September is such a great month! On the 5th, I stepped off the Atlantic Huron in Duluth, MN, and walked right into summer part 2.

I carry my discharge book with me to every ship. You cannot sail without one. It also serves a purpose for me. It helps me recall which ships I have sailed on and when. When I get off the ship, I have to send a photo of the last page to the Union Hall so that they know my job is complete and I am ready to go back up on the board. I should have been very close to the top of the board, however, I sent my "please excuse me from the September union meeting" email to the wrong email address. I sent it to the general Union email and should have sent it to the Thorold Union email address where I am registered. I sent the proof that I did indeed send an email, but was told I should have sent it to the correct email address which was clearly indicated and that I would not regain my position. I have to believe that I/ and my card are where we are meant to be. If I look long term, my card will be in a very good position for June 2025. I am optimistic. This happened for a reason. I will also be more careful in the future of where I send my excuse if I am unable to attend a meeting.

Since I've been off, I could not have asked for more beautiful weather. Tuesday morning, I looked at the forecast for yet another beautiful, warmer-than-usual day ahead and thought of what I could do with my Tuesday. Whether on the ship or at home I always like to try and do something special on Tuesdays, my favorite day of the week. ( I celebrate Tuesdays, because it was the one day off a week that Lorraine (my sister, best friend, and publisher) and I had off together when we had the restaurant for 24 years.) We filled those days with so much fun and have carried on the tradition of treating Tuesdays like a day off. Nowadays, if I am not on a ship, we plan a little day trip or something special. The first few days home were spent packaging and mailing out books and calendars. Lorraine has such a great system. Within a week of receiving the calendars, they were all mailed out. On the 9th, she was so excited to announce that all the new cookbooks, original cookbooks, and calendars had been shipped and we were up to date. Over the past week, we put a lot of km/miles on the little red car driving to different events. They were fun and we met familiar and new faces.

We got a photo of the new Gordi Howe bridge as we were crossing the Ambassador Bridge on our way to Toledo, Ohio September 11th

Long wait in the commercial trucking lane in Detroit.

Returning back to Canada late on the 11th.

We left the Niagara region at 05h00 in order to arrive in Ogdensburg, NY for our 11h00 book signing on the 13th. Our early morning departure was rewarded with the most beautiful sun rise.

Driving down the lane after the Ogdensburg book signing to our River Retreat where we would spend the weekend and be home base for our Clayton, Book signings.

It was nice to be in one location for a few days and I thought I would do something entirely different on my special day. I messaged Lorraine that I was thinking of doing absolutely nothing on Tuesday. Lorraine knows me well, and I'm sure she was thinking I'll never be able to go an entire day without going on my laptop or starting to work on something. I'll be honest, I had my doubts too. Free time is so precious, and after being on the ship where my days are full and the internet is budgeted, I long for those days when I can work on a project that I have been thinking about and want to start organizing. When I leave the ship there is always a little Ziplock bag holding scraps of papers that I write on to remind me of an idea or recipe that I want to try. I pack them up with me and go through them when I am home. Seeing the forecast for the beautiful day ahead was tempting. How could I stay inside all day when the weather was so beautiful? After enjoying my cup of coffee and breakfast I did something that I never do during the day, I turned on the TV. I never turn on the TV during the day, but apparently, there are programs 24 hours a day. I selected one of my favorites and started watching episodes of "Beat Bobby Flay." I have been asked before when mentioning this show, which recipe would I challenge him with, and it would be easy. I would challenge him to make shepherd's pie, and I would make my beet-meat shepherd's pie. As I write the words Beet-Meat Shepherd's pie, I think of a crew member on the Atlantic Huron. He said he would like to try the shepherd's pie. I explained it had beets and he said he liked beets. The look on his face when he returned his empty plate and I asked if he liked the cauliflower topping will be forever associated with this recipe for me. He was in shock. He said, "no, I had the beet-meat shepherd's pie." I replied, "It had cauliflower topping." I can't help but giggle remembering the shock on his face. The second cook admitted that the first time he tried it, he thought it was potato, too. He shared with me that he was going to make it for his wife and see if she noticed that it was not potato.

I was looking for a photo of my beet-meat shepherds pie to share with you and in the search bar of my photos wrote "Shepherd's Pie." Even my computer didn't know that it was not tradition shepherds pie with potato topping and included it in the selections. This is my favorite way to serve and eat beet-meat shepherds pie. The kale salad with cider vinegar dressing goes together perfectly with this dish.

I enjoy watching Beat Bobby Flay because I always pick up little bits of information. In one of the episodes, the contestant put dry rice and spices in the blender. I thought that was interesting. Another made a Mexican dish; I love Mexican food, and it reminded me that I wanted to try a recipe with tomatillos. I have seen them and eaten them but never cooked with them. I took a break from watching TV and for my lunch I made an egg taco, using poblano peppers, onions and bacon. They were delicious and I'm glad I shared this fun easy recipe in the new book. My supper which I made after more episodes of Beat Bobby Flay also was made with a recipe from the new book. I made a salad with sauteed onions, poblano peppers, tomatoes, bacon and gorgonzola cheese. I cut the romaine lettuce, laying them in the bottom of a large bowl. I added the maple vinaigrette and tossed the leaves in it, coating each piece. ( I am heavy-handed with salad dressing.) After I sauteed the onions, poblano peppers, tomatoes, and bacon, I turned off the stove and sprinkled the gorgonzola cheese on top so it would melt a little. I slid the ingredients from the pan onto my maple dressing-coated lettuce. I finished my salad with a drizzle of maple syrup. If I had balsamic vinegar, I probably would have used that but the maple dressing did the trick. I would have also added toasted pecans or sunflower seeds, but it was still delicious without them. I love it when you get to the end, and there are all the little bits and pieces of onion, pepper, and gorgonzola. It was delicious. Lorraine had given me a few suggestions of what I could watch on TV, and I had also made a list. For a treat to complete my day of TV, I re-watched the movie "Seabiscuit." It's a great story, and even though I knew what would happen, I still sat on the edge of the couch like it was my first time watching the horse races. My mom loved horses and watching horse shows/races. It was a great choice. Wednesday I felt the benefits of having done nothing on Tuesday. I got my coffee and thought where shall I begin, I have another beautiful day ahead of me. As you are reading this you will know that I decided to start my day by writing to you and sharing the highlights since I have been home. On Tuesday, when I was thinking of what to watch on TV, I considered watching some old reruns of the show MASH. We watched it as kids and recently talked about the show when we went to our book signing at the Toledo National Great Lakes Museum. We did a book signing in the afternoon and during a little break before the talk we went to Tony Packo’s which was featured in one of the MASH episodes. Lorraine had been there before when she was sailing on the Stephen B Roman; however, it was my first time, and it was so close to the museum that we could not miss the opportunity to visit. Click on the following link if you would like to see and hear my PowerPoint presentation from the Toledo National Great Lakes Museum. 2024 Fall Lecture Series: A Glimpse into the Life of a Great Lakes Ship's Cook (youtube.com)

We met Dave at the Toledo book signing. It was great fun chatting with him!

We also met fellow sailor Audrey. She is now retired from sailing but we exchanged some fun stories.

They are doing an expansion at the museum. We look forward to going back one day.

Our next destination was Ogdensburg. We left the Niagara region at 05h00 to arrive at the Claxton Hepburn Medical Center in time for our 11 am book signing. We had been there the year before and we had just as much fun this time. There was a good turnout and there was a lot of storytelling and laughter. We had planned to spend the weekend in Brockville at the River Retreat. We had stopped at the grocery store and picked up a couple of salads to take with us. As we were in the car we decided to stop at Blockhouse Island in Brockville to enjoy our salads at a picnic table. We knew we had a lot of books to carry along with our luggage to the second floor location. I say "we" but it was actually Lorraine who did all the carrying. We saw a few familiar faces at Blockhouse and enjoyed being in our hometown. It was extra special looking over our shoulders at the condo where mom and dad lived.

It was nice to see everyone at the Claxton Hepburn Medical Center. I can't believe a year had already passed and we fell into conversations like it was yesterday.

It was a beautiful evening at Blockhouse. Lorraine called a friend to say hello.

The next day took us back over to the US by way of the 1000 island bridge. Lorraine has a bridge pass which she purchased for that bridge only and said she would have to load it up again. They used to have more options and now only offered the package of 72 trips over the bridge to be completed in two years. We thought it was quite possible that we could accomplish that, and even if we had unused trips before the deadline, it was still very economical. We stopped at the welcome center for a picnic lunch and then continued down the road to Clayton, NY. We set ourselves up at the Little Book Store in Clayton, arriving early to enjoy the view of the river. Our first visitors came wearing the Galley Girl and Galley Guy T-shirts. We had a great chat with them and learned that the "Galley Guy" was in the Navy. He had some great stories. We could not believe it when we saw the RT Hon. Paul J. Martin sail by right in front of us. Lorraine quickly jumped up and we got a picture of the ship that made it to the cover of my second cookbook. We returned to our River Retreat and the next morning got up early so that we could sit down by the water to have our coffees and breakfast. It was so beautiful, and we saw two ships. The water was mirror calm.

Our first visitors came to the Little Bookstore Event wearing the Galley Guy and Galley Girl t-shirts.

What are the chances that the Rt. Hon. Paul J. Martin would pass by while we were doing a book signing. The Martin is on the cover of my new book so Lorraine held it up for a photo.

Sunday, we drove back to Clayton using the third of 72 trips on our bridge pass. There was an event in progress as we crossed the bridge. So many people walking across the bridge were wearing pink and fight cancer t-shirts. It was a beautiful day for their event. We stopped at the welcome center again to have a picnic lunch before heading back to Clayton, NY.

There were so many people walking across the bridge. I was so happy that they had such nice weather for their event.

We enjoyed our two picnic lunches at the New York Welcome Center

Each time someone stood in front of the I love New York sign, Lorraine would jump up and offer to take their photo so that they could all be in the photo.

We got a perfect parking spot in front of the Michael Ringer St Lawrence Gallery for our afternoon book signing. We were so happy to see some familiar faces come in to see us and have their books and calendars signed. We met some new people and enjoyed our afternoon. We left Clayton and made a detour to Watertown before heading back to the River Retreat. It was a great full day. Monday morning, we took our coffees and breakfast back down to the river and enjoyed a relaxing morning, knowing that we didn't have to be anywhere. It was the perfect morning.

We sat by the door in the Michael Ringer St Lawrence Gallery and greeted every one as they came in. It was fun. We introduced a few people to the Ship to Shore Chef Website Blog and said they could follow along to see what I cook for the crew and learn a little about life on the ships.

It was the perfect morning to relax and sip coffee.

This is the AlgoTerra. I worked on her in April 2023

It was fun to see a cruise ship go by. The name was Hamburg. Hamburg is a city in Germany and it made me think of mom and dad and I enjoyed the moment thinking of them. I'm sure my mom had something to do with the timing of this. I had just said to Lorraine that we needed to go and she replied wait a minute I hear a ship...

This week is about relaxing and taking a moment. Going for walks and enjoying this beautiful weather. We will be in Rockport this Sunday 22nd at Andress Boat Works from 1 pm to 4 pm. It looks like the weather will be nice. It's a beautiful spot on the St Lawrence. We look forward to seeing you there. We will have both cookbooks, children's book and the 2025 calendar available. I have updated the website event calendar to include the Massena Eisenhower Lock Visitor Center on September 27th from 2 pm to 5 pm. We will have a book signing, meet and greet and talk. I will have a PowerPoint Presentation to accompany the talk. Bring your books and calendars to be signed. Please note that we are not able to sell the books or calendars at the event. You may, however, order them online and pick them up at the event. Click on the link www.shiptoshorechef.com Just leave us a note on your order that you plan to pick them up in Massena. We will reimburse your shipping. You can also pick up books at any of the stores closest to you. I will list them in the photos. Lorraine asked me to to let you know that the books are available now at Superior Finds in Two Harbors, MN and at the Lake Superior Marine Museum gift shop in Duluth, MN. We still have calendars and will be happy to mail them out to you. See you soon.