Catering on a sailboat...

This was a fun adventure! I've never been on a sailboat this size (37foot?). I've been a passenger and a helmsman on my Dad's dory boat and a passenger on a couple of other small craft, so the trip was cool enough on it's own. But as icing, the invitation came from my father-in-law to cater a small group of folks who had purchased a sailing day as part of an auction to support the Bear Valley Music Festival. And on top of that, the weather was perfect!

We traveled up to Alameda to the Oakland Yacht Club about 10:30am. We sailed down the channel and out into the bay - across to Angel Island/Tiberon and ate lunch in the wind shadow.
Then, sailed around and across into some fascinating mid-day fog, then back down and home. I had a reach-in fridge and a gimbaled 2 burner stove with oven to work with, so it wasn't exactly roughing it.

I asked for menu advice from lots of folks, thanks for all the responses (Especially to Walter and Chef Denise!). I couldn't decide on a theme for 4 courses, so I mostly went for a "what needs to get used up from the 'fridge" motif with a touch of "picnic food".

- Kir Imperials served as soon as they boarded, with fresh plain strawberries. Simple fruit is an easy win. The drinks are champagne with a touch of Chambord. If you haven't, then you really, really ought to.

- 2 rounds of appetizers on the way out:
* Toasted almonds: they were *supposed* to be spicy toasted almonds, but despite doubling the salt and spices in the recipe, they were pretty bland. Luckily there was more salt and pepper on board, so I heated them up in a pan, as planned and dumped a handful of salt to them. The butter, newly added salt and the heating made 'em pretty darn good, just not what I was shooting for.
* Triple toast: Melba toasts with one of a) roasted tomatoes and green onions with fresh mozzarella, b) smoked salmon and soft goat cheese c) white bean and olive pate - a little bit like this, but I added green olives for flavor. Not bad all around, the roasted tomatoes were the best, I thought.

Then we hit the bumpy part of the trip. Yes, I had a couple of things go flying and I did end up kneading the bread dough while at a 30degree angle. So, that was cool! Unless I end up on a space station, when will I ever get a chance to knead bread while standing on a wall again?!

- I tried to time the bread to come out at 1pm for lunch. Once the "heeling over" and rocking had subsided, I could get it into the hot oven, so it was only a little bit late. I ended up serving lunch in two parts, too.
* First served: sausage/mushroom skewers and deviled eggs. I'd roasted the mushrooms and sausage with the tomatoes on Friday and skewered them with some of the green onions. They were damn good. I never did get any deviled eggs, so they seemed to be OK, too. Deviled eggs: always a crowd pleaser.
* Then served: Butternut squash soup with rosemary and ginger. Like deviled eggs, it's hard to find a group that doesn't swoon over butternut squash soup. The pizza dough recipe only wants 15 minutes to rise and 15 minutes in the oven, but that didn't account for being tossed around a bit first... I made breadsticks and they turned out fine.





Off we went! After doing dishes in the ship's galley (and again: when will I get to say *that* again!), I went up on deck and enjoyed the amazing weather. Took a trip thru some fog, past the city and then into the bumpy bit again.

- Once the bumping was over, and we were in for a slow cruise back to the slip, I put out some desert: what I called blueberry parfait (just the fruit in a vanilla yogurt with orange juice - so not really a parfait. Close enough for government work, eh?).



All in all, a fantastic day. I'm told the weather will never, ever, ever be that good again for a sailing day, so I guess I should quit while I'm on top and never go again.

Although, there is talk of a spring catered trip....


PS: Nearly got boarded by pirates!