I am where I am meant to be and enjoying every minute!

Good morning. I'm so happy to be sitting down to talk with you this morning. I got up at 05h00 to have enough time to share what has been happening in the last week and to load the photos before my morning shift starts. This has been another whirlwind week, and yesterday, although I did remember to make cinnamon buns, I wrote my daily message on the menu board that said, "Have a great Saturday." It was only at supper that one crew member who was waiting to be served said, it's not Saturday, I remember eating steak yesterday. We all laughed and I explained I guess I was hoping for another day this week.

Thankfully I did not forget it was Assiniboine Cinnamon Bun Sunday.

If we are eating steak it must be Saturday. There are also two stuffed mushrooms on this plate. They are in the next book and one of the requests from Lorraine was to take a better photo of these delicious morsels. I set four stuffed mushrooms on a plate, took the photo and after getting “the picture” ate one, and then another and then another and was reminded why they made it into the next book.

This is such a great job for me here. Honestly, there is nothing I would change except I would wish that it was my permanent job. The conversation yesterday was about crew change in Quebec City. During the excited chatter of those preparing to leave for vacation, I was silently thinking I wish I could stay here. I remind myself daily and sometimes hourly, I am where I am meant to be. We had a guest join us on our last trip in Quebec City and although the guest was not here to visit me, their presence on board added something so very special to my days. Each time they came to the galley I wanted to stop what I was doing and have a chat, hear about what they experienced on their cargo ship journey of the day. They brought into my day a joy and kindness that made my heart smile and think of my mom. I just looked out my forward-facing porthole and saw that we were approaching the Soo Locks.

I am forever grateful to Captain Robinson for inviting my parents onboard the Louis R Desmarais in 1991. At that time unlicensed crew were not able to invite family for a trip but Capt Robinson invited mom and dad to thank them for all the doughnuts they delivered to the ship in Iroquois Lock. They stayed in the stateroom and it was so much fun having them there. My mom asking “who made these delicious buns” ….”I did mom”, and 33 years later I am still making buns.

I took this earlier and now we are tied up on the wall above the lock waiting our turn.

After I write to you, I will have to place my grocery order for Quebec City. By the time we get the groceries, it will be three weeks since the last order, and we did well with what I ordered last time we were there. We are a little low on butter, but we started to be careful with how much butter we use, and there is always the three lbs of butter that I hide from myself that I will use for the last few days. I based the butter order on how much I use when I bake and cook on my own, but this second cook baked for the crew so we went through the butter a little faster than I had calculated. I shared my mom's cherry pie-filling cake with the second cook. It doesn't need butter, and it always tastes delicious. I shared with her the other multiple dessert recipe ideas I have that also do not require butter. We have enough milk left, and I laugh inside because I was criticized for ordering so much milk, but I would rather be careful. Since we had a crew change, the milk is going much faster, so I am glad I bought as much as I did. I have enough eggs; yesterday I used 25 of them to make a breakfast pizza. I made pizza on Saturday for lunch and had some pizza dough left over, so I thought I would try to make a breakfast pizza. I had one years ago in Ottawa, Ontario and remember it well because the first bite was so hot I burned my tongue and could not enjoy the rest of my breakfast pizza. I laid the pizza dough in 3 x 10-inch cake pans and pulled the sides of the dough up the edges of the pan so that the egg, sausage, bacon, and cheese mixture would sit in the dough and not spill out over the side. Any of you who have worked with yeast dough, it doesn't always stay where you ask it to. Before lunch, I asked the second cook if she wanted to guess how many people will ask for the breakfast pizza. I always go through my crew's list, imagine who will order what, and ensure I have something for everyone. I knew that one crew member would have the breakfast pizza because he always allows me to put on his plate whatever I like. I was a bit skeptical about whether others would choose the breakfast pizza on their own. However, I did not anticipate one of the influential crew ordering the breakfast pizza and then coming right back into the galley telling the rest of the crew in line how good it is and that they should try it.

Deep dish breakfast pizza was excellent with a side of spicy mayonnaise

The breakfast pizza was a success, and I will add it to my list of things to feed my crew. I will put it in the "fun food category" and perhaps in the "Sunday Brunch category" Today I am going to my "fast and easy category" so that I have time to write to you, make my grocery order and prep for my busy "chinese food category" for supper tonight. I miss our more frequent visits, sharing my days and photos more regularly but I am still editing the book. Making the "easy" changes that Lorraine suggested would be quick if I was home, but I have come to realize is taking a little more time on board the ship. I am making sure to still take time to enjoy my beautiful surroundings.

This is our electrician, and he took apart the toaster to excavate the half of an english muffin that decided it would choose its own destination and not come out to be buttered and eaten but stay forever in the secret hiding spot inside the continuous feed toaster.

The second cook messaged me asking if I had seen the beautiful sunrise. I am so grateful she did because it was behind us and I would have missed it.

The sunrise was so different looking through each porthole.

I enjoy working on the book. With each 2 page spread that I send on to Lorraine, she reminds me how nice the book will be and that she thinks you will like that there are more personal photos intertwined with the ship and food photos. The completion is very near and shipping the book before the end of summer is on schedule. Lorraine is starting to fill in our September and October with book-signing events. We are waiting for a few more confirmations, and I will share the list with you soon. We will have the new book with us and will be happy to sign your books at these events. you can also bring along the original cookbook "Recipes and Stories as I Sail Through My Day" or the Children's book "The Stowaway Adventures of Mitchell Mouse" and I will be happy to sign them too. (I love it when people bring the original cookbook with tabs holding a place for a recipe they want to try, and I always ask if I can take a peek at what they are thinking of making.) We will be traveling to some new places for book signings and I have been asked to do a speaking engagement in September which I will also share the location and date soon. I just took a moment to browse through the photos from the last week and was reminded of some special moments. I just took a moment to browse through the photos from the last week and was reminded of some special moments. When I wrote to you last we were leaving the Welland canal and I have a nice photo in the flight locks (Locks, 4,5 and 6). We were three ships. I

Last Sunday we were three ships in the flight locks.

I have already shared some pictures from the Blue Water Bridge webcam, and as I was reminded of the early morning passing last time, I am thinking with this timing today in the Soo, I should be able to wave during the daylight hours tomorrow). On our way to Superior, WI, we went through the St Mary's River and Soo Lock during the night, and when we got to Superior, we went to anchor for a little over 24 hours. It was nice to look out my porthole and see a familiar friend. The Rt Hon Paul J Martin. When we arrived, she was at anchor and we joined her for a short while before she went in to load first. I caught a really nice photo and a little video of her leaving in the slow, setting evening sun as we got ready to make our way in to load.

Always nice to see an old friend. We sat at anchor with the Rt Hon Paul J Martin for a few hours before she made her way in to load in Superior.

A little over 24 hours later, she left as we made our way in as the sun slowly began to set.

We did not start loading until the next morning and it was one of those days that I was extra grateful that I worked in doors because it was pouring rain. I have many food photos to share with you and will share the descriptions of what I made with the photos. I am looking down to the right hand corner of my laptop and wondering how it is possible that I have already been sitting here talking to you for the past two hours. Oh, yes, there are the two trips to the coffee machine. The three or four trips to stand beside my forward-facing porthole to see the ship in the Lock and then looking through the photos of the food that I made, forgetting some of the things I made until I saw it in the photo which jogged my memory with a jolt and a "oh, yes, I made that too" I hope you have a wonderful day. I really enjoyed starting my day with you. I hope to talk to you again soon.

This was the nicest, tastiest smoked meat I have ever received on a ship

Smoked meat sandwiches with the leftovers is always popular and then with the final leftovers that didn’t make it on the sandwiches, found it’s way into corned beef hash.

One of my favorite dishes Sweet Basil Beef

This is another do-over photo for the book. I know it looks a little crooked but I was able to line it up perfectly with my program I use for the book. This is the GPS sauce and the GPPS sauce version for the book. I can’t tell the difference, can you tell the difference? One has sugar and one is made with a little maple syrup and both are delicious.

I had some chicken salad leftover and thought what can I do with it. It was beautiful chicken breast meat. I decided to make chicken taquitos and added sauteed mushrooms, cheese, rolled them in a tortilla, deep fried them and at the end of lunch they were gone.

Another leftover creation was Italian wellingtons. I wrapped the meatballs with some cheese and spinach in puff pastry.

This was a request from a crew member. He said can you make the beef and gravy again? it smelled so delicious as it cooked and reminded me of my mom making it and how good the house smelled as it simmered.

I didn’t have clams for clam chowder so I made a shrimp chowder

I laughed when I saw this crew members shirt. he didn’t know that I had made hotdogs. I made my buns a little too long so everyone got a little extra piece of hot dog to fill the bun.

This is another do-over photo for the book. It is my walnut burger. I ate it after taking the photo and I thought it deserved a spot in the book. It’s fun being the taste tester and although I am very critical, I am also able to admit when I made something really good.

I made these for the book, but not for the photo, just to clarify the recipe.

Last night’s Sunday supper. Ham, with pineapple sauce, scalloped potatoes and cauliflower with cheese sauce.

You can order the new book online. Just click on the link More Recipes & Stories As We Navigate Healthier Eating – Ship to Shore Chef

These two books are available online and in stock. Lorraine will be happy to ship them to you.