When we talked about getting a boat (after we got bored looking at each other in our condo in Key Largo) my husband said he wanted to get one with a little cabin so I could make blender drinks in it. I’m not sure why this thought occurred to him, since I rarely make blender drinks at home, on dry land. I do like margaritas, but take them over the rocks, not frozen.

At any rate, we got an Open Fisherman (even though we’ve yet to fish on it), so it has fishing rod holders, but no cabin. We took ‘Bout Time out once to watch the sunset; I brought a simple charcuterie plate to go with our bottle of wine. After trekking out to Alligator Reef recently to swim, I really wished we would’ve packed a picnic lunch, since I became famished.

This all got me started thinking about Boat Food, and what meals are ideal for dining on the boat. Some boats have cabins in which to prepare a simple feast. We do not, so I wanted all the meals to be: easy to prepare at home, simple to transport into a cooler on the boat and easy to eat out on the water. Here are my suggestions.

• Deviled Eggs, Cold Chicken (either grilled, baked or fried) & Watermelon Slices. All of these items are relatively easy to make, can be made the day ahead and are perfect served chilled. Use chicken thighs, legs or wings for easier eating.

• Sandwiches, Chips & Apples. Another “no brainer” of a Boat Meal, the easiest option is to buy a Publix Sub. They are known for their Chicken Tender Subs and Italian is always a good option, but you can order whatever custom sub you want. But, if you want to go all out, make the Muffaletta sandwich (from the New York Times Food Section) Kelley prepared for our outing to Alligator Reef. The best thing about it? It gets better with age, as the seasonings and olive tapenade soak into the meat and bread. I like Cape Cod Chips (there’s even a lighthouse on the bag) and small Honeycrisp apples to finish the meal.

• Sushi. When out and about in the deep, blue sea, it’s nice to eat some fish. Make it cold fish, surrounded by seaweed, chilled rice, with wasabi and ginger on the side, even better. Publix sells sushi (Sushi Maki) but I prefer buying it elsewhere, like Num Thai in Key Largo. This is something you want to buy the same day you eat it, as one-day old sushi is no bueno. To go with it, I would serve Edamame. You could make the Edamame ahead, toss with soy sauce and sesame oil and put it in a heat proof container or, serve it cold.

• Jerk Shrimp. This recipe comes from my Mom’s friend Roxy Karnes and was in the Serve It Up! Tennis cookbook. It uses shrimp (Florida Key West Pinks would be great) and features tropical flavors like Jerk seasoning and mangoes. After you prepare it, it sits for a couple hours to let the flavors blend, so if you make it in the morning, it should be perfect for lunchtime. Serve with Tortilla Chips or over lettuce.
• Ceviche. Ceviche is a no-brainer when it comes to Boat Food and, in fact, while passing the Sandbar last time, we saw a boat selling Ceviche. Serve in bowls with plantain or tortilla chips, with hot sauce on the side. I offered a Ceviche recipe in a previous Foodie in Miami post- Easy Shrimp Ceviche– on July 1, 2021.

• Lobster Roll. A lobster roll is essentially lobster salad stuffed into a hot dog roll, making it a perfect, summer-time treat. Pack the lobster and rolls separately and serve with chips and pickles. Read my This is How we (Lobster) Roll, June 8, 2021, for more info.

• Crab-stuffed Avocados. I love Crab-stuffed Avocados, a very indulgent and Country-Clubby kind of treat. I would pack the crab salad in the cooler and halve the ripe avocados separately. Bring a small cutting board to slice in half and assemble. The salad pictures is from Riviera, where they served it on butter lettuce, with candied pecans on the side. Fruit salad and grilled pita bread would make perfect side dishes.

• Orzo with Roasted Vegetables. My friend Martha serves this Ina dish as a side with Roast Meat or Chicken for dinner, but it would make a perfectly acceptable Main Dish, especially for vegetarians. If you want to make it more Main Course, add shrimp, grilled chicken or sliced meat to it.
• Mezze Platter. My go-to Airplane Meal, this is an easy feast to throw together. Hummus, Pita Chips, Veggie Sticks, Cherry tomatoes, Olives, Grape Leaves and Tabouleh make for a varied and healthy Mediterranean Spread. Read more at A Moveable Feast, previous FIM post.

• Charcuterie Plate. Back to my original Boat Meal, if you have cured meat (like salami or prosciutto), a hard cheese (like Toscano or Parmesan), some crackers or a loaf of good bread, fig jam or honey, nuts and olives you are good to go! If you want to get fancy, you can add homemade Camponata or Pickled Eggplant (both featured in the Serve It Up! cookbook) that would be wonderful, but not necessary. A bottle of wine goes well with this meal.

Now, to drink on the boat we take water, Beer and La Croix (Key Lime Flavor) to which vodka can be added, making it kind of like a White Claw (which I find awful). You could also bring Iced Tea and Lemonade, to make it more festive and make an Arnold Palmer, if desired. At sunset, I enjoy a glass of wine, sparkling or otherwise, to drink.

Other add-ons to the Boat Food scene are Banana Bread, Muffins of any kind, or Cookies for dessert. Fruit Salad is always a welcome side, or dessert and can be purchased, pre-made, at most grocery stores. Tupperware, or some other reusable plastic container, is a good idea to pack the food in. And a picnic basket, or other bag, can be used to house the dry goods.

I usually use paper plates on the boat- I like the Chinet with dividers, so the varying components don’t blend together- but Melamine plates are a great idea and prettier than paper. And although I usually use plastic silverware, cheap stainless (like from the Dollar Store) or Bamboo re-usuable is a better idea.

Paper napkins are the norm, but cloth are better for the earth (and sea) and are less likely to blow away. If we have wine, I take plastic wine glasses aboard. Definitely avoid anything breakable (except the wine bottle) and screw-off tops make life easier, which is all about what life in the Keys is about!

Don’t forget a little garbage bag and some wipes, while packing your Boat Food. It does take time and energy to prepare to dine “a la sea”, but (kind of like camping) it just seems like everything tastes better when eaten outside. Turn on a little Jimmy Buffet, relax and enjoy your Boat Food!

My Mom’s Deviled Eggs

Recipe by Lyla Lee RiceCourse: AppetizersCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy

Servings

24

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

20

minutes

Calories

100

kcal

My Mom’s recipe for her famous Deviled Eggs (shown here at Courtney’s Baby Shower). It’s a perfect app for the boat, but I would rejoin the two halves for easier transport; you can even take them in the egg container they came in.

Ingredients

• 12 Hardboiled Eggs (put 2 tsp baking soda in water for easier peeling

• 1/2 cup mayo (Hellmans preferred)

• 1/4 cup Miracle Whip

• 1 teaspoon grated onion

• 1 1/2 teaspoons hot dog mustard
  

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 3 Tablespoons sweet pickle relish

Directions

• Peel eggs.
• Slice in half and remove yolks.
• Mash yolks, add other ingredients and combine thoroughly.
• Fill mixture in egg white halves. Use pastry bag to fill for nicer presentation.
• Decorate with paprika, parsley or pimento.

Notes

• This recipe is in the Serve It Up! Cookbook, as are the Jerk Shrimp and Orzo recipes. A lot of tennis recipes work for Boat Food because they’re prepared ahead and last at room temp.

Up Next: Book Club

What could we have done differently to prevent this whole fiasco? Plenty, methinks. I have heard so many people who THINK they already had the virus in January or February, even though they weren’t tested, because it was before COVID was a news item. Is this paranoia common in 2020? Or is it justified? I also know of a lot of people, who have suddenly decided to move from their house, city, state, job, you name it. The self-reflection forced upon us in Pandemic quarantine has brought plenty of radical changes.

My favorite neighbor Maggie has moved to Coconut Grove. I’m happy for her as she embarks on this new chapter of her life, but I will miss her. I didn’t get a chance to really say goodbye, since I’m down (up?) in the Keys. Not that I could’ve hugged her, at any rate. And after being in the Keys alone for so long, I’ve started to veer into a weird territory- growing scallion ends and succulents, researching recipes for pickled watermelon rind and taking photos of mushrooms growing in my condo development to see if they’re edible. If the Pandemic doesn’t get me, the mushrooms may.

And Wyatt’s gone for a week, so I miss him.

It seems people are divided in our country on many fronts. One example is the working vs. not working camps; this even comes into play in my own family. My son Christopher is a welder in Tallahassee, his wife Courtney a Labor and Delivery Nurse in a hospital. When I Face Timed with them last week, Christopher told me he only worked 25 hours the week before. Courtney, on the other hand, is working more than ever. Her hospital has always been understaffed, but added to that now is people out sick with COVID or awaiting results from COVID, and they’re severely understaffed. She’s working her a** off and she’s pregnant! My son wants more work, but it’s not there. The situation is frustrating and it seems, no one’s happy.

My friend Katy is a server at Disney World and was one of the “lucky” ones hired back recently. But instead of her normal 6 hour shifts, on different days, she now has 12 hour shifts, four days in a row. And she has to wear, not only a mask, but a plastic face shield while serving Disney diners- she’s on her feet all day and she’s my age (60). Not easy! But when the 7000 Disney employees who got hired back complained about the working conditions in an online chat group, the 12,000 who haven’t been hired back said: “Stop complaining. At least you have a job!” And the $600 a week unemployment boost by the government, to help citizens in the Pandemic, ends at the end of this month.

Apparently, lingerie sales are up 50% in the Pandemic. Not in this household. Mumus and yoga clothes are still in steady rotation. We’ve been looking into buying a boat this summer (a dream of ours for a while), but apparently they’re a hot commodity right now, since everyone wants to be out on the water, socially distancing. Since being in the Keys for a month straight, I’ve started noticing things here that need to be fixed/organized/replaced, so I’ve made some Amazon purchases, delivered to the Keys. All my kitchen appliances are original, from the 90’s, so I’m thinking about replacing them, especially my Hotpoint microwave, which I feel must have been a prototype for microwaves. There’s no turntable that spins and when I put my coffee in to heat it up, the mug comes out hot, the coffee cold, so besides being ineffective, I worry about getting zapped with radioactive waves.

At home, our roof is still not fixed, but they have found the leak, thank God. The deck guy I got to install our deck was cheaper than the rest (originally), but he underestimated the size of the deck, so I had to pay him $2000 more. And when the contractor pulled up the deck, they found he had screwed the faux wood panels into the roof, which caused our roof to leak, so my “cheap” deck is going to end up costing me a fortune. Lesson learned.

My week of meals down in the Keys ended up being (at least somewhat) the way I envisioned them. Monday I made shrimp ceviche, a Cotsco recipe (Ceviche Salad with Avocado, Cilantro and Green Chile) since I had all the ingredients already. I wanted to give a little oomph, so mixed a simple mashed avocado sauce to put on top, along with sriracha (for color and heat). I also wanted a little crunch to my salad, so heated a flour tortilla in the cast iron skillet to go with it and sliced it into wedges. Yummy and pretty healthy.

Tuesday, I stuck with my normal Num Thai take-out, with an order of crispy duck and stuffed tuna. I’d read about the stuffed tuna on Yelp. It’s basically a slice of ahi tuna wrapped around crabmeat tossed in spicy mayo and it was as good as Yelped about. I fufilled my fantasy of grilled teriyaki chicken and corn on Thursday night. Zeke always accuses me of trying to “man his grill”, so this was my chance to man it myself. It turned out fantastic, but prefer boiled corn to grilled, even with the wasabi butter I slathered it with, to keep with the Asian theme.

On Wednesday, I made a Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Muenster cheese, guava preserves and arugula, on fresh rye bread. My Mom always used Muenster cheese for making grilled cheese sandwiches when I was growing up; it melts perfectly. The secret to getting a golden crust on the sandwich was spreading mayo on the bread (neat trick!); the preserves and arugula took it from a Ho Hum grilled cheese to Heck, yea! I served it with some quinoa bean salad my neighbor in the Key’s had dropped off for me. It was an easy, comforting dinner.

I also made Key Lime Bars with Vanilla Wafer Crust (a NYT Food recipe), just because I felt like it. It was basically a Key Lime Pie in bar form, but the vanilla wafer crust was kind of genius. It made the crust crunchier, and unlike the crumbly, graham cracker crust with a hint of cinnamon, focuses the palate on the intense Key Lime filling. Zeke loved them.

While I’ve been hunkered down in the Keys, Zeke has been in Miami whipping up gourmet meals for Rachel and, sometimes, Lauren. When I complained that he never whipped up these creative (or basically any) meals for me, he came down to the Keys equipped with a very fancy Coquille St. Jacques recipe (Ina Garten). He sautéed shallots with brandy and cream; it smelled heavenly. Best of all, this scallop recipe can be made ahead, stored in the fridge and baked later, which is what we did. He served it with rice and it was delicious. Saturday night, Zeke grilled a stuffed pork chop and served it with a Dijon, maple sauce. I made roasted Brussel Sprouts with balsamic vinegar to go with it. Both meals were winners and much appreciated.

We ate lunch at Mrs. Mac’s on Friday, which felt like Saturday all day because Zeke came down on Thursday. We sat outside (of course) and each got a cup of their Conch Chowder and split the Superfish Sandwich with onion rings. It came with grilled yellowtail snapper, sliced tomato, Swiss cheese and 1000 island dressing, on grilled whole wheat bread. It was really good and the service is always attentive and friendly at Mrs. Mac’s, a true local gem.

I can’t really complain about being quarantined in the Keys, as I’ve always wanted to seclude myself here and just write. Now I have the perfect excuse. I’ve been walking every day, reading a Travis McGee murder mystery (Bright Orange For the Shroud) and watching Chef’s Table, the ABC Murders and Clueless (25 year anniversary) on T.V. I’d like to paddleboard but I’m deathly afraid of sharks. I realize the chance of me getting bit by a shark is one in 3.75 million, but I feel like if it was ever going to happen, this would be the year. And Natalie Wood was deathly afraid of drowning, and you know how that ended.

I’m lucky I have a pool to swim in, as it seems to be the most desirable home luxury to have this summer. I was reading an article on The Skimm about how “Inflatable Pools are the Official Symbol of America’s Lost Summer.” The article said, about people ordering inflatable pools, if this Summer has a theme it would be: “It’s Better Than Nothing.” People are making do, doing without, realizing this might be as good as it gets, especially since Americans are allowed to travel like, nowhere. The article ended with “It’s 2020. Take a nice dip in all of your abandoned dreams.”

I’d been planning a Road Trip to visit my Mom’s condo in Steamboat Springs, Colorado with my Mom, A.J. and Wyatt. We were going to drive there, fly back, but after knowing a couple people who got, or were exposed to COVID on flights, I really didn’t think it was the right time to be flying. Especially with my eighty-something year old mom. And, Zeke and I were going to fly up to D.C. with Lauren to get her set up in her apartment to start Georgetown Law School in August, but now we’ve decided to drive instead. After dropping Lauren off, Zeke and I are going to knock off three more states on my Bucket List- West Virginia, Maryland and Delaware.

The expression “There’s more than one way to skin a cat,” has been on my mind a lot lately. It’s a grisly little saying and while I have no desire to skin a cat, it’s just kind of been my theme for 2020. Because if this year has taught us anything, it’s how to pivot on a dime. If you can’t go on an Alaskan cruise this summer (like I was supposed to), vacay in the Keys, if you don’t have a pool at home, buy an inflatable one, if you can’t fly somewhere, drive and, if you don’t have a boat, paddleboard instead. Just watch out for sharks!

We’re gonna need a bigger boat!

Brody (aka Roy Schneider) in Jaws.

Up Next: Key West Food Tour Seafood Lover’s Tour and Best Melting Cheeses.