Internet hotspot vouchers, are like gold

I am officially back online. I must assume responsibility for the fact that I have not had internet access for the past few days. On this ship, the Chief Engineer hands out the Internet Hotspot Vouchers. The Chief Engineer who gave me my first two vouchers on April 26th and May 22nd went on vacation. He kindly gave me my second voucher early because I ran out on day 26. The vouchers are handed out every 30 days and expire on the 30th day or expire if you exceed 40 GB. I knew I would have to budget my internet usage better, so when I was on my laptop working, I dropped down any programs I was not using and closed my laptop the second I was finished using it. I was doing such a good job budgeting my internet usage that I still had 15GB that would expire in 48 hours. I immediately opened all my programs and started to watch shows on Netflix. I took a photo of the usage balance to show the Chief Engineer to remind him that I would need a new voucher. He said he had me marked on his calendar and would bring the new voucher on Sunday. Perfect. The current voucher would expire at 16h55 so I could share my story with you Sunday after lunch. I sat down after lunch, opened my laptop and...no internet, it had expired early. I knew I would get a new voucher so thought in a few hours I will be back online.

I was budgeting my internet usage too well and had an abundance left over that would expire on the 22nd. I opened up Netflix and indulged in watching a movie. I usually avoid this luxury, saving my internet usage for working on projects.

I started preparing my Sunday supper and when the Second cook joined me after his break he pointed out the internet voucher on the counter, tucked under the saran wrap box. I picked it up and put it in my apron pocket. I continued on to prepare supper. I keep my phone, a marker, and a pen in my apron pocket. I reached in for my pen and felt the little voucher paper and thought I better take it to my room so that I don't accidentally lose it. I thought that because the day before, while I was BBQing the steaks, I pulled my phone out of my apron pocket to check how many more minutes it took to cook the steak, and a $5 bill flew out and landed on the BBQ. I was able to rescue the money and took the money to my room. (I had the bills in my pocket because a few crew members had paid me for their new cookbook which Lorraine was bringing for them to Quebec) That experience, still fresh in my mind, encouraged me to put the internet voucher in a safe place. That was the last recollection of the voucher. Lorraine came onboard during the internet voucher search and after saying hello I invited her to help me look  for my voucher. We have four large garbage cans in the galley and I had already gone through each one to no avail. Lorraine looked in my room. I couldn't understand how I had misplaced the small voucher. I put the search on hold to receive the groceries and enjoy my visit with Lorraine.

Lorraine sent me a text me from the gate and said that she and the grocery were waiting for an escort to the ship. Before long they were both parked by the ship. The time was perfect. I had everything ready for supper and put the search for my lost internet voucher on hold.

Lorraine placed the books that the crew members had ordered, and some treats for me into the basket. I was beyond excited when she said she would bring some of the peonies from our mom’s peonies plant. We transplanted them and Neighbor Susan has them in her garden and cares for them. This is the third year that the timing was good for Lorraine to bring me a bouquet that I could enjoy on the ship.

Our mother loved flowers and would always have a vase on the table with rose buds waiting to open or miniature carnations. Lorraine divided the flowers into two mason jars so I could enjoy them in two places.

I set one bouquet beside my bed. They smell so good.

On Monday, with still no sign of my internet voucher, I prepared myself to admit that I had lost or misplaced the voucher. I felt like a kid saying, "The dog ate my homework." I only see the Chief Engineer when he comes in at Lunch and Supper. He didn't come in for lunch, but when I saw him at supper, I asked if he would please give me another voucher. He agreed. I took it, and this time, it made it to my room, and I am online again and there is a beautiful bouquet of flowers beside my laptop as I write to you.

I take one bouquet of flowers to the galley with me each morning so I can enjoy them while I work too.

The following are the photos and highlights that I put together for you Sunday morning, before my internet expired . Cinnamon Bun Sunday on the CSL Laurentien is taking place in Quebec City today. It is also going to be a great day with a planned visit from Lorraine (my sister, best friend, and publisher). It seems like we're always in Quebec City on the weekends. It's great for Lorraine because she can avoid the workweek traffic. It's a 3 1/2-hour drive, and although we'll only have a few hours together, it will be packed with fun and non-stop chatting. I have something special planned for supper. I couldn't believe it when I opened the box marked beef during one of my first grocery orders. I had ordered an expensive box of short ribs. In the 10 lb box there are usually half usable pieces and the rest are pretty fatty. What they sent instead was a full case of the most beautiful beef short ribs I have ever seen. I quickly flipped through the pages of the grocery order invoice, and beside the beef short ribs was the price of $441.00. Wow! That was a huge price tag for one meal. I also went back to the computer to see if I had ordered them accidentally, but I saw that I had ordered the one little box. They sent the big box, and after the shock of the price, I was excited to receive them and knew it would make a great meal. There are a few crew members that are going on vacation at the end of the month and I thought I would make a nice Sunday meal before they left and took the case of beautiful beef ribs out of the freezer to defrost.

I had 30 pieces all together. I decided to prepare them simply. I made gravy, mashed potatoes and peas. I also made pickled jalapenos and something I had wanted to make for a long time…mustard pickled cauliflower. Both went really well with the tender beef.

I made the pickled jalapeno and mustard pickled cauliflower days before the planned short rib beef dinner. Both were good but the jalapenos were a clear winner!

The previous week, I made a special Sunday supper to celebrate Father's Day. I already shared with you last week about the Saturday night supper, which included BBQ steak and stuffed mushrooms. The Father's Day food celebration continued onto the Sunday meals. I defrosted smoked salmon for lunch and offered it either served on a bagel with cream cheese or on pasta with my homemade bechamel. We have a large jar of capers onboard, and they were the perfect addition to both the bagel and the pasta. Capers are not on the regular list of available items, but we are allowed to request special items, and every once in a while, I find them onboard. I like them on Caesar salad too.

The bechamel, and capers goes really well with the smoked salmon served over pasta.

The relief second cook is fun to work with and he enjoys learning new recipes. I love making cinnamon buns. It's fun to serve them. The crew knows I am going to serve the warm cinnamon buns every Sunday, so I look forward to making them, and they look forward to eating them. The second cook said he would like to learn to make this special treat, so I shared the recipe with him. The first Sunday, we made them together, I made them, and he watched. Last Sunday, he made them, and I watched. Although a recipe is specific, each person interprets it differently. He looked at the recipe in the book and asked if he should double the recipe, using 7 cups of flour for the crew of 25. I said I thought that was a good idea. I tried not to hover as he prepared the dough, only interrupting if I thought his actions would affect the outcome. It was fun for me to watch as someone read and prepared a recipe from my cookbook. He pointed out the photos on the cookbook page with the cinnamon bun recipe pointing at the Chelsea buns. I suggested that he could make one tray of Chelsea buns and one tray of cinnamon buns. He agreed, wanting to learn as many things as possible. I have a heavy hand, and when I make my cinnamon buns with 7 1/2 cups of flour, they are large and vary in size, giving me 28 buns. The second cook's cinnamon buns were perfectly uniform and smaller in size, and they gave him 40 buns. Regardless of how you roll them out and the size of the cinnamon/Chelsea buns...they were delicious.

The Chelsea buns came out perfect!

For Father's Day supper, I made BBQ ribs. I took navy beans out to soak the night before and started putting together a plate with items that would complement each other. I looked through my photos and didn't find any. I just have a photo of the salads and devilled eggs that I made. I used the last of the beautiful little yellow-fleshed potatoes to make Mom's potato salad. I also made a pasta salad, corn, and black bean salad. The devilled eggs went quickly. They are always popular. I had thought of making biscuits, which I think go perfectly with BBQ ribs, but I ran out of time, so I went to my cookbook and made mom's buttermilk bread, which is fast to make and delicious. I used the leftover baked beans and buttermilk bread the next day and marked beans and wieners on the board. It went well. I toasted the buttermilk bread, which reminded me of my mother. She would always toast the day-old buttermilk bread.

I wanted to make a few special treats for Father’s Day BBQ. Mom’s potato salad, corn and black bean salad, macaroni salad, deviled eggs, and all you can eat shrimp.

For supper, the second cook put out his second tray of perfectly uniform cinnamon buns and next to it I set mom’s buttermilk bread.

The next day I served some of the leftover baked beans with wieners and toasted buttermilk bread.

The day before when I was cutting the ribs for the BBQ, I tried to cut them equally, with five ribs in each portion. I was happy after preparing the 25 portions that I had enough ribs left to make honey garlic ribs and decided to build on that to make a Chinese dinner. I took some chicken out of the freezer and thought that I could make homemade chicken balls. Normally I make my own cherry sauce, using red cherry Jello. They have ready made cherry sauce here so I used that as a base. I added cherry juice from a large jar of maraschino cherries. I also added some garlic chili paste and had a very good tasting sauce in just a few minutes. I always have leftover rice and made a vegetable rice. I had some steak left over and made a teriyaki beef and noodle dish. I made a pork chop suey and found two trays of eggrolls in the freezer. I wanted to try and make an Asian coleslaw. I had some fried noodles and added them last minute before serving. I had wanted to add toasted sesame seeds but managed to burn the last little pile of sesame seeds on board. The timing wasn't so good to go out and wave at the webcams. We went under the Blue Water Bridge at exactly 17h00. I looked out the side window as I was filling the plate of a line of crew members.

Chinese food is always popular. The chicken balls with the cherry sauce was extra good. The honey garlic ribs were sticky and tender. It was fun to serve this meal.

I walked outside Saturday morning just in time to see Brockville shortly before 06h00. The water was mirror calm. It was nice to see the Tall Ships. It was a spectacular morning, and I took a few moments to think about mom and dad. I thought of all the times we passed, and they would be standing on the balcony waving. I was asked to come out and wave in Eisenhower Lock. The timing looked good until we slowed down to let the Laurentien raise up and exit the Lock. We were in the lock as I was serving lunch. After I finished filling the last plate I ran outside to wave. We were low in the lock so I climbed up to the next level to wave. It was fun to see people wave.

I came outside just in time to see Brockville. There are so many wonderful memories of my hometown. It was a beautiful morning.

It’s fun to check in on the Osprey when we enter Iroquois Lock. There was some movement in the nest

I quickly went outside and climbed the stairs to the deck above to wave at Eisenhower Lock. I had received a message to come out and wave, but the timing was at the exact moment while I was serving lunch.

The second cook will depart at the end of the month so he will make the cinnamon buns again today and one more time before he leaves. He made some beautiful desserts this past month and his precise hand adds a professional finished look. He even made my homemade pizza look better as he sliced the leftover pieces to be put in the crew's fridge for overnight snacking. I make my own pizza dough and use large square trays. When I am serving the pizza I ask each person if they have a preference of an inside piece or outside piece. I ask because I prefer an inside piece of pizza. Lorraine would choose an outside piece that has the doughy crust. I made more pasta in the past week than usual. We had a crew member come and when I ran through my usual questions of likes, dislikes he shared that he loves pasta, and doesn't eat fish. On Friday I made pizza for lunch and for supper I made the usual fish and chips or baked fish. For my non-fish eaters (there are two now) I made a baked spaghetti. I had made chicken cacciatore a few days prior with the second choice of homemade tomato sauce and meatballs. I had some of the tomato sauce left over and used it to make the baked spaghetti. During supper on Friday, one crew member asked if I had pizza left over and asked if he could have the pizza and the spaghetti on the same plate. It reminded me of a popular dish in Quebec: Pizza-getti.

The spaghetti bake was more popular than I thought it would be.

I was reminded of the Pizza-ghetti that I used to see on the menu in a restaurant in Tremblant.

I shared the “Crack” recipe from my book with the second cook. I told him I like to make this dessert. He is usually very precise with cutting and slicing. I told him that this dessert is broken apart into different sized pieces. I suggested he press the nuts into the chocolate so they don’t fall off as the crew member carries their piece of dessert down the hall.

Saturday the 21st,  I made the steak on the BBQ. It was a warm summer afternoon and while I was out on deck I watched the pleasure craft and could hear the screams of laughter from the little boat that was jumping our waves. Summer sailing is fun and on the weekends there are always lots of pleasure craft out. I look forward to my day today. I am a little nervous about cooking the expensive $441 worth of beef ribs. I look forward to seeing Lorraine and seeing the Three Rivers Bridge out my forward facing porthole in the distance lets me know that we are still on track for getting to Quebec City at a good time. It's almost time for me to start my day so I will load these photos after lunch and share the story with you. Have a great week. Following are some additional photos from the week of June 15th to June 22nd.

I made a Cuban sandwich for lunch. I used leftover hotdog buns that I had made the day before. I stuffed each bun full, wrapped it in parchment paper and baked them in the oven like I have seen them served in the Columbia restaurant. I could not believe how fast they went and to avoid saying “sorry I am out” I took the extra filling that I had and quickly grilled some Cuban sandwiches on sourdough bread, making sure everyone could enjoy them.

I made some meat pies in puff pastry. a great way to use up leftover meatloaf. I put the leftover meatloaf in the food processor bind it with a little leftover gravy and this time, as you can see in the photo I added some diced cooked potatoes. I don’t usually put in potatoes, but I didn’t have enough meat mixture and adding the potatoes gave me more.

The meat pies went well with gravy and curly fries.

I try to offer a salad plate for lunch. The crew really like my maple mustard dressing.

I was busy serving when we passed the Blue Water Bridge webcam but I was on my break when we passed Marine City.

I had received a message to come out and wave below the Soo Lock. It was so much fun when the Captain blew a salute. It was after supper and I enjoyed sitting outside on the warm summer night.

I offered this lighter meal during the heatwave. Lorraine makes this curry chicken salad and it is in the second cookbook. It went over really well.

I served pork dinner with mashed potatoes and gravy. It was a heatwave outside but the air conditioning inside makes it comfortable to eat this dinner.

During our last trip downbound in the canal, we stopped below Lock One. I was sitting outside and got this photo of the deck crew on their way to the bow of the ship to swing over the ship’s side to tie up.

We had a piece of equipment delivered to the ship which required a crane to bring onboard.

When I shared a photo with Lima Beans on the plate, I received a few messages asking about them. We get them frozen. Arctic Gardens Brand.

Another visit with Lorraine was over too soon. She had her bag lowered in the basket. I gave her some clothing that I brought end of April that I don’t need anymore with the warm summer temperatures. She removed her items from the basket and put the life vest in. (She wore the life vest to descend the ladder.

You can order your copy of the cookbooks or children’s book online. Lorraine will be happy to mail it out to you. Just click on the following link.

Shop Online — Ship To Shore | Chef Catherine Schmuck | Author, Entrepreneur & Cook | Canada

The books are also available in the following stores. Just click on the following link

Shop In Store — Ship To Shore | Chef Catherine Schmuck | Author, Entrepreneur & Cook | Canada