Fruit Cobbler and Cheesy Ploy

Rodriguez Key off Key Largo was very peaceful last night. The storms hovering around Marathon never made their way north to us. Norm grilled marinated flank steak, green beans, and sliced potatoes and onions. We finished off the meal with a new culinary treat – blueberry cobbler made in the crockpot while underway yesterday. It was delicious.

Vicki is experimenting with dried fruits and vegetables. We have sizable canisters of dried onions, carrots, and celery which substitute very well in soups for the real thing. Haven’t yet tried the dried peas and corn. The dried raspberries, strawberries, and peaches work well in yogurt. The bananas yielded a good banana cream pie and banana muffins. The blueberries were great in yesterday’s cobbler. The dried apples will be tried in an apple dessert soon. Vicki has been collecting promising recipes from the internet for crockpot desserts using fruit, so there will be many experiments to come.

We’ll be in Marathon today at dock for about two weeks. Vicki negotiated a bit of a discount for our two boats (Tide Hiker and Rickshaw). It was a tough negotiation. After exhausting all of her arguments, Vic used Aimee’s suggestion, saying “It’s Martin Luther King Day and I have a dream that you’re going to give me a break on the rate”. Cheesy, but effective. The dockmaster relented and said he’d throw in the electric (which is typically an additional charge). Tammy aboard Gypsies in the Palace is our idol in marina negotiations, but we doubt that even Tammy has used that negotiating tactic!