impact good or bad.

It’s to our own benefit that we move about the world in a way that’s respectful of her carrying capacity. Cui bono? US.

John Muir, whose birthday inspired the date of Earth Day and who stuck his neck out for the preservation of wild spaces (photo from wikipedia)

Dismissive, disrespectful people who would call me a tree hugger are out there. Watch out for those people, they either lack an understanding of the grave environmental situations we face OR they stand to profit from them financially. Hell, climate change deniers say all the time that the scientific community stands to gain financially for reporting the data they report.

To say that acting locally is thinking globally goes beyond a bumper sticker slogan, and I kindly ask any climate change denier to recognize and respect where I’m coming from.

Sustainable living asks that you look within yourself and scrutinize your practices. It’s not an easy thing to submit yourself to, so let’s talk about it. It takes a humble heart. It’s something only you can do, which is why people so often resist. To make real change, you’re going to have to do more than bring your own bags to the store, carpool to concerts, and faithfully carry the recycling bin to the curb every week.

You’re going to have to read and think. You’re going to have to participate, vote, and pay attention. In those moments where light bulbs start going off in your head, you’ll find out that you don’t need to “give up” anything if that’s what you’re thinking. It just doesn’t feel that way.

There’s a difference between religion and practice. A religion is an ideology not changed or tailored by or for participants, and maybe that’s what people react to when they resist the notion of living a life more attuned to ecological sustainability. This isn’t Lent, man. It’s also not a contest. You don’t have to give anything up for the sake of it and there’s no trophy awarded for it.

Ecological sustainability is a practice. A practice is something that YOU drive, and it should be fueled by your own ideas, actions, and visions. With awareness, it was easy for me to stop using plastic utensils, to build a compost pile, to carry my own coffee cup instead of using disposables, to kill a lawn and grow food instead. I still eat stuff and drink coffee, I just have a different practice now.

From clothing to food to transportation… once you figure out there are things you could change or take part in, it’s pretty easy. If you come into knowing that a change needs to happen and you choose not to take your place among the citizens of the world, then I don’t know what to tell you. I guess I’d say, “Stop being a poop.”

My main points here, I hope, are clear.

1. It’s not painful to live within our means, and in fact, there is comfort and ease to be found in consuming less. Beside actual involvement or activism, we can make a massive impact as consumers and consuming carefully is a good and easy start.

2. You don’t need to think of the oil-slicked birds at an oil spill or sad pictures of arctic animals losing habitat to spark yourself into action. Your local water source might be compromised by changes, a local farmer might be bullied by the USDA, or the price of your food might go up. YOU’RE the animal who will benefit from sustainable practices.

Cuss word warning but watch this if you like. It’s George Carlin and I can’t say it better but it’s got some language in it. To sum up: “The planet is fine, the people are f***ed… the planet isn’t going anywhere. WE ARE… pack your shit folks, ’cause we’re going away… just another failed mutation. The planet will shake us off like a bad case of fleas. A surface nuisance.”

To Carlin’s chagrin I mention him on Earth Day and I celebrate Earth Day. But I do it with all my humanness, with love and hope and care for my neighbor. I don’t get it perfect but I do what I can because I do love this blue marble and all the things it gives me. I’m in awe of it. I can’t help it.

Eggs In Purgatory With a Twist

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Eggs in Purgatory is a very simple, healthy way to prepare perfect eggs. You’re poaching in a sauce on medium-high heat, gently steaming the tops by putting a cover on the pan. Then, you can serve this on starch of some sort: traditionally bread or polenta. I can imagine using cornbread or rice, too. Being that I’m south right now, I have excellent grits on hand and spiced them up a bit with some canned chilis. For the sauce, I had some really lovely marinara sauce that had been made by a vendor at the farmer’s market in Brunswick, GA and was just waiting to be used for something like this where it could shine.

Here’s a roadmap of ideas for making eggs in purgatory:

sauce (pasta sauce, salsa, crushed tomatillos, etc)

eggs (local, beautiful, organic if you can)

starch (crusty bread, corn bread, polenta, polenta cakes, grits, rice, tortilla chips…)

extras for the starch or toppings (onion, chopped garlic, green chilis, jalapeño, herbs like cilantro, oregano, etc.)

Get going on the starch part first if it’s not already done (bread and tortilla chips make this a really quick meal to prepare).

In a small frying pan, cover the bottom in about 1/2 inch of sauce and heat until just starting to show signs of getting steamy. Drop the egg in there, cover the pan. Every 30 seconds or so have a quick peek at the egg and when it looks like it’s how you want it (anywhere from sunny to over hard) just scoop it out with a spatula.

It only takes a minute or two to cook the egg depending on how you like it, so be observant and don’t walk away too long. The whites will be nice and soft, and it’s easy to make an over-medium egg this way without overcooking the whites.

That’s about it! Take this for a walk and let me know what you come up with!

Repurposing: You Probably Already Have that Thing You Need

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I regard pretty much everything as objects with more than one purpose, and I’m unlikely to buy something that does a particular job. Rather, I opt for things that can fill in for many jobs around house and boat. Here are a few examples of things I’ve been using or re-using that might help reshape the way you think about the stuff you’ve got or about the packaging you choose when you’re provisioning. This isn’t just for boats, by the way. Land folk will like this, too.

Net-like Produce Bags as Beachcombing Treasure Keepers

Onions, potatoes, and citrus from the supermarket come in a variety of bags, and lately I’ve been opting for the plastic netting ones so I can take them to the beach for shelling or reuse them at the farmer’s market for more produce. The bags collapse right down so you can even keep one in your backpack for spontaneous shell collecting, and when you’re done collecting and want to rinse your finds, you can dunk the whole thing in the water to get rid of sand.

Come to think of it, they’d make a good colander for produce, too. I haven’t done this yet, but I’m thinking that next time I process and clean some greens, I might wash them in one of these bags then whip it around up on deck, using the centrifugal force as a salad spinner.

It’s important to make sure you don’t LEAVE these bags on the beach. Ever. Animals can get caught in them. When you do dispose them eventually, consider shredding them up so birds don’t find them at the landfill and have trouble with their beaks.

Parmesan Cheese Containers as Handy Tupperware

I have a slight weakness for salty, dry, shelf-stable cheese of late. I’m also finding that the shape and top of these shaky containers is useful for a slew of things. Here are a couple of examples: Its long shape is perfect for storing wrapped butter as you use it, cutting from one end and leaving the rest wrapped, you just keep it wrapped end side down. Similarly, I eat veggie sausage that comes wrapped like Jimmy Dean Sausage (called Gimme Lean) and store it the same way.

I also keep popcorn toppings in it. We love to use a mix of nutritional yeast flakes, salt, italian herbs, and a dash of garlic powder on popcorn. We premix that flavor combo in a shaky cheese container and voila! Ready to go. If it’s a nice looking container and you want to give an edible birthday present, you could put together an herb blend/popcorn topping for a friend and give it to them in this, with a homemade label.

Shells or Rocks as Soap Savers

No need to go out and buy a one-job dish to take care of your soap. Just use a handful of rocks or pretty shells in a regular little bowl to help circulate air around your bar. Where’d I get that pretty little bar of soap? From this lady here.

Packing Tape as Lint Collectors

I mail a lot of stuff and generally find that clear mailing tape has a lot of uses in general. Great for hair and lint pickup, you just make a mitt around your fingers on one hand, spiraling the tape as a single layer loosely. By making it loose and holding it to your hand with your thumb, you can flip it around to use the other side. We just had a guest over with a very hairy dog and this trick made cleaning up very easy.

Shopping Bags and Packaging as Dog-do Bags

I don’t buy those neatly rolled things anymore. Even though I’m trying to eliminate plastic from my life entirely, stupid shopping bags seem to find their way into my realm. This goes for most packaging too, like packaging and wrapping from paper towels, bread, rice, chips, beans, potatoes, crackers… you name it. Even if it’s not shaped like a traditional bag, odds are it’ll work just fine for this job. Think about it, you just need a mitt big enough for the job and enough wrapping to get it to the nearest trash bag.

On that note, digging a 6″ hole when you are in the wilderness is acceptable, too, and we keep a camping spade in the dinghy for trips like that. Ditch the plastic bags that are just for that job. You’ll save money and plastic.

Paper Towel Rolls as Bag Storage

Now that you’re saving all your packaging to pick up dog waste, you can pack bags into paper towel rolls and put those neatly away somewhere. No massive, crazy stuffing or piles, just columns of bags ready to use.

Got some tips for me? Let me have ‘em!

Making Custom Mats for Mimi Rose

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Being at the dock here has its perks like close land heads and an easy walk to take the dog ashore, but we’ve been tracking a lot of junk onto our decks everyday, making a lot of extra work with all the cleaning. A mat on the deck would help.

Through this post, clicking on the photos will take you to flickr where you can see more detail. Stick it out all the way through the end and you’ll see Maye enjoying the final product.

I haven’t been able to find anything at a store that I think is suitable for the boat or that I’m willing to stow away. Also, we’ve only had access to stores that I don’t feel good buying things from (big box stores, etc). Colin pointed out a good option from a classic book we keep on board called The Marlinspike Sailor by Hervey Garrett Smith. It’s called a Sword Mat.

When he showed me that I thought about how we didn’t just need one for the side deck, but that it’d be nice to have one for right in front of the companionway. We drag dust out and dirt on, and the decks are so light, so both were important. Oh, and what if we could make them long enough to fit in the cockpit well side by side, effectively making a nice grippy surface while underway?

Ooooh. Custom mats. Sounds fancy, right? Our first idea was to make them out of used material, but we didn’t have enough. Colin decided to splurge on some hemp rope and some tarred marline to make ours. We had thought about getting recycled plastic rope (the fibers are made from bottles and stuff), which comes in fun colors. I’d like to support recycling, but when I’m done with these mats years from now, I like the thought that I can just compost them.

So the process is pretty simple. Lengths of rope, a little longer than what size you’d like to end up with (more notes below about measurement specifics for both the marline and the hemp) get middled over a length of rope (I’ll call it an end rope) that will be finished with crown knots when the whole thing is finished. (top frame, picture above). We secured that end rope on opposing cleats on the dock to hold it still while we worked.

The marline you prep by measuring out what you need, finding the middle, and bundling up the two halves for deploying as you go. Rug-wise, the hemp is acting as the warp and the marline is acting as the weft.

To help wrap your brain around what happens next, think about this. The ropes that are middled have half that comes out below the end rope and half that comes over. Let’s call the unders the A half and the overs the B half. Being careful to keep that middle point of each rope settled on that end rope, you’re going to pull the As up so they make a loop around the end rope and lay to the left of the B. It’s clearly demonstrated in the diagram below that comes from the Marlinspike Sailor.

Then you lay the marline in there, tightly up against where the As and Bs cross. Then you flip the As and Bs again. Then you pass the marline across, and keep weaving all the way down.

Then when you get to the end, you just finish off the ends with some seizing. This is probably the most arduous part, just because you need to do a nice job finishing these off evenly.

The last thing to do is to finish the top of the mat, where you began. That’s simply done with two crown knots.

Of course, when I took photos of these, they had been rained on and were taking their time drying. C’est la vie! That’s what the dark spots are. Here are the mats in place for at anchor or at the dock:

Here’s how they’ll be when we’re under way:

Things we learned while doing this particular project:

We were approaching this a very particular way: we wanted mats that fit certain measurements in the end. I’m going to have Colin write up a little something about how to calculate the amount of material you need, but I’m sure you can work out what needs to be done by thinking about it for a minute. You’re going to take lengths of rope that are a little longer than what you want (by at least 6 inches, I’d recommend, more if you can spare it).

Ours ended up both less wide and less long than we needed, despite good math. We wove the mats very tightly, perhaps if we had let off a little while still being consistent, that would have solved the length problem.

I can imagine that if you’re not looking to fit this somewhere in particular, then you can just use what you’ve got and pull it off cheaply and beautifully.

And here’s that Maye shot, as promised:

Owning the Hardest of Things

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I don’t plan to write personal things on this blog, but I’d like to share this story with you.

There’s this story in my family. It’s about my grandmother. We didn’t learn about it until one of Nana’s lucid moments way later in her life, when she wasn’t really herself anymore because what made her Nana was her cakes and her sewing and her crocheting and her long car drives to Presque Isle, Maine. But she still had her stories, and new ones were surfacing in her brain as her short term memory gave way to hours of contemplation in the nursing home.

Nana always made a big deal out of Valentine’s day. She’d make us little things and give us candy, she’d get cards and then even though the card was pretty enough, she’d plaster them with extra stickers all over. It was different than what happens in most families, I’d suppose. It was saccharine, it was the best.

Nana was mostly deaf. She had lost her hearing at an early age, as she was born during the influenza epidemic and fell ill. She survived, but her hearing was very poor. It was the start of a long string of hardships. The kind of hardships where the word “hardship” seems like a gross understatement. Things I can’t recount here because they’re horrible. But this is a story about resilience, so I’ll move on.

Well there was this one year that she got really excited about Valentine’s day, and she was a school girl. Go wild with your imagination, it’s just how you imagine. Kids of various ages, one room school house, all of it right in the middle of Maine’s dusty potato country with its long dark winters. Bright spots were manufactured by the punctuation of holidays, and Nana pulled out all the stops. She handmade Valentines for all her classmates

and received none in return.

Florence was deaf and spoke funny. She learned how to talk by watching other people, and her soft consonants revealed her lack of hearing. She got teased and mocked and was left behind a lot. Stupid Florence, dumb Florence.

Beautiful Florence. Survivor Florence. Strong Florence. Mother Florence. Grandmother Florence.

So when I was thinking of Nana this past summer, knowing we’d go to Presque Isle to bury her remains and knowing that I’d be giving her eulogy, I knew I’d want to tell a story that could really illustrate to people why and how and how much I love her. What could we learn from her? What quality should I carry on from her that would make her most proud? What hardship did she bear for me so I didn’t have to?

Nana, more than anyone, could have been a person marred into lacking trust, love, and affection for strangers. What did she do? She took this holiday and she made it her favorite.

And this carries past Valentine’s Day. It was her Way. When black people moved into her neighborhood in Munjoy Hill and deserved welcoming neighbors, when kids who were considered trouble needed a warm meal and the feeling of home, when poor folks in the neighborhood needed a good friend- there she was.

All the hard stuff, she gathered it up and she held it close.

Unlike some holidays, you can take or leave Valentine’s Day. But for me, I gather it up and hold it close because of Nana’s reminder. Her life was more complex and she was three dimensional in every way, with her foibles and her shortcomings. But I think on this, she was right. It most likely didn’t come to her like some great epiphany that grew triumphantly through the cracks of adversity. Nah, I think she was contrarian and I’m very sure she was a hopeless romantic.

You’re all my Valentines. Thanks for remembering my Nana with me.

Happy Valentine’s Day

Truly Heartfelt Ideas for Valentine’s Day

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My grandmother, Florence, loved Valentine’s Day. I’ve learned to love it, too. Always have.

I don’t really care that it’s a manufactured holiday and I don’t really think of it as romantic. It’s just sweet. Nana saw it as an opportunity to just pour love out on anyone who walks by, and especially as an opportunity to pour love out to people who really need it, and that’s my view too. Here’s the package my parents sent me this year, as of course, we’re away in Georgia and they’re in New Hampshire. They got a lot of these treats at the farmer’s market!

Here are a few ideas, sea-themed and big hearted, for valentines that happen to support small businesses and charities.

Help build a pelican sanctuary. Pelicans could be your valentine!

Sidewalk Pelican!

Real hearts instead of paper hearts: Petey the dog needs heart surgery, and you can pitch in.

Make the ocean your valentine at Save Our Shores.

Detail from Photograph of a Mural in Downtown Brunswick, GA

You can send milk, picture books, and soccer balls as Valentine’s gifts. Your valentine gets a card all about the gift and really, truly- Unicef sends the supplies to the places in the world where they’re needed most.

Give your valentine a gift subscription to Off Center Harbor. They’re a small group of hard-working boat builders, experts, and old salts with a penchant for storytelling via video. The content is top-notch.

If you were really thinking jewelry and going all gooey romantic, why not buy something from a talented craftsperson with a small business? Lofted Designs donates a portion of their profits every year to very deserving charities.

Whatever it is you decide to rain on your friends and loved ones and bartender and librarian and postal worker for the sheer purpose of making them feel special, I’ll give this one piece of advice. Make it with your hands or at least buy it with your heart.

Valentine I received in the mail the other day from a dear friend in NH!

Deviled Eggs, an Awesome Potluck Schtick

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These aren’t just deviled eggs in this picture, these are HUEVOS DIABLOS! That’s right. The yolks are mashed with sour cream, Valentino hot sauce, and a dash of salt. You can throw out that dusty little can of paprika that’s followed you around from apartment to apartment (or from boat to boat) and you can leave the mayonnaise for another time. Like for fry time. Mmm. Fries and mayonnaise.

I digress.

There are so many ways to prepare the flavors in deviled eggs that I really feel this little number is making a comeback. It’s easy to delight people of many walks- gluten free, vegetarian, or on a strict no-carb diet. Also, if you’re looking for something to be “your thing” at a potluck, this might be just the ticket!

Let’s just jump right into how to cook perfect eggs, ok? Be sure to get all the way through because I have other flavor ideas below!

Here we go!

1 poblano pepper

1 tomato

scallion

sour cream, or even better, crema Mexicana or crema Salvadoreña- plain yogurt would work ok too

eggs, probably 8 or 10 of them to make a nice plate for sharing

salt

hot sauce- something red and not too hot is good for most people, and this is to your taste. Valentina, Tapa Tio, Tabasco, you get the idea.

The most important part of this recipe is cooking the eggs. Overcooking makes for tough whites and dry yolks, even though they’ll be salvaged somewhat by the delicious filling. Here’s how you avoid weird green bits and bad texture.

Start with a pot of salted, room temperature water. Sometimes I add a tablespoon of vinegar because I heard once that it helps with peeling. The best thing to do for easy peeling is to buy eggs well before you need them, and let them hang around for a week or more. Anyhow add the eggs in, making sure you’ve got about an inch of water over them. Now you turn on your burner and bring it to a boil and let it boil for just a couple minutes. Now cut the heat off and just put a cover on. Let that sit for about 12 minutes. They’ll be perfectly, gently, beautifully done.

If you’re ashore and have access to a lot of water, run the tap into the pot as it sits on the bottom of your sink to bring the temperature of the water in the pot down and to stop the cooking. Just let it run and spill out over the edge for a little while, as only land folk can do, and when the temperature is closer to room temperature again, go ahead and pick up each egg and tap it on the bottom of the pan to crack it a bit. While you’re peeling eggs, this will hopefully help the rest of them be more peel-able.

Not on land or short on water? That’s ok, this is just finesse. I swear it works to help with peeling and to stop cooking the eggs. You can just take them out of the pot. Or you could do the same thing with your salt water pump and just give the eggs a little rinse when you’re ready to peel them.

Peel and cut the eggs in half lengthwise with a non-serrated knife. Wipe the knife between eggs so they all look absolutely perfect. Just kidding. No really though, wipe the knife. They’ll look a little better.

Now you can just lightly push the sides of the eggs to pop the yolks out into a mixing bowl. You don’t really need a spoon, but be gentle if you must use one.

Mash the yolks with the sour cream and hot sauce. Add both to taste and texture preferences. Salt to taste. For my 10 eggs, I used the whole thing of one of those little sour cream containers. I had a LOT of left over filling (that I then used as a base sauce for this really delicious rice) so you could probably use less.

Then you just put all of it into a pastry bag or a plastic bag and snip the corner, pipe it into the eggs. The poblano, tomato, and scallion toppin’ isn’t fussy. Just cut little cubes and drop a few pieces on top of each.

Now. Other flavors:

mayonnaise, wasabi, pickled ginger on top

mayonnaise, crumbled bleu cheese, Frank’s Red Hot sauce (buffalo wing!), chopped celery/carrot on top

Greek yogurt, dill, chopped cucumber on top

mayonnaise, chopped bacon, diced tomato on top, serve on a plate lined with lettuce (BLT!)

mayonnaise, sriracha, scallion on top

mayonnaise (just a tiny bit), thousand island dressing, chopped sauerkraut and a little strip of corned beef on top

What flavors can you think of that would absolutely dominate the pot luck?

Elizabeth City

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The Dismal Swamp Canal is tops. After a dose of enchanting motoring through cypress swamps and and the tannin-tinged corridor resplendent with birds, we came to Elizabeth City, the Harbor of Hospitality.

We read about other people sensing a feeling of ‘former glory’ for this small, but well-established, downtown area but all we could see was hopeful re-emergence. They’ve built themselves a boring stripmall sort of a thing complete with fast food restaurants that’s only a 5 minute drive from the beautiful brick buildings you find in the original hub of Elizabeth City.

Cruisers know this place for lots of reasons, but my favorite story is the one about the Rose Buddies, Fred Fearing and Joe Kramer. The free town docks had just been built in 1983 thanks to donations, and these two long-time residents decided spontaneously one Sunday to welcome all the boaters who happened to be at the docks. Joe clipped 17 roses from his garden and Fred brought wine and cheese, and the 17 boats on the dock were hosted by the two men who would be known as the Rose Buddies, and the kind gesture became tradition.

When Joe died, his rose bushes were transplanted to the park at the docks. Fred continued the tradition until his death, bringing to the docks more than snacks and wine, but also bringing stories about the Dismal Swamp Canal and about local history. Now local businesses keep the legend of hospitality alive, and the Museum of the Albermarle takes care of the history part.

Moth boat SEA NYMPH at the Museum of the Albermarle, a free museum in Elizabeth City

It’s a bit after the season for all that, so we didn’t get to experience the Rose Buddies this time around. There was only one cruiser at the docks while we were there, an old salt who offered us his mooring anytime we’d like it in Stockton Harbor- his boat said he was from Bucksport and he lives in Bangor. From this far away that all means he’s from where we’re from.

We met Maja and her little dog Jetty. Maja told us, when we gave our usual spiel about where we’re from because most people don’t know where Brooklin is, that she took art classes on Deer Isle at Haystack in the 60s. I ached for home a bit when she described working hard in the studios tucked into the rocky campus rich with pointed pines and then going to beaches for clambakes and bonfires with classmates and locals. Not much has changed.

Then Maja told us the story about how she had been a city lady for a long time, but one day read that there was a boat for sale for $2000.

“I thought surely that must have been the down payment,” she said. But no, that was the cost of the boat. After seeing a home movie of the 40′ wooden racing sloop under sail, she fell in love with the way it moved. Maja had never sailed before. She went to the bank and told them she needed a loan for some dental work, and that it’d be $2000.

“Your teeth look fine,” said the banker.

“It’s my gums,” said Maja. They gave her the money.

It was her intention to take the boat down the ICW and to see where it took her. After a few terrible missteps that I suspect were rookie moves, like getting caught in terrible storms and running aground (the sloop drew 7′), one last big storm convinced her to go live in Louisville with her sister and leave the boat behind in the Chesapeake. She became a yoga instructor there, the only one in the town and a big part of bringing a healthful practice to Louisville. She said that if the boat hadn’t made her question what was next, she would have never decided to pursue yoga so passionately.

One thing that really struck me about her story was when she needed to repair a bunch of the boat’s canvas, somewhere in Delaware Bay. She went ashore, and a man there said he understood her situation, and should she ever need to borrow his truck to get into town, he’d give her the keys. Being from New York City, she was thinking, “What’s this guy up to?” She admitted that after a time, cruising was just like that. People didn’t have anything up their sleeves but the keys to a much needed truck or a nice shower ashore.

Taking the opportunity to pay it forward, Maja left us a big care package of beautiful pantry stuff one day, and later gave me a ride to the health food store and to the Post Office. I think, beside enjoying the town there, meeting her was perhaps my favorite part of Elizabeth City.

From Pine to Palm

A blog about traveling, local eating, crafty organizing, and storytelling dressed up like a sailing blog.

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Owning the Hardest of Things

Truly Heartfelt Ideas for Valentine’s Day

Deviled Eggs, an Awesome Potluck Schtick

Elizabeth City