While Jeremy did things like sew dinghy chaps for Roti and vapor barrier the basement, I spent time in the kitchen canning things like a madwoman.

This is not a blog post about how to can. I’ll send you over to my friend Behan’s blog for that - she’s got way WAY more experience and was my inspiration for this.

This is, instead, a post more about thinking outside the box. With a recipe.

Before we left Calypso to go north for the summer, I spent some time measuring the space between our 2 water tanks. After being stymied with a measuring tape, I took physical wide-mouth pint jars that I had on hand from some previous canning experiments and laid them out, counting how many would fit. I can’t be the only person who has a hard time equating measuring tape measurements with 3-d spaces, can I? Twenty four.

That number stuck in my head all summer as I studiously ignored the pressure cooker I’d brought along just for this purpose. Finally, as we started to gear up to paint the house and the shortage of time loomed large, I sprung into action. Four jars at a time of things like chili and pulled pork, chicken breasts and corn chowder, went through the cooker. My life was ruled by a 75 minute timer, and the jars did indeed start to pile up nicely.

Twenty four came and went. I’ll just do a couple more,. Oooh that recipe for green beans looks awesome. What’s another 2 jars of that?

All in, I came back to the boat with 37 jars of home canned goodies, most of it meat or what I call “cheater meals”. And while the bilge space I’d originally measured out did wind up holding 29 of those jars (not bad considering I’d estimated using the 6 jars I had on hand . . .), the rest fit very nicely in the other lockers set aside for food storage.

One of the recipes I was most excited about, and one that was inspired by the almost-forgotten collection of cookbooks that’s stashed in a lovely bookshelf at the OPO, was chicken enchiladas. The chicken is cooked into the sauce itself, lending its meaty depth to the tomato-chili goodness. I did a big batch and have 4 jars to be pulled out in some anchorage somewhere.

But I also know that I’ll want to whip up enchiladas after those jars are only memories. Given our freezer-less existence on board, I need something that doesn’t include chicken . . . and this quick recipe will fit the bill. (Want a giggle? Check out this old video I did with this recipe in it!)

Enchilada Sauce

• 2 TBS vegetable oil

• 1 large onion, chopped fine

• 2-4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

• 1/4 tsp salt

• 3 TBS chili powder

• 2 tsp cumin

• 1/2 tsp garlic powder

• 1/2 tsp coriander

• 2 16-oz cans tomato sauce

• 2 cups vegetable or chicken stock (or water)

Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat until it shimmers, then add in onion and salt and cook until translucent. Stir in garlic and cook, stirring, until it smells good (about 30 seconds or so), then stir in the spices. Cook the combination for about a minute (you’re cooking the rawness out of the chili powder in particular and blooming the flavor). Stir in the tomato sauce and stock and simmer for 10-15 minutes, until thickened slightly. 

Note: you can definitely halve this recipe, as it makes a LOT. I’d use the same amount of onion (I hate having half an onion hanging around) and if the stock is in cans, I’d use a full can and add in a TBS of tomato paste to bump the tomato flavor.