Houseboat Cookin'

Preparing a salad with caramelized walnuts & almonds (caramelizing is so easy, all you need is to heat 1/4 cup sugar and nuts in a saucepan to get candied nuts) a great addition to salad

Serving up chicken curry with cashews and currants on a bed of white rice

For the last week I was on a houseboat on the glorious Lake Billy Chinook with my entire family. Some may think it crazy to be in such small quarters with over 15 people but we love it! The house boating tradition came about when I was 9 and we went consistently for a few years after. As we all got older, it was more difficult to synchronize schedules so we have not been in a while. This week was a great chance for our family to relax and get away from our busy lives. Each year that we have done the houseboat the moms have been given tasks. Grandma is in charge of breakfast, Kathy in charge of lunch, my mom in charge of dinner and Pam in charge of drinks and snacks. All of these jobs take a lot of prep work, and this year I helped my mom every step of the way. We started a few weeks early and made lasagna first because it freezes so well, then we made chicken enchiladas, BBQ ribs, ham roast, chicken curry, and homemade chili. Each night I went down to the kitchen with my mom and helped by making a salad. I learned so much this last week, mostly that you can create a salad even if you don't have lettuce. We made coleslaw, cucumber salad with balsamic, and fresh crawdad slaw. Also, if you are out of salad dressing you can make some with mayo, mustard, garlic, oil, sugar and S&P. Being on a houseboat with limited amount of ingredients really posed a challenge for our creativity but each day I learned more and will be able to use this new found creativity in my own kitchen someday.