First two days on the algoma buffalo

Hello from the Algoma Buffalo. I have already cooked my way through two full days. I knew working alone would leave little time for writing to you so I thought I would just send a short message with my pictures from the first two days. I joined in Goderich. I had a nice driver, Larry. He has driven me before so we chatted and got caught up. He is very nice and as we drove down beautiful country roads he pointed out things to see. There were lots of Christmas lights and the almost 4 hour drive was over quickly. The groceries were there waiting for the ship to tie up. It took just over two hours to receive and store the groceries with the help of some crew members. The crew are very good to me and help with the floor, garbage and dishes so I feel very lucky. I saw familiar faces and some of the new crew that were not here before said the rest of the crew have been talking about me coming back. They said they couldn't wait to try my food. It's a great job. I spoke briefly with the cook when she got off the ship. She said she may come back in two weeks. I was surprised to hear that and secretly hope that I can stay until lay-up. Time will tell. I will try and steal some time to keep you posted. Have a great day.

Shortly after Larry, the car service driver picked me up, he said look, you can see a ship from here. It was such a beautiful clear day. The water was so blue

Thanks for the ride Larry. He had to wait for the departing cook.

It was nice to see the gangway go down. The railings are placed when the gangway is in position. I had to be careful walking on the dock. I thought since we were loading salt, the salt mine could have spared a few grains of salt to put on the ice. We loaded the salt for Erie Pennsylvania

They only have a Keurig machine onboard so I improvised and made my own drip coffee. It came out perfect. They had filters and ground coffee so I just needed a clip and masking tape.

Every morning I put out a baked item (blueberry muffins on the left) Cantaloup or Honeydew melon, Fresh berries, I had black berries, assorted yogurts, steamed eggs (so much easier than boiled eggs and much easier to peel) fresh fruit. I also have a menu with eggs, bacon, sausage, ham, omelets, and breakfast sandwiches.

My first morning on board. I was so excited that I had finished serving breakfast and could go out and wave at the webcam by the Bluewater Bridge.

This is what I looked like from the webcam.

I asked for a few special items and Elliot’s Ship Chandlers sent me beautiful fresh kale so I made Tuscan soup. They are not big soup eaters here but word is getting out that I make homemade soup so a few more are trying it. One of the crew actually starting ordering omelets for breakfast because someone said they were good and he should order one too.

I thought it would be nice to serve a baked sandwich for lunch. I have to practice my folding. I find that once it is baked it always looks nice. The ham and swiss baked sandwich was a hit.

I set out a sample of the baked sandwich so they would know what it was. They took one look at the melty cheese and said I’ll have that. I was happy to find a block of Swiss cheese. There are a lot of fun things to cook with.

I had baked chicken on the menu and offered a a Julienne salad which I thought looked extra good in the clear large salad bowls. I served it with my maple mustard dressing. It was Sunday so I made cinnamon buns but forgot to take a picture.

It was fun to see the Atlantic Huron in the river. That is a great job too. that is the new Gordie Howe Bridge.

I love the windows. I saw so many ships while we were in the river. They seem to pass so close.

The other cook had thawed a ham so I made a pineapple mustard sauce to go with it. I always like to make scalloped potatoes with ham and of course, steamed cauliflower with cheese sauce.

there isn’t very much fish on board so I used the imitation crab to make crab cakes. I would definitely make them again. They went really well with a spinach salad with an apple cider vinaigrette.

Good morning Erie. We were not there long before heading to Cleveland. I got some beautiful video as we left Cleveland. I will share it with you when it decides to download and sync to my computer. It was spectacular.

The Fried egg sandwich is back. One of the crew asked if I would make western sandwiches. I made them for lunch, I will take a picture next time. One of the crew said it was the best western he ever had.

There is no mixer machine here so I made my oatmeal chocolate chip cookies by hand. They came out nice.

I try to make them uniform. Lorraine (my sister best friend and publisher is the expert in making uniform cookies.

They have a really nice convection oven here. Everything comes out really nice.

For lunch I made chili, taco salad with homemade nacho chips, nacho chips with cheese sauce and the extra good western sandwich. I made a corn chowder soup. A few asked for the clam chowder, I said it’s corn chowder. I will have to try and write a little nice on the board.

One of the crew asked if he could take a photo of the chili nachos with cheese sauce. I said yes and passed him my camera so I could share it with you. He is very nice and helps me with the dishes. He saves me an hour a day.

The salt we brought to Erie. We left around 15h00.

They have a lovely bench to sit on the stern of the ship. It is one deck above the galley.

I’m so happy, I have a forward facing porthole in my room. There is a port side porthole too but the regular cook has it covered with plastic.

I made pork tenderloin in a mushroom sauce. I usually like to serve it over egg noodles, but had to settle for penne pasta. One crew member asked for an extra bowl of the pork with mushroom sauce. I’m always pleased when someone asks for seconds because they like it so much.

The second choice was a chicken rice sauté. Most of the crew asked for a bit of both options.

For dessert I made peach bread. I saved some of my unbaked cinnamon bun dough, rolled it out and put peach halves on top before I baked it. They really liked it. It’s not too sweet.

Lorraine was finally able to send out the Canadian book orders. She received an email from Canada post and they said all packages will be held for a few days until they get organized.