candide and 101 ways to eat salmon

The only New Year's Resolution I made (because monthly resolutions are far better for my brain) was to eat salmon twice a month. But then Husband proved to me that we already eat salmon twice a month, so I am trying to have it weekly now. Which means I will need some new salmon recipes. Last week, we had smoked salmon sandwiches, and this week I used my salmon treaty as an excuse to buy:

Which I have long been eyeing on the spice shelves.

Also on my to-do list is/was Voltaire's Candide. Which leads me to ask,

Have you ever heard of the Pit of Despair?
Probably so.
BUT, have you ever hear of the Faux Pit of Despair?
Maybe not but no doubt you've been there before.



Doesn't that look like layers of the Earth? Geology is not my thing. It reminds me more of sand art at the Fair. Which gives me the idea of a bottled salmon rub as a Christmas gift, with the spices in pretty layers... hmmm. And call it The Salmon Rub of the Earth...

I might have had too much coffee today.

This is:

1 t Thyme

1 T Brown Sugar

1 T Smoked Paprika

1 t Orange Peel

1 2 Saigon Cinnamon
1/2 t Sea Salt

Let the salmon (about 1.5 to 2 lbs) marinate in:

1/4 cup fresh Orange Juice
2 T Olive Oil
1 t Thyme

for at least 30 minutes. And don't forget to rub on the spices on the top.

Now, back to Candide and the Faux Pit of Despair.

The Faux Pit of Despair is when a book suctions you into a deep state of melancholy, of which you are consciously unaware.

Symptoms include:

-not feeling quite like one's self

-failing to find fulfillment in daily tasks

-feeling and acting angry in general

-thinking, delusions give humanity hope

-seeing the world as a mass state of hopeless chaos, especially the surface areas and drawers in one's home

You will not realize you've had these symptoms until several weeks later, after Husband or another trusted companion has confiscated Candide and not allowed you to finish reading it until your brain re-organizes itself. You will gradually begin to come back to your senses.

Only a handful of books have done this to me before, but I feel I should know the signs by now. Some of the worst were:

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky

A Woman's Life by Maupassant

Your salmon will look like this if you marinate for only 30 minutes.

It will look like this if you allow it several hours.

And it will look like this after you cook it on 400 for about 15-20 minutes.

We had ours with a fresh spinach, poppy seed dressing, and blueberry salad.

More on Candide once Husband tells me where it is... I at least have to read the last chapter. And reading the last chapter, in my opinion, always means you have to go back and re-read the first. Because the first and the last are directly related and help to enlighten one another once the whole has been read. It's a cyclical system, reading is.