I love to cook and one of the things I looked for in a boat was a galley (kitchen) that was usable and easy to cook in. Our Amazon 37 definitely fit the bill with more counter space than our New York apartment (though with a much smaller stove and refrigerator!). The cooking area is efficient and it really is a joy to cook in (especially now that I have my stove). I have made some pretty fabulous meals and don’t feel that I am hindered in any way by my new cooking set-up!
In addition to my love of cooking I am an admitted cookbook junkie. I pared down to what I thought was the bare bones minimum before our big move. It was quite an eye-opener when we started unpacking the three boxes of my cookbooks from storage. What to do? I sorted through them. Nope, can’t get rid of any more; they are like old friends. (It didn’t help that AllesGirl was a volunteer at the library in the Commune town. She talked me into buying quite a few friendless books at the book sale.)
The books were unpacked and stacked throughout the boat. It was annoying to be constantly moving the sliding stacks and it didn’t help that this was all happening during No Stove time. I could make nothing baked, sautéed, braised or roasted…
Around the time of the stove purchase I found the perfect solution: remove the shelf in one of the salon cupboards and put my cookbooks in there! It was deep enough and tall enough for my fattiest book (Larousse Gastronomique, in case you’re interested).
Perfect! Let’s remove the shelf! Unfortunately when the new lines had been run to the water tanks during our refit they drilled holes through the shelf to accommodate the hoses. To remove the shelf we would have to cut it out. Which is what we did. And by We I mean my Better Half who used his new multi-tool.
As sad as I was to cut up an original teak-trimmed shelf, I couldn’t justify keeping it.
The fantasticalness that is the ability to have my cookbooks accessible and not sliding around is marvelous!
Little by little our boat is becoming our very comfortable home!
Sailing Devilfish 
My cookbooks and me have lived together on San Souci for 19 years now…unwanted books get sent to the cruising club bookshelf but not my beloved cookbooks. But! I have started buying new ones on my tablet. Heresy? Not sure but it sure gives me a lot more room for cooking implements 🙂
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Thanks for the comment! I, too, have been using my tablet for new cookbook purchases. It does save on space but there’s something lovely about the tactile sense of leafing through the pages of a book-y cookbook… I’m doing my best to add new books in tablet form but I’ve gotta stay away from the used book sales!
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My cookbooks and me have lived together on San Souci for 19 years now…unwanted books get sent to the cruising club bookshelf but not my beloved cookbooks. But! I have started buying new ones on my tablet. Heresy? Not sure but it sure gives me a lot more room for cooking implements 🙂
LikeLike
Thanks for the comment! I, too, have been using my tablet for new cookbook purchases. It does save on space but there’s something lovely about the tactile sense of leafing through the pages of a book-y cookbook… I’m doing my best to add new books in tablet form but I’ve gotta stay away from the used book sales!
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