Simply put, while the name is old-fashioned, a casserole is just a one-pot meal with the protein starch and vegetable all in one dish.  Preferably with a crispy topping, please.  Casseroles from our past don’t have to include canned soup to be hearty, one-pot meals.  And they don’t have to be something only served for a weeknight dinner.  Served in individual bowls or large ramekins and topped with a garnish, you quickly turn an everyday meal into a simple meal fit for entertaining.

I have also included one of my favorite and most-requested recipes from our guests, Blonde Brownies.  We call them Congo Bars on the boat, but I’ve never known why.  Try not to eat too much of the dough before you get it into the pan!

Casserole of Mashed Potato, Portobello Mushrooms and Swiss Chard with Goat Cheese

This is a wonderful comfort meal for a snowy, winter evening, with friends or just family.  If you plan to use it for entertaining, swank it up a bit with the fried carrots or onions on top.

For the mushrooms and Swiss chard:
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 Portobello mushrooms
1 bunch Swiss chard, coarsely chopped and cleaned well
1/2 teaspoon salt
several grinds of freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

For the potatoes:
8 medium red potatoes, peeled and whole
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more for the water
4 oz. goat cheese

For the mushrooms and Swiss chard:
Preheat oven to 400°.  Place the mushrooms and Swiss chard on a roasting pan and sprinkle with oil, salt and pepper.  Roast for 40-45 minutes.  The Swiss chard may be done before the mushrooms at about 30 minutes.  It’s done when it’s wilted and the stems are tender.  Remove the Swiss chard with tongs and transfer to a medium sized bowl.  Toss with balsamic vinegar.  Continue to cook the mushrooms until they begin to get darker on the edges.  When the mushrooms are done, let them cool briefly and then slice thinly into long strips.

For the potatoes:
Place the potatoes in a medium stockpot and cover with salted water.  Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer.  Simmer for 30-40 minutes or until the potatoes are tender when poked with a fork.  Drain the water; add the butter, milk and salt and whip with a hand mixer.

Reduce oven heat to 350°.  In four 2-cup oven proof bowls, layer the potatoes, mushrooms and Swiss chard, beginning and ending with the potatoes.  Sprinkle with goat cheese and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the edges of the potatoes begin to brown.

Serves 4 (or 6 if you use smaller bowls)

Fried Carrots or Onions

You can easily replace the carrots with a similar amount of thinly sliced onions and follow the same directions

2 cups peanut oil
3 carrots, peeled
1/2 cup flour
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

In a deep saucepan, heat the oil to 350º F.  Julienne the carrots with a hand peeler or a mandolin.  For curly strips of carrots, use your peeler and continue to peel as you would to remove the skin.  Toss the carrots with flour, salt and pepper enough to coat the carrots with flour.   Carefully place the carrots into the hot oil.  **The pan must be deep because the oil will bubble and rise to three times it’s normal height.**  Cook until golden brown and crispy, about 2 minutes.  Remove and place on a paper-towel lined plate and salt and pepper to taste.

Congo Bars

This is a Maine Windjammer fleet recipe.  My mentor, Ellen, says the first time she made these Congo Bars, they were so gooey that she wanted to throw them out.  A passenger saw her and grabbed the pan out of her hands.  Half an hour later Ellen had a bunch of happy passengers and an empty pan.  That’s the way we have baked them ever since; this recipe is much better slightly underdone than even the smallest bit overdone.

2 1/3 cups brown sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a 9 x 13-inch pan.   Melt the brown sugar and butter over low heat.  Cool slightly, add the vanilla extract, then mix in the eggs one at a time.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt and add to mixture.  When the dry ingredients are completely incorporated, add the chocolate chips and walnuts.

Spread the dough evenly onto the greased pan and bake for 30 minutes.  If a fork poked into the center comes out slightly gooey this is okay.

Cool slightly and cut into squares while still warm.

Makes 24

From Windjammer News /It’s All About the Food™: January 2011
Copyright © 2008 Baggywrinkle Publishing, Anne Mahle
For more recipes from Chef Annie visit her food blog at www.AtHomeAtSea.com

While the actual work on the boat will begin the fall of 2010, our work starts immediately onshore.  The grant is matching, which means that our winter will be spent in partnership with AMP to raise the other $300,000.  We’ll also need to sharpen our pencils to stay within that budget and still accomplish all we intend.  It will be an exciting year!

The awarding of this grant means that as the stewards of the Riggin, we will feel we’ve done everything we can to ensure that she is eventually passed on to other owners with another 40 years of life within her. (Don’t worry, I said EVENTUALLY, we aren’t going anywhere anytime soon!)  While she looks good now and does her job with a willing heart, this attention will be of huge benefit.

We are so grateful for this opportunity as the business could never have done it alone.  If you would like to be a part of preserving maritime history by making a donation, we’d welcome your help.

Annie
Counting our blessing, they are so many

It’s the perfect time to shift focus as well.  The food blog will remain primarily a food blog with sailing, mothering, crafting, gardening and business-ing thrown in.  And because none of the man sailors in our family are even a little bit interested in blogging, this blog will shift to a more project oriented focus.  There will be more to tell about that in the very near future.  But I can’t tell you anything just yet!

Annie

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As the the office is smack dab in the middle of the house, they have been absorbing business and marketing savvy (or lack-there-of depending on the day) for years.   Ella decided to launch her own campaign which would encourage more families to come vacation with us in Maine.  These were her top choice photos …

Beary on a mission to get MORE kids on our boat

Hannah and Beary stumpin'

The marketing team for kid friendly vacations- Lucy, Beary, Hannah and Cutie Pie

Annie
Go Team!

Photo credit Ella Finger

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It’s been a great season and we were very lucky to have been able to share it with you. Now that we are back on land you can be sure we will be writing more. Our e- newsletter featuring boat news, promotions, happenings in the area and of course recipes from Chef Annie, will return to its regular once a month schedule, as well as our blog postings here and at Artichokes & Asparagus. You can subscribe to our blogs and receive the posts by email by clicking to the left where it says Email Delivery – subscribe to Broad Reach by Email (or Artichokes and Asparagus for the food blog).

In the meantime if you have something you’d like to see us writing about drop us a note and we’ll do what we can. We’re always looking for new features and topics to cover.

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Recently,  Plating Up shared this one with their readers.

Shrimp with Prosciutto and Green Olives on Fettuccini

Enough fettuccini for two people
1 tablespoon butter
2 slices Prosciutto, diced
1/3 cup pitted green olives
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/3 cup white wine
Juice of half a lemon
1 tablespoon butter
Grated Parmesan cheese and minced parsley to garnish

Prepare the fettuccini as you normally would; when it is about 5 minutes away from being done, melt the butter in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the olives and Prosciutto and sauté for one minute. Add the garlic and sauté for 30 seconds. Add the shrimp and sauté until it is nearly cooked through, about 2 minutes (depending on the size). Add the white wine and lemon juice and continue to cook for 30 seconds. Remove the pan from the heat and gently stir in butter until it’s all incorporated. Drain the fettuccini. Spoon the shrimp over the fettuccini and garnish with the Parmesan cheese and parsley.

Serves 2

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Grilled Chicken with Passion Fruit Sauce
2 whole boneless chicken breasts, split
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Juice of two limes

Combine all of the ingredients in a Ziploc bag or bowl and marinate the chicken breasts for at least half an hour.  Grill at medium high heat until the chicken is cooked through, turning at least once.

Passion Fruit Sauce
4 to 6 passion fruit
1 tablespoon honey
Juice of 1/2 lime
1/4 cup orange juice

Scoop the insides of the passion fruit into a Cuisinart and add the remaining ingredients. Pulse for 1 minute, then strain.  Thin with additional orange juice if needed and spoon over the chicken.  Serve.

Serves 4

Recipe from At Home, At Sea: Recipes from the Maine Windjammer J&E Riggin
By Anne Mahle

Signed copies available for purchase.

© 2009 Maine Windjammer – Schooner J&E Riggin

Cape Elizabeth Community Center adventure camps for kids have been sailing with us for six years now.  The kids, range in age from 13 to 17, and they were the lucky recipient of our perfect day. 

Webster Head was our destination, with wind out of the South, it was just enough in the lee of the island of North Haven to give us a flat calm anchorage.  In over 20 years of sailing these waters, we've never had the opportunity to anchor there.  Just gorgeous. 

The kids all jumped in the brisk water and then had dinner in the gloam of the setting daylight.

Annie
The summer is almost half over and we feel as if it's just begun after such a gift of a day.

© 2009 Schooner J. & E. Riggin

4 ripe bananas, peeled and mashed
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup sugar
½ cup shortening
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons buttermilk
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease one loaf pan.
In a small bowl, pour the lemon juice and buttermilk over the mashed bananas; set aside.
In a large bowl beat the sugar, shortening and eggs until fluffy. 
In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda and salt.
Mix about 1/3 of the flour mixture into the sugar and egg mixture, then mix in about 1/3 of the banana/milk mixture.  Repeat two more times until everything is mixed in.
Bake for 1 hour, or until a fork comes out clean.  Cool for 20 minutes in the pan before removing.

Makes 1 loaf

© 2009 Maine Adventure Sails

Photo by Anna Schultz