The beginning of another houseboating adventure and a new shrimp recipe

Delicious shrimp and apples just waiting to be eaten

This year’s houseboating adventures didn’t begin exactly as planned but this time I’m actually okay with it. We had hoped to leave home later in the afternoon on Saturday but the wind began to blow and we were tired. I was even thankful when Mike said maybe we wouldn’t leave until the next morning. By evening there was a severe storm watch for just north of us that would possible include Temagami with predictions of winds up to 90km/h! Yes, I was definitely thankful to still be at home.

The only awkward thing about not leaving as planned was that all of our clothes and food were already loaded up. So we had supper on the houseboat while it was parked at the dock and pretended that we were already at our first stop.

My menu for the week includes a few new things to try on the barbecue. We all love cooking and trying new things. Abby especially loves to measure and mix. 

A delicious meal that we all agreed we'd eat again!

My first supper consisted of something that could be made very quickly on the barbecue since we probably wouldn’t arrive at our first campsite until it was really past suppertime. I was originally going to fry shrimp to go with rice and asparagus but then I came across this recipe in a gluten free e-mailing that I get and I had to try it. We all agreed that it was a make again recipe and I wished I had more apples to go with the shrimp that were still in the freezer at home. It was fast. It was easy. It was delicious. And who doesn’t love shrimp? I didn’t use jumbo shrimp but I always pick up the biggish sized shrimp when they go on sale so we have them on hand. Since we were still at home I cooked the rice in our rice cooker. I just can’t seem to get the hang of cooking good rice in a pot. Besides it’s so nice to just turn it on and forget about it.

After supper we pretended we didn’t have anything else to do and just went swimming for a bit. Much to Abby’s dismay we decided to sleep in our house just in case the weather network's predictions were correct and the winds decided to get up even higher and loads of hail decided to fall. In the end the weather network was wrong once again and the storm didn’t happen at all. We woke up to a beautifully calm, cool morning with the wind behind us as we set out for our houseboat vacation.

Grilled Shrimp and Apple Skewers

3 TB honey
3 TB olive oil
1 TB fresh basil
1 TB strawberry jam
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1 clove garlic, minced
2 TB red wine vinegar
1 TB lemon juice
2 tsp. white sugar
2 gala apples
16 jumbo shrimp
Refrigerate the shrimp in marinade 30 minutes. Skewer shrimp and apples alternately. Barbecue 5 minutes per side on medium-high, basting with remaining marinade.

Bread on the barbecue

And now for the taste test.

Because Abby and I are gluten and dairy free most of the things we eat are things we can all enjoy together. However, I really wanted to try baking bread on our houseboat vacation and I’m still more comfortable baking wheat bread than gluten free. Besides I wanted to make something special just for Mike. 

The bread turned out great! I mean it looked fantastic. I was a bit worried when it wasn’t rising very well but that was because I wasn’t sure where to put it. My original plan was to put it on top of the fridge as it’s always hot there. Of course this afternoon when I needed it to be hot it wasn’t. Mike came up with the perfect solution: we put it in the cupboard above the fridge. It was protected from the drafty open window as we traveled down the lake. The fridge eventually kicked in and the heat from the exhaust warmed the cupboard up beautifully.

Beautiful bread baking to perfection.

I chose to make a batter bread instead of the more traditional raised bread simply because it’s less time consuming. There is only one rising of the dough and no kneading. Really, it’s a beautiful thing. Thank you Betty Crocker for another great recipe! We bought the Big Red Betty Crocker cookbook with money from our wedding gifts and we have never regretted it.

So here it is: easy, amazing bread baked on the barbecue:

Oatmeal Molasses Bread

3/4 cup boiling water

1/2 cup old-fashioned or quick-cooking oats

3 TB shortening

1/4 cup mild-flavoured molasses

2 tsp. salt

1 package regular or quick active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp.)

1/4 cup warm water

1 large egg

2 3/4 cup all purpose flour

Grease the bottom and sides of a 9X5 loaf pan with shortening. Mix boiling water, oats, shortening, molasses and salt in a large bowl; cool to lukewarm.

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add yeast mixture, egg and 1 1/2 cups of the flour to the oat mixture. Beat for 2 minutes with and electric mixer on medium speed, scraping bowl frequently. (I didn’t have an electric mixer but it mixes very easily and I mixed for almost five minutes just to make sure I had combined it enough.) Stir in remaining 1 1/4 cups of flour until completely mixed.

Spread batter evenly in pan and pat into shape with floured hands. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place about 1 hour and 30 minutes or until the batter is 1 inch from the top of the pan.

Heat the barbecue to 375. I’ll be honest. I had a hard time finding the right temperature on the barbecue. Sometimes it was 325. Sometimes it was 450. But the bread seemed to cook fine just the same.
Bake 50-55 minutes or until the loaf is brown and sounds hollow when tapped. If the loaf browns too quickly, cover loosely with aluminum foil during the last 15 mnutes of baking. Remove from pan to wire rack to cool. I started checking the bread early because I knew the temperature had been high but it still took the full 50 minutes and I didn’t find it browned too quickly. Now mind you I had the lid open often to check on other things cooking in there at the same time and to take some pictures so that may be why it needed the full cooking time.

Can that actually move this houseboat?

9.9's about to make their last trip of the season - onto the trailer to come out of the water for the winter

I am always surprised when people stop in to take a look at our houseboats. It's the kind of thing I often think about doing as I'm driving along the highway but I never ever do it. I actually enjoy showing our houseboats off and giving a little tour of what's inside. It's so nice to hear people's reactions as they step on board and see what our  boats are like. The one thing that amuses me, I wait for it in fact as the men in the group check out the back deck, is a little question that comes up probably 75% of the time. I don't know how many times I've heard it - "There's just a little 9.9hp on this thing?" "That motor actually moves this houseboat?"
Honestly, we love our little Yamaha 9.9hp four stroke high thrust motors. Yep, that 's a mouthful and for anyone who's not motor savvy I totally understand that it's also nearly incomprehensible. I grew up on a farm so conversations about Massey Ferguson and Chase-International and combines and tractors and balers still have much more meaning to me than outboard motors and fishing boats but I've learned a lot in the last ten years.

Peter working on a motor that's missing a little piece at the bottom:  that would be the part you lose when you hit a really big rock really hard.

I've observed that our Yamaha motors have been very dependable. That's great news for anyone taking a vacation on one of our houseboats. They just don't break down very often. Now mind you we keep them in good repair and replace them regularly but just the same most of our service calls for motor repairs are because someone has hit a rock or had a rope stuck in the prop, not because the motor has failed.
9.9hp means that it's not a big motor. If there is ever a break down we can simply replace the whole motor and you can carry on your way. That means less time stopped when there is a problem and more time enjoying your vacation.

Little motors hard at work

Four stroke is all about fuel efficiency. Your car has a four stroke engine. You don't have to mix fuel and oil. It doesn't use as much gas as a two stroke engine. That means a cheaper vacation for you and no hassle when you need to add fuel to the tank.
High thrust is what makes the 9.9hp work for us. This is the part that surprises people. They have big props on them, much bigger than your average motor of this size. They are made for pushing barges through the water and that's basically what your houseboat is, a fancy barge. You aren't going to go water skiing behind it but that's not what houseboating is all about is it?

First boat in the water!

It has been a beautiful month of April. That means all the painting has been finished ahead of schedule and the boats are ready to go. It's always exciting to see the first one slide into the water and drive to its parking space.

This year the water is exceptionally low and the boats can't pull right up to the dock so it could create some challenges for the cleaning girls! It could also create some challenges for those of you renting our houseboats this spring. There may be some campsites you won't be able to get to because of rocks that were not visible before being very close to the surface... or above the surface! We don't usually pray for rain at this time of year but we could certainly use some with a fire ban already on and water levels being so low. We'll see what the next couple of weeks bring.