So I haven’t been doing the greatest job of cooking on the boat lately. I’ve been incredibly busy over the past two weeks and will be going out of town tomorrow night to visit a bunch of my college friends in the NC mountains. I’ve also been working on several t-shirt projects this week after work and was finally able to put a package in the mail for my mom and brother (finally!). I also just designed t-shirts to print for my friends in Linville this weekend. I will definitely be posting some pictures from the trip.

Anyway we haven’t had much in the way of groceries and have been so busy that we have just been eating out ALL the time. Not a terrible thing when you live someplace that has fantastic restaurants like Charleston, but can definitely throw you off a tight budget! Plus I just miss a good home-cooked meal and a night of sitting out on the boat.

Recently Brian and I have been making a mental list of quick meals that won’t dirty too many dishes. I think one of the largest deterrents from cooking is the mound of dishes that stack up on top of the boat (yes, I know this is not very classy). The water supply in the tanks apparently doesn’t last very long when you wash dishes regularly—surprise surprise. Sometimes I will do small cups, plates, and silverware in there, but we still leave the big pots and pans for the dock.

Today at the store I bought an onion with the idea of doing a variation of a recipe from my Italian cookbook, The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan (btw this is the ONLY cookbook that I own and it is awesome). I made a variation tomato sauce with onions, butter, olive oil, sage, kalamata olives, and garlic. For those of you out there who are looking for a simple tomato sauce, this is it, unless, of course, you are buying pre-made sauce from a jar (but I prefer to make my own). I like it because it can be as simple as you want it to be, or you can add veggies and spices to make the flavor more complex. I have several recipes that I use in this way and I will try to post the recipes as I make them in the coming weeks so that you can enjoy them too.

*Please note all amounts are estimated as I don’t, and have never, really measured out my ingredients.*

1 tbs of olive oil

1 tbs of butter

1 yellow onion

handful minced or whole olives

1 can of diced tomatoes (or you can dice your own)

1 tsp. of sage, basil, oregano, or Italian seasoning

1 clove of garlic

salt

farfalle pasta

Put olive oil and butter in pan and place on low heat. Dice onion and sautee in pan until mostly translucent, then add entire can of tomatoes. I usually use Del Monte’s Diced Tomatoes with Zesty Jalapenos and pour it in with all the watery tomato juice. Put pot of water on to boil for the pasta. Mince garlic and olives and add to sauce along with a pinch of sage (or whatever spice you prefer) and a pinch of cooking salt. Turn the heat to medium and simmer until most of the water is cooked out and turn off heat. Add salt once the water starts to boil, and then add pasta and cook until tender. Strain and serve with sauce.

As we sat outside tonight enjoying the pasta, I snapped a few pictures of the sunset. It seemed exceptionally beautiful tonight and there were a few boats coming in from their racing this afternoon.

Bella sera!