Okay, I admit that Sous Vide 
Keep in mind, it’s still not the same as living aboard. Yes, we have our supplies, toiletries, etc. But we still pack clothes, food and beverages every weekend. That does become a chore. I digress. What does that have to do with sous vide steak?! For me, I don’t like to just hang out on the boat by ourselves. In our old house, we entertained every weekend, so why should the boat be any different?
Weekend Plans
So we reached out to a few friends and the next thing you know, we had plans for both nights! Friday night we invited our friend Meghann and her boyfriend Josh over for dinner. Meghann is currently fighting a huge battle with breast cancer, so this was a big pick-me-up for her. She needed it. (Say a prayer for her if you can). She just shaved her head and in honor of her dew rag, Scott wore his that our friend Cory gave him (who’s also battling cancer – cancer sucks by the way!)
We had a fantastic night catching up and they even enjoyed my simple pasta (yes, again).
The next night, our friend Randy was coming down to go out boating with us. Then I remembered he started aging his own beef, so I hinted that maybe he might want to share one of his prized possessions with us for dinner? He jumped at the chance and suggested that he also bring his Anova Culinary Sous Vide Cooker
Boat Chores First
As with any boat, Scott and I had a list of chores to tackle on Saturday before Randy came over. First on the list was a new foam topper. We have been talking to companies at every boat show, now was the time to make the move! Off to the Friendly Foam Shop in north Seattle we went.
They were awesome too! They let us sample about four different types of foam and then we finally selected our favorite. They do offer to put it in a cover, but we already had one. For a couple hundred bucks, we now would have a great night’s sleep on the boat. And it is awesome! Keep in mind, unlike on Kokomo, we actually have a very nice mattress, but it still needed something!
Scott ended up trimming it himself with a bread knife – it’s not the prettiest around the edges, but it sure is comfy! One thing to note is it does STINK the first 24 hours, so be prepared. We ended up going with an open cell polyurethane foam.
Next Stop – Find a Canvas Shop
Since we borrowed the canvas snap tool from work when we installed the new cockpit carpet, we decided to make a few repairs to the canvas while we were at it. So we headed off to Seattle Fabrics near Ballard. Not only did they have snaps, but they had canvas fabric tape AND they sell our canvas. (If we ever feel like experimenting, I guess we can buy a sewing machine!)
There are corners on our canvas wear the snaps have completely pulled through. The repair tape is only temporary to get us through, until we buy new canvas. Scott and I headed back to the marina and he went to work!
A new grill and propane!
The method of sous vide cooking is actually not new to us. Years ago, we went camping at the Pot Holes and I made omelets using this method. It was super easy, no clean-up and no sand. Simply add your omelet ingredients into a freezer ziplock bag and boil until the egg is cooked.
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To use a sous vide cooker, you set the water temperature to the desired temp, place the meat in a sealed bag and then the meat will cook only up to that temp. But when cooking a steak, you don’t want just “boil” in a bag, you want the sear. So our plan was to grill them on the bbq or the stove after we took them out.
Oh yeah, not only do we not have a bbq, but if we cook them on the stove top – we might need propane there too. Off we go again right before Randy headed down.
We bought a new Magma grill at West Marine and they matched Fisheries Supply’s price! We saved almost $30! Then we removed our LPG propane tank and headed to U-Haul. I didn’t know the age of the tank and they only service tanks that are 10 years and newer. Turns out, we not only had a new tank, but it was virtually full. LOL!
Right now, we don’t have a “home” for the grill. The old grill was mounted inside the cockpit (I would rather not die from carbon monoxide poisoning). So we use it on the dock for now. Here’s a photo from our survey – yuck!
First, a sunset cruise before dinner!
Randy has taken a few boat trips with us, but not on our new boat. So we headed out for a quick tour of Elliott Bay to help us gain some hours on the water too. The weather was gorgeous and a perfect night.
Time for sous vide steak!
Randy was pretty excited to show us his project! He dry aged the steaks in his fridge using an aging kit that he bought for roughly 40 days. To cook the steaks to 130 degrees takes about two hours, so we got everything rolling right when we returned to the dock. Randy seasoned the steaks will a little bit of garlic pepper and salt. That was it.
I made a grilled corn & asparagus salad and we waited for the steaks to come up to temp. Let’s just say it was one of the best meals we have ever had. If we were at a steakhouse we would have paid over $125 a steak! Thank you Randy!
It was the perfect ending to a great and productive day! The sunset was amazing and it was great catching up with our long time friend. True friendships are so valuable in life, so never take them for granted.
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Stay tuned for our next blog, where we take you to our weekend getaway at Dock Street Marina in Tacoma! Cheers, Scott & Ally
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