Pork Roast (aka., Going Head-to-head with the Crock-pot)

Inspiration
The most common word you hear on the boat right now is "transit." After more than a month in dry-dock, the desire to sail and to get out on the open ocean is all-consuming. On my sixth day, the crew prepared to put the boat in the water. Boston was on the  horizon.

Thinking about what Kakan, the Swede, might like for breakfast, I made the Swedish rice porridge, risgrynsgröt, that Mari and I always used to eat, sitting among the construction guys in blue jumpsuits at the little breakfast place in a Stockholm suburb. I don't know about the crew, but I sure enjoyed waking up to a warm bowl of creamy rice tasting of cinnamon, vanilla and brown-sugar.

For lunch I used up random ingredients - burgers hacked up from a few nights before (vegetarian and meat), leftover potatoes, mushrooms, onions and cheese, and threw it all into a frittata. I wish I had two small dishes to cook them in, though. I ended up combining the meat version and the vegetarian into one big batch and drawing a line down the middle of the pan with paprika, which put the vegetarians in a tizzy. I will have to find a better way next time.

Challenge Yourself

While in dry-dock, a chart on the fridge 
showed which crew member was 
responsible for dishes.

I asked Filip the night before, "What should I make?" He shrugged. They aren't supposed to tell me what to make. It's one of the rules.

"Pork roast," he said noncommittally.

Deciding to take his cue, but do my own thing, I found a recipe the night before for pork roast in mole sauce, made in the crock pot. Apparently, the previous cook had been scared of the crock pot. I decided to face it head-on. I pulled it out, washed it off (how old was that grease?) and put it to work. Several hours later, I called my mom, slightly frantic.

"Mom, it doesn't seem to be cooking. I didn't know what to do, and couldn't find instructions online, so I put water under the pot."

Her voice was shrill: "Take the water out!" Then she added, "Then walk away. You just have to wait. If it still isn't done an hour before dinner, pull it out and cook it in the oven."

It ended up cooking just fine. There was a lot of fat in that sucker, though; the roast was swimming in it. Note to self: trim the fat.

For the vegetarians, I broiled sweet potatoes and poured the mole sauce over them instead. I served the meal with corn tortillas and because I thought they might be hungry, I whipped up another cornbread, this time without an egg (all my eggs went into the frittata!), but substituted buttermilk and more baking powder. It turned out just fine.