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| Thank you Richard and Mercedes for the Tshirts! |
We are leaving the dock on Saturday and the days are passing quickly! Luckily we are as ready as can be...only had to do provisioning, which means buying lots and lots of food, mainly canned goods, so that we can survive out at sea without missing grocery stores too much. Most food is available everywhere down island, but some food is best purchased in bulk here in Puerto Rico where prices are reasonable and supply is abundant! So off we went to the various stores and returned with masses of canned goods...over the past three years of living aboard Orion we have experimented with different types of food and now know quite well what we like and what we don't like.
As far as canned food is concerned here is what we love (and bought lots): Hormel roast beef hash (not corned beef...roast beef), chicken breast in brine, pork in gravy, beef in gravy, tuna fish in water, Danish luncheon meat, Danish ham, green beans, sweet corn, carrots and peas, garbanzo beans (for making home made hummus and as an addition to almost everything we cook, because garbanzos are 100% protein), pink beans, white beans, black beans, Italian style cubed tomatoes, green olives, black olives, red peppers, cocktail sausages, cured pepperoni slices, cured salami slices...more roast beef hash and more garbanzos, because we can never have enough of those, hahahaha!
Then we also got a good amount of Nestle media crema, which is a canned half and half cream that can instantly be turned into sour cream by adding 2 teaspoons of white vinegar (!), some UHT rice milk, some coconut cream (great for making piña coladas), canola oil, olive oil, vinegar, and canned fruit like mandarin oranges, pineapple, and fruit cocktail. Other supplies we got are noodles, dry white and brown rice, potato pearls (for making mashed potatoes), Bisquick (for making quiche), flour, and "Ready Rice", which is rice already cooked and vacuum packed in small bags (great for throwing in the frying pan with veggies and some meat without the hassle of having to cook the rice first...or for making a rice salad in no time at all...for those lazy days).
Coffee is another item we like to buy in bulk...we found an excellent brand, which is made in Puerto Rico called "Del Patio"...it is vacuum packed into little bricks that store easily and will last for years. We bought a lot of it over the years and just found out that our dock neighbor at the marina knows the owner...can you believe it? When he heard that we were leaving this coming Saturday he gave us a present to remember him by...lots of bricks of Del Patio coffee...wow...we shall remember Angel and his wife Carmen every morning over a cup of this excellent coffee no matter where we are on Orion :) Thank You!
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| We love this coffee...made in Puerto Rico :) |
So yes...we are fully stocked up now...but where to put all the stuff? Orion is a Morgan 41 Out Island and Morgans are known for their great storage capacities...but really and truly you never feel like you have enough storage! After filling up all my pantry spaces with cans and more cans we were left with...you got it...more cans! My solution is a "provisioning can", which consists of a 26 quart plastic trash can with handles and a snap on lid...placed behind the companionway ladder in the aft cabin it makes a fine storage for the surplus of cans we like to have onboard :)
This simple solution also takes care of using up cans bought first first and cans bought last last...since I am using the ones in the pantry first and then stock up the pantry from the "provisioning can" there is no need to label with dates etc., because the provisioning can always contains the cans bought last...
hmmmm...we are at the beginning of the learning curve and experience will show if my system will work as described!
This is it as far as canned goods are concerned.
We also stocked up on some perishable food that we keep in the fridge/freezer...especially things like "half moon cheese", which is a vacuum packed cheddar cheese (great for cutting into strips and eating with crackers), grated cheese, Manchego cheese (totally delicious), Brie, Muenster, Havarti, and cream cheese. Together with the cheese we store 7 grain bread and fresh vegetables and a few vacuum packed smoked turkey sausages.
Crackers and crackers and crackers are something we like to have lots of...we often skip a hot dinner for crackers with cheese and pepperoni (salami for me) and a sliced apple or as an accompaniment to my home made hummus :)
We get a variety of whole wheat and whole grain crackers that are vacuum packed in individual stacks.
They also make a great lunch :)
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| canned German whole kernel bread |
Already onboard we have canned German Vollkornbrot that my brother Willi sent us two years ago (it lasts almost forever in the unopened cans). Thank You Willi!
