I am new and am I glad to have found this site! A big shout out to all you Alabama boaters. I live in LA too (Lower Alabama)! Most HBs around the northern Mobile River Delta here are homemade floating camp jobs moored at fish camps. Some are nice, some are junky. Most don’t have motors and are fixed to the shore. In the HB world I think they politely call these “stationary” or “fixed” houseboats. We wanted a HB and we finally got one. We wanted a real boat that runs and that we can explore the vast miles of nooks and crannies of the Delta with. The real boats around here are scarce. We found ours in Demopolis Alabama. She’s a 1971 42’ Gibson. She’s not in the water yet and needs some work. We have made a lot of progress though and can’t wait to bring her down the Tombigbee River to her new home in the next few months. We are thoroughly in love with her and she is still only in dry dock!

Anyway this topic is about the Galley grub! When hubby goes up to Demopolis to stay on and work on “Proud Mary” he is NO cook! The boat has a propane stove / oven that works just fine but no fridge and no microwave yet. (Who would remove the appliances? Is it still a HOUSEboat?) I set him up with a big ice chest filled with cold cuts, sliced cheese, bread and the requisite peanut butter and jelly. He gets tired of eating sandwiches after a few weeks on the boat but if he isn’t going to cook then that’s what he has to eat and it’s food.  Saves more money than take out, more to spend on the boat.

He’s no cook and he also has no intention of cleaning up too much either. I am sure you know the drill about paper plates and plastic cups and plastic eating utensils. The only drawback to that is that it is ultimately more expensive than washing dishes and makes for a lot of garbage. Hubby often opted for a paper towel to make and eat his sandwiches on. They are good for makeshift placemats and napkins too. I am a definite believer in having a lot of paper towels on board. They also come in handy when fooling with the engine and getting greasy or getting into river muck on your bow lines or cleaning fish. You want to clean up as much as possible with the paper towels before using a lot of your limited fresh water for the final clean-up. This avoids putting too much gunk down your galley sink too and also avoids having terry towels to wash. Our boat won’t ever be equipped with laundry facilities so I will have to tote dirty and clean towels back and forth from laundering at home. I don’t want to do that any more than need be!

One thing I do is buy the more expensive small squeeze bottles of Mayonnaise, Ketchup, Mustard (even relish comes in a squeeze bottle). It was actually hubby’s idea that he would not have to wash utensils to apply the condiments. They save on space in the ice chest (and the fridge that we will be installing is only under counter height too, so space will be an issue).  They last a couple of weeks even with lots of sandwich use and when the initial product is gone I wash them and refill them at home from the full size containers of the condiments. There is nothing mysterious about the squeeze products; it is the same stuff, just in a squeeze bottle. Many products come in the cheaper store brand versions in squeeze bottles. The squeeze bottles are more expensive packaging that you pay extra for so you might as well get a few uses out of the bottle. Good tools to have are funnels and slender spatulas to transfer the products to the squeeze bottles without wasting or spilling too much. When you wash the bottles some have plastic labels that are fine to leave on and others have paper labels that may wash off. I usually soak the paper labels off completely and you can always tell what the product is anyway.

Other good stuff to have are cookies and crackers. Seal them up well in Ziploc storage bags. Even on the water ants find their way aboard and the humidity on the water makes them get stale quickly. I already have my galley well stocked with various sizes of Ziploc bags. They are handy for a lot of things.

Picles are good to have on hand. They can be stored without refrigeration if need be and are good for you.

I like multi-tasking foods. If you are going to keep milk for coffee in your fridge or ice chest, keep a box of cereal around too for breakfasts and midnight snacks. I like foods that pair with other things. You have bread, peanut butter and jelly so don’t forget you can use the jelly on toast too. Make camp toast over the propane burners for a thrill!

One thing I like is V8 juice in the individual 12-ounce cans. You can buy it in the store brand at Walmart too. When I was a kid Mom would occasionally serve a small juice glass of it with a meal as complete vegetable serving.  One can serves two. In the single cans it stores well and wastes less. It is easily consumed unchilled unlike many drinks. I find a can of V8 also gives you a nice little healthy energy rush when you are feeling drained. (And I am no health nut!) Better for you and at around 50 cents a can, much cheaper than an energy drink or sugary soda. Great to keep in stock with Vodka for Bloody Marys too. V8 can be used in a pinch as a substitute for tomato sauce for spaghetti and such too and it is delicious. Very versatile stuff.

One thing that didn’t work was hot dogs and chili. Hubby got tired of his sandwiches and one cold night he bought a can of chili when he was at the store. He tried heating the opened can in a sauce pan of boiling water to avoid washing the pan but found he couldn’t eat the whole can in one sitting. Then he had to store nad re-heat the rest.

I had packed hot dogs and buns for him but he also avoided cooking the hot dogs until he was desperately low on groceries. He even tried eating them cold but reported they were pretty awful that way. He then used a saucepan to boil a couple but the water still gets a little greasy and he has to wash the pan anyway. He also told me I needed some tongs to remove the dogs from the hot water. They are a little tricky to stab with a fork while floating. His intent is simply to wipe any little bit of greasiness off the tongs with a paper towel and be done with them.

One thing I am wondering about on this forum is if anyone has any good thoughts about how to stock my spices. I have a huge stock of them at home but only want and need the essentials onboard. Which might be the most useful to have and what is the best way to store them so they don’t get exposed to moisture and I don’t have a pile of spice bottles rolling all around? 

Stay tuned for my next Galley Rambling about appliances and cookware. Right now I have got to get off this computer and get some things done!

Ej , love your icon of the HB running the rapids! Looks like a thrill. Took me a second to figure out what I was seeing!