A Few Favorite, Practical and Inexpensive Things Aboard TTR

**Our blog is not monetized. We do not have affiliations with any of these products and are not paid for any links or mentions.**

There are four items on Ticket to Ride that I am really happy to have on board and although they are mundane, they make my life easier and I think they are worth sharing.

My first item to share with you is an egg cooker. 

Regardless of where we travel, eggs are available and they are an excellent, inexpensive source of protein.  We eat them pretty often and we add hard boiled eggs to chicken salad and tuna salad.  And of course we need eggs for baking brownies and other delicious desserts!

Most people haven’t seen an egg cooker and they think this is a silly gadget, but I love mine. This little egg cooker was inexpensive and can make hard boiled, poached or scrambled eggs.  I only use mine for cooking hard boiled eggs and it makes them perfectly every time.  While this gadget does use electricity, it uses very little water and it doesn’t use any propane.

Dash has a new double layer egg cooker if you want to cook more eggs at once.

To use the egg cooker, you put the indicated amount of water in the bottom of the cooker, make a pin hole in the fat end of the egg using the poker on the bottom of the water measurer, close the cooker, push the start button and walk away. About 15 minutes later you have perfectly cooked hard boiled eggs – every time. Voila!

My egg cooker by Dash cost $15 from Amazon in 2016 and was worth every penny to me. Today the same egg cooker is $19.99.  

Laundry is a reality of land and boat life. I see many on-line conversations about how to wash clothing on a boat but nobody talks about clothes pins for hanging clothes to dry.

For many years on our last boat, Let It Be, we hand washed our clothing.  On Ticket to Ride, we are very fortunate to have a washer/dryer combination unit. However, since the dryer uses a lot of electricity and takes a long time, we usually hang dry our clothing. Twisty Pegs are my favorite type of clothes pin.

Twenty twisty pegs cost $10.

I like Twisty Pegs for several reasons:

1. They are flat, easy to store and don’t take much room.
2. There is no metal soI don’t get rust stains on our clothing.
3. No moving parts so they don’t break.
4. They last a long time – my originals are 5 years old.
5. I like the happy colors.

We have lost a couple of twisty pegs overboard, so I recently ordered more from Defender.  Here is a link if you are interested:

https://www.defender.com/search.html?q=twisty+pegs&x=37&y=15

ICE is a luxury on a boat and we have made it a priority since we began cruising in 2015. Perusing Amazon, I found silicone ice trays that have been perfect for us.  These ice trays can make really large cubes which we refer to as “icebergs.”

Icebergs coming right up!

The nice thing about these trays is that I can make really large cubes or only partially fill the trays for smaller cubes.  We have a dorm-like refrig/freezer in our cockpit and the upper freezer shelf holds three silicone trays which make plenty of ice for us every day.

One observation about the silicone trays: when we use RO water from our water maker, the cubes are very easy to clear from the tray. However when we use dock water, the cubes are much harder to remove. I think this has to do with the chlorine in the dock water, but I am not certain.

I like these trays so much that I have a spare package of them on TTR, but the ones we have are still in perfect shape after 5 years of use.  Here is the link on Amazon.

Moving to the expensive category.

Finally, cookware. Now this one, I have to admit is a luxury item because of the expense, weight and space usage of these pots and pans. For years I used the nesting cookware with removable handles that is so popular on boats. Frank was not a fan and I was lukewarm about those pots and pans.

Two years ago, at the Annapolis Boat Show, we watched a cooking demonstration by Allen Cerasani of ScaleDown Cookware. I was pretty skeptical about the product because I realize I am a sucker for demonstrations and the product is definitely expensive.  (Website is being rebuilt, but you can reach Allen at scaledownnow@aol.com or by phone at 518-587-6130)

I love our pots and pans.

Long story short, we ended up buying some of these pots and pans and they are fabulous! I have used them for two years and they are holding up very well. They are truly non stick and clean up is absolutely simple. The handles are oven safe up to 500 degrees so they can be used for nearly any oven cooking.

Using the small pan, I can cook an omelette without using any oil and it folds and slides right out of the pan.  I have had two friends order the cookware after using mine while on board TTR.  Also, do you remember Connor, our stellar crew member? Well he loved these pans and made himself an omelette nearly every day! In fact when he left the boat I double checked to make sure he didn’t take the small pan with him! (I know you wouldn’t, Connor!)

Recently a neighboring boat wanted to make pancakes and borrowed my large skillet. I laughingly told her I would let her borrow it if she promised to give it back. When she returned the pan she said, “I didn’t really get it when you made me promise to return the pan if I borrowed it. But now that I have used it, I know why you said that!”  She wants the name of the pans now too.

If you buy the whole set of pans, you will need more galley room than normal because they are not space saving, nesting pans. Also, these pans are heavy, so they won’t work if you like lightweight pans.  If you don’t have room for the whole set, you might decide to buy just one pot or pan in the size you use most often.

I found a demonstration by Allen on YouTube,  if you want to see the demo.  FYI, I will definitely keep these pans if we ever move back to land!

There are certainly other, more essential items on Ticket to Ride, but I was stupidly happy about receiving my Twisty Pegs yesterday and it made me think about practical items that “bring me joy” and make life afloat easier. Perhaps they are of interest to you.

Do you have any favorite items I should know about?

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**Again, this blog is not monetized and I do not receive anything for mentioning these products.