Cooking: Asparagus & Shrimp Sandwich

One of my favorite items from the Danish Smorgasbord is a sandwich my wife's MorMor makes from Asparagas and Shrmp. It can easily be made at home and can be used for a sandwich or even a great spread as an appetizer at your next gathering.

I'll take you step by step through the process here today!

Ingredients:
Shrimp (cooked, peeled, tail-off) approximately 1lb. of medium (2-3 inches)size.
Asparagas 1 can cut. You can cook your own, but this works just as well.
Mayonaise 1 cup. I prefer to use "light" mayonaise, fat free is a little too thin and regular mayo - well I cannot eat it - on a diet!


Directions:
1- Clean and dry the shrimp. Be sure to get as much moisture off the shrimp as you can, otherwise your mixture will be very runny. We are looking for a Potato Salad consistancy.

2- Drain and dry your Asparagas. Again, be sure to remove as much moisture as you can from the Asparagas. I use Papertowels to gently pat down the items.

3- in a large mixing bowl, combine the shrimp, Asparagas and Mayonaise and mix gently. You don't want to break up the Asparagas if at all possible.



After mixing you can put the Shrimp and Asparagas on pumpernickel bread, or thinly sliced french bread (toasted is optional). You can also put it in a nice bowl for presentation and then allow your guests to spoon it on to their favorite crackers.

I like to garnishe with a couple of fancy cut tomatoes, some dill and a touch of parsley. It's up to you!

Enjoy!

New Cooking Section: Danish Smorgasboard Anyone?

I would like to share with each of you some of the fabulous treats that my wife's family makes for us. My wife's family is Danish and they have a traditional style meal called "Smorgasbord". Smorgasbord includes many open-faced sandwiches with the likes of herring, seafood (shrimp or crab), meats, cheeses and much more.

It's a terrific experience and some of it is very easy to make. I have included some pictures here and I will post future entries on how to make some of these tasty little sandwiches!


Enjoy!

The Adventures of Captain Gale: Abaco Sailing Tours

From: BrianGale@alum.bucknell.edu [mailto:BrianGale@alum.bucknell.edu]
Sent: Saturday, April 05, 2003 3:15 PM
To: celebration_news@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [celebration_news] Abaco Sailing Tours

Hello all! The last two weeks I have continued as tour guide to the Abacos. Last week my friend Robin came down to escape the late-winter blues in downeast Maine, and this past week my friend Josh escaped the frozen city of Burlington, Vermont. Robin had a perfect week of sun and temps in the 80s, whereas Josh brought a little New England with him, 25 to 35 knot winds and cold temperatures for the first three days of his trip, though the weather has now returned to it's norm - perfect.



Josh also came down to celebrate his 30th birthday. The local reefs played along, and at the Pelican Cays Land and Sea Park we were able to watch SIXTEEN Spotted Eagle Rays swim circles in perfect synchroization. Spotted Eagle Rays are by far my favorite of the reef dwellers, and to see a troop of sixteen of these beauties, well, it just doesn't get any better.

Aside from snorkling daily, I hit the usual Abaco attractions with my guests. Pete's Pub, a great beach shanty in a small cove in the southern Abacos, yet the owner (Pete) is also a renowned artist. We had the good fortune to visit the pub/gallery/foundry on a day that they were making bronze castings via a 3000 year-old method. It was incredible to watch them pull a vat of molten bronze out of the blast furnace with a chainfall, then pour the liquid into the molds.

We also visited Hopetown and their lighthouse, one of three remaining hand-cranked, kerosene-fired lighthouses. It's neat to climb the staicase and check out all the machinery (not to mention the 1200 pounds of mercury that the light rests on!), and the view from the top is of course breathtaking.

And of course no tour of the Abacos would be complete without a visit to Nipper's Bar (or Nippa's if you're from the northeast). Nippa's is an incredible place - it's on the highest point on Great Guana Cay, so the view is fantastic. They've got two pools, good burgers with great fries, a perfect white sound beach as far as the eyes can see, and the third largest continuous reef in the Northern Hemisphere. (Kinda reminds you of taking college tours, doesn't it? Everyone had some obscure item that they were incredibly proud of - the oldest ornithology library, the largest eight-sided building in the Western Hemisphere. I believe Bucknell has the largest unsupported spiral staircase east of the Mississippi. 'Ray Bucknell...)

Oh yeah, Nippa's is also a bar, with a lovely little drink called the, uh, Nippa. In a word - yum. Makes you want to ignore that reef. Get nipped at Nippa's.

With Robin and Josh gone I now head back to Nassau to pick up my friend John for a few days, and then I'll continue south, first back down the Exuma chain to Georgetown, then east to do a circuit of a few of the outer islands.

Thanks again to all who continue to write, it's a big lift on a potentially lonely day. But please, please, PLEASE remember not to send me back my original email to me. It costs $3-5 to send each of these rambling updates, and when 10 people send it back to me - well, the budget really takes a hit.

I hear the Canadian-US border is geting knocked around with a bit of spring snow - 10" in Toronto? I'll try to send some warmth home with Josh!

Brian

Forecast for Saturday through Wednesday:
Sun, highs in the mid 80s, lows in the mid 70s, humidity in the 70s-80s, winds southeast 10-15.

Of course this is coming straight from Barometer Bob, so we need to take this with a MOUNTAIN of salt...


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The Adventures of Captain Gale: Switching to Yahoo! Groups

From: briangale@alum.bucknell.edu [mailto:briangale@alum.bucknell.edu]
Sent: Sunday, February 02, 2003 5:59 AM
Subject: Yahoo group

Faithful email readers:

With my email machine allowing me 25 subscribers per email and an ever-expanding distribution list, it's become too ponderous (and expensive!) to send out my periodic emails via pocketmail. My friend Truman has set me up with a yahoo group, and will be signing everyone up to be able to continue to get my newsletters. I'm in another yahoogroup, and its been my experirnce that yahoo sends virtualy no junk mail after the intro letter. Truman and I are the only ones able to send mail to the list, so the only mindless emails you get will be from me. There is an option when you receive the initial email to opt out of the distribution.

I hope everyone is coping with the "coldest winter in xx years", depending on your locale. Fear not, according to the Nassau Met Office we are experiencing the coldest winter in 60 years. Why, just yesterday I was forced to cut short my snorkling after only 20 minutes. I swear it wasn't because of the 4' sand shark hat suprised me...

Again, sorry about the Yahoo group thing, but the cruising kitty just doesn't allow for 20 minute email sessions.

Brian
Little Farmers Cay
23 deg, 57' N
76 deg, 18' W
Sunny and 75 degrees, winds North at 10-15

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The Adventures of Captain Gale: A couple of personal e-mails

Des here - Captain Gale and I are good friends and every so often he dropped an e-mail directly to me. Typically it was in relation to a Jimmy Buffett song he heard while on his adventures or Bruce Brown's surf Film, The Endless Summer (many boats with this name - and I love the movie ES I, ES II & ES Revisited by Dana Brown (Bruce's son). Here are a couple that came along at this time of year back when Captain Gale was sailing the Caribbean!


From: briangale@alum.bucknell.edu [mailto:briangale@alum.bucknell.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, January 22, 2003 7:22 PM
To: desmond@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Wassup?

Hey. I haven't a choice but to think about you. I spent the night with a boatload of older people, and as usual I ended up looking at their music. Older people must invite me aboard their boats, its practically the law, but they have no compunction to actually talk to me. if they EVER do, they see me at the cd pile and assume (incorrectly) that I'll do the least damage there.

This evening I'm looking through the pile when I find a certain surfing music player that you like, one connected to Endless Summer. I throw on his Christmas album which is awesome, he has 16 guitars overdubbed on some songs. God bless, it is AWESOME...

hope all is well in the non-work world. I wish I could have made it to your big 30 party last year. say hello to Michelle for me.
Brian
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From: briangale@alum.bucknell.edu [mailto:briangale@alum.bucknell.edu]
Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2003 9:20 AM
To: desmond@xxxxxxxx
Subject:

1st sighting of a boat named Endless Summer...
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The Adventures of Captain Gale: The Tropics

From: briangale@alum.bucknell.edu [mailto:briangale@alum.bucknell.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, January 22, 2003 9:03 AM
Subject: The Tropics

Hello again! Thanks to all who have written - please remember when replying not to return my message to me, it helps keep the phone bills at a less painful threshold.

I am writing from Georgetown on Great exuma island. Georgetown lies on the Tropic of Cancer and therefore I have officially made it to the Tropics. My friends Truman and Nisa have just left, leaving my boat quiet. I had an action-packed 10 days with Nisa and 2+ weeks with Truman. I picked up Truman in Nassau and we had a great 5 days sailing and snorkling along Eleuthera Island (25 deg N,76.5 deg W, for those with the home game). The most memorable anchorage was Hatchet Bay, whose entrance is blasted out of the cliffs and cannot be seen until you are upon it. The guide book claims that the entrance is 90' wide, but Truman and I put it more towards 60 feet. And when you're boat is 10' wide and you have a following sea pushing you into the rocks, well, the chanel gets even skinnier. Truman (who is twice the sailor I am, was at the helm for this entrance, waited until the point of commitment for this entrance before he says (just to needle me, I'm sure), "Do you think thi!
s is it?" Thanks Truman, great thing to say as we're getting blown upon the rocks...

We returned to Nassau to pick up Nisa, and immediately headed southeast towards the chain of islands known as the Exumas. The first stop was Allen's Cay, which is well known for its agressive locals, the rock iguana. I swam ashore and within a few minutes the locals were beginning to hiss and surround me, at which point I bravely fled to the safety of the water.

The next morning on the way out of the anchorage we finally did the inevitable; I finally ran aground. I was at the helm and Truman was on the bow looking for shallow spots. Truman turned around and said, "It looks ok, what's the depth?" "10 - 6 and a half...(reversing engines)" Bump. We bounced a couple times over what locals now call Truman's rock, and we were on our way. I earned a good hard look from Nisa, who was brushing her teeth at the time. 2055 miles without grounding , a good run, though some might say I'm not trying hard enough.

We had a great week together. Truman and I did an AMAZING wall dive - the coral shelf just drops vertically from 65 feet to probably 200 feet, before it drops further into the depths. We went through an amazing archway and down to about 100' where I saw the most incredible and varied coral I have ever seen. Later in the week we went to Thunderball Cave, a natural grotto which was used in such movies as the James Bond movies "Thunderball" and "Never Say Never Again" as well as the timeless classic "Splash". To enter the cave you have to snorkle underwater through an archway, arriving in a round opening approximately 30 feet across and 15 feet tall. There are holes in the limestone roof with moss dangling and the water is teeming with fish waiting to be fed. We had brought a few scraps of bread, and when offered the swarm of fish was so intense that it had a clostrophobic effect. I had a grand time tossing bits of bread across the grotto to where Truman was swimming and !
watching him squirm. Sailing further south, we managed to land a 35" mahi mahi, great eating for two dinners.

We finally arrived in Georgetown (23 deg N, 76 deg W) on Great Exuma Island, a town of 900 residents and 200 cruising boats, quite large by Bahamian standards. We rented a car and toured the entire island, from the town of Rolleville on the nothern tip to Rolletownn on the southern tip. Who is this Rolle guy, anyway?

With my guests gone, I am provisioning and waiting out a bit of weather before I turn my attention to the far out islands where towns and cruisers are scarce. I return to Nassau to pick up more crew on February 10, but until then I'm free to cruise as quickly or slowly as I wish.

I hope this email finds everyone well. Please send a line when you have a moment.
Brian
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"The Bar" photos now available

Boat Drink - under construction
Originally uploaded by mauiss7.

These photos are of "The Bar". Lots has happened at and around this bar, my father in law had it for years and years andnow it lives at my house. I asked him for my wife's han over this bar, his answer..."Are you sure you want to do that??? She's quite a handful..." appearently I had no idea what I was getting myself into - LOL.

Please enjoy the photos!