Christmas Dinner on a Boat

2020 was certainly a year of firsts (and hopefully lasts too). Including just the two of us spending the December holidays together (thank-you COVID-19). This meant cooking Christmas dinner on a boat.

For some reason, I was craving a traditional Christmas dinner but really didn’t want tons of leftovers. We don’t have the fridge or freezer space for days worth of leftovers no matter how tasty they are.

So in the end, I chose to make pan-seared duck with all the Christmas trimmings made to scale for two people on a boat. And oh my gosh, it was a very tasty dinner. So much so, I wished we had leftovers!

Making Christmas Dinner on a boat

Starting a day early

I started on Christmas Eve by prepping the “stuffing” and cranberry sauce. Both are traditional recipes for us: I use the my mom’s stuffing recipe and a port cranberry sauce recipe we created years ago. For the first time, I made my own bread for the stuffing.

Christmas Day

With no turkey to cook, there was no early morning wake-up call to prep the bird. Instead, we had a leisurely morning hanging out on the boat.

In the afternoon, I started our Christmas dessert – Gingerbread Pudding Cake – in the slow cooker.

Then after a group video call with handsome hubby’s family, it was time for the main event.

I popped Brussels sprouts and carrots in the oven to roast, peeled potatoes to cook in the Instant Pot, started heating the cranberry sauce on the stove and added the stuffing with the veggies to heat.

And then, it was time to cook the duck breasts. Doing something for the first time on Christmas Day may not be the smartest plan but whatever. I found a recipe with really easy steps and sounded exactly like what I wanted. And it was so easy and so good!!

Somehow everything came together at the same time (the most stressful part of cooking for me). Also very grateful our boat is a galley down style – it was nice to enjoy our dinner together without looking at the absolute disaster in the galley.