Provisioning for a Holiday at Sea

We’ll hopefully be at sea when Thanksgiving rolls around, with no real certainty around reprovisioning options between now and then. What’s a freezer-less cruiser to do when faced with a meat-centric holiday like Thanksgiving?

(Note: I know there are lots of vegetarian/vegan options for Thanksgiving. I’m a lover of veggie sides for this holiday, but do like a meat main course. Daily eating is mostly bean and-veggie—centric, making Thanksgiving even more special. Hence this blog.)

Our fridge is pretty small. It’s a 50 quart “camping fridge”, a fancy term for what is, in form factor anyway, a cooler. A plug in, can-be-a-fridge-or-a-freezer, no-ice-required cooler, but when people are confused that this is our fridge it’s understandable. Placed side-by-side with an Igloo or a Yeti, there’s not a lot of difference from the outside other than the logo. Working dimensions inside are 15.5”x11.2”x13.3”. I could conceivably put a turkey breast in there, but then how would we keep other things cold?

*Main fridge space, just before being cleaned. Note containers in “dairy” section.*

I could reconfigure the fridge as a freezer just to get me through this dilemma. Back to the above concern, though, on needing fridge space in general. We’ll be in the Bahamas for a bit. Gotta have cold drinks! And cheese! And prolong veggie life! No, the fridge will stay a fridge.

One thing going for us is that stashing things in the lowest section of the fridge and keeping the fridge temperature on the low side of refrigerator ranges, plus keeping the fridge very full, often means that whatever is on the bottom layer will freeze. Not enough for something like ice cream, mind you, but especially if we start with a frozen pack of meat and put it in the bottom, it will last a while.

The last time we did a passage over Thanksgiving was on our trip from Beaufort to the BVI. For that trip, I scored a couple of vacuum packed pork tenderloins. We celebrated somewhere in the northern Atlantic with mashed potatoes, green beans, mustard carrots, roast pork tenderloin, and something pie-like for dessert. Total success.

Commercially vacuum sealed meats often have a pretty good shelf life (as it were). We like the pork tenderloins because they’re small enough to fit well in the fridge and tasty enough to feel like a celebration. I did see a turkey tenderloin yesterday when I was shopping, but the “use or freeze by” date was 2 days from now, so not worth grabbing to store for a month; the freeze-ability in our fridge just isn’t that reliable.

At this point it’s looking like we will be going down the ICW for a few days, which means I’ve got a couple more grocery shopping opportunities in the US before heading to the Bahamas. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that I’ll find some small commercially vacuum sealed meat option - a small turkey breast, a turkey tenderloin, a pork tenderloin - with a “use or freeze by” date that I can work with.

Sides are fairly standard, including the family favorite mustard carrots and mashed potatoes. Hopefully another kind of green vegetable, if I’ve still got some in the bin. I might have to see how long Brussels sprouts last!

Otherwise I’m investigating some delicious vegetarian options for the main course. Stuffed squash, maybe? Or a lentil shepherds pie? We could go full on Indian-inspired, with samosas and curry of some kind. The possibilities are endless. Got some ideas for me?