We like to refer to our life before the boat as “First Life.” During first life, Jilly and I enjoyed the art of cooking A LOT(thanks mostly to the food network) and alternative ways to cook delicious food that’s also healthy. We went vegan a few years ago, which gave us a ton more energy to put forth in our rock-climbing efforts. Plus, it added a new level of challenge in the kitchen; because we wanted to find ways to enjoy the benefits of vegan without sacrificing the meat dishes that we so loved. Today, we enjoy meat every once in a while, but still mostly eat vegetarian / vegan (although we have a new appreciation of fish and seafood since we’ve been out East!).

Since second life (Living on the boat), we realize that we rarely have or can find the right ingredients to cook the way we used to. Our lack of refrigeration and storage only allows us to keep so many fresh ingredients. The grocery store is often too far away or doesn’t carry the stuff we want/need to make something. So we have had to be a little crafty in the kitchen.

Over the last couple of weeks, we have depleted the majority of our fresh-food stocks, and are down to dehydrated. While Jilly has become a master chef (even in boat life), she has always had a bit of a weakness in one area, namely baking. That’s where I’ve stepped up to the plate. I have always loved baking bread (even as a young in’) and have acquired a decent skill in first life. It started with generic bread, but soon ventured into indian Naan, pizza crust, sweet breads, fancy breads, simple breads made from simple ingredients. So, I decided to whip up a batch of (what I am calling), Cruiser Corn Bread.

Recipe

• 1 cup Fresh Milk. However we have no fresh milk. We had some powdered milk which is a great substitute (especially on a boat)
• 1/4 cup butter. We have vegan butter spread, worked just as well
• 1 egg OR powder eggs. We don’t have either of these at the moment, so I used 2 tablespoons of Chia seeds, ground down with mortar-pestle and then left to soak in about 4TBSP of water. A very handy trick we learned from our days as vegans.
• 1 1/4 yellow cornmeal
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tablespoon baking power
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup-ish sugar. I would have liked to use a good amount of sugar, but the bag ran dry a little sooner than I would have liked.

Directions

You will need 2 bowls. One for wet ingredients: Milk, Eggs and butter (mix and set aside). The second (larger one) for dry ingredients. Once mixed separately, add wet ingredients bowl into the dry one and mix together. When everything is mixed, pour into a well-greased Pyrex pan (I used shortening) and place in pre-heated oven at 400 degrees. Bake for 30-40 minutes (depends on your oven – ours runs hot so we baked for a little less than 30 minutes). Let cool for as long as you like before cutting it up and serving with honey and sliced apples(that’s our personal fave)



















Stay tuned for more fun cooking adventures from Jake & Jill.