Steak!
And don't get cheap ones. Drop the extra bucks for an overpriced cut.
Take a couple good sized potatoes, grease them with a thin coat of butter (I use "I can't believe it's not butter") Sprinkle lightly with margarita salt, poke with a fork several times and bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the microwave. Let them cool and drop 'em in a ziplock. Take them along in the ice chest. You can also get one of those frozen bags of veggies. Now, you barbeque the steaks and heat the spuds in the barbeque and you drop the veggies in a pot of boiling water on the stove. Wa LA!!! a meal that anyone would love. You can even have a salad if you like. The bagged salads in the stores usually keeps pretty well in the ice chest, as long as you keep in up out of the melt water. (in fact, this goes for most foods).
People who join me always seem to be very impressed when I cook breakfast on my 2 burner alcohol stove. There are a couple ways to do this.
I usually take a pound of bacon along. You could just as easily use sausage. Take a dozen eggs (or a half dozen). This works best if you drop by the Walmart and get one of those plastic egg containers that has a hinged lid and snaps closed. They usually hold a half dozen eggs.
You can take frozen hashedbrowns or fresh uncooked ones. I sometimes use a freeze dried type. These you must soak in hot water for about 20 minutes, before you brown them. The trick with fresh ones is to grate the potatoes and rinse them very well in COLD water pat them dry with a paper towel (don't crush them) seal them in a ziplock. They'll keep several days on ice. On the two burner stove, if I time it right, I can make eggs to order with hasbrowns and bacon perfectly.
I also made my first omlet on board on my last trip. The thing about an omlet is it only takes one pan. A good omlet will make people love you. This is really easy on the boat. All you need to do is chop up the stuff you plan on putting in the omlet before you go. I keep cheese and other goodies separate. I will saute mushrooms, bell peppers (red and green) ham, bacon (chopped), a little onion and whatever else jumps from the fridge. Let this cool and bag it.
Now when you make the omlet it's just a matter of whipping up the eggs, dropping them in the pan, throwing in the saute mixture and some cheese. WALA! They think you have been to chef school.
Now, I don't like to cook for every meal, when out on the boat. These are more special meals and only happen once per day, or less, when on extended weekends. The rest of the meals are more along the lines of sandwiches and chips, hotdogs, burgers, cold baked chicken and even a few canned items like ravioli maybe. I also, usually take my famous secret chile with beans and a bunch of soda crackers (love crackers in my chile).
Here's the secret;
Get a can or two of those Ranch Style Texas beans, a bag of chile seasoning mix and a pound of very lean hamburger. Brown the meat and drain it. Add the beans. Now add about half, or less of the chile seasoning mix. Let it simmer awhile and taste. Add more seasoning mix, if you like. Let it cool and drop it in a tupperware/gladware container. If you like chile, it's hard to beat this chile and it only take a few minutes to whip up. If you like it firehouse hot, add your favorite hot stuff, not more seasoning mix. I use a few drops of "Laughing Bull", or "Hotsause From hull" to make mine turn you red and sweaty, but I usually let the individual add this to their own bowl.
It's best also, to make this chile at home and serve it within a few days, on your trip. Sitting a day or two on ice makes it taste even better too.
So, those are my standards. I continue to experiement with new ideas, when it comes to cooking onboard. You can see that I do a good bit of preparing at home prior to the trip. This works well for me.
Oh! and there is nothing quite like fresh fish. It just tastes better when it comes right off the hook and onto the barbeque.
And always remember...... a nice bottle of chilled wine (doesn't have to be expensive either) ALWAYS tastes better out on the boat, particularly in good company.
Same goes for a good cold beer.
SK
