What's that fishy smell? Salmon

We had salmon for lunch. I came in from a walk to the store, and thought Yikes, it still smells fishy in here, so I got out an air freshener and now it smells really strange. But that brought back a memory of our son Phil who died in April 2020. We had let him and a group of buddies use the cottage for a few days here at Lakeside. While we were driving back we called about an hour out and told him when we'd arrive, hoping to catch a few minutes with him. When we got to the cottage, the young men were gone. And there was a very odd but familiar perfumy smell in the house. And there were strange spots on the walls. It took me a while, but I figured out that Phil had put the guys in high gear to get everything cleaned up before we arrived, and although they knew our rule was no smoking in the house, they did. Someone had grabbed a can of furniture polish thinking it was air freshener. . . and thus the odd smell and drips on the walls. In the file folder of memories of Phil, not sure where to put that one.

Public service announcement: lots of air fresheners and room deodorizers (and probably scented candles) contain chemicals not good for our lungs, so I rarely use them. Also not good for your pets.

                                    Phil's selfie of his feet and Lake Erie

Eaten any sushi lately?

Wood print depicting a man passing a strobila of a broad tapeworm. The caption (not shown) said, "The man ate masu salmon. After a time, a strange object emerged from the anus and was pulled out: it turned out to be 2–3 m long." From Shinsen Yamaino Soushi, by Daizennosuke Koan (1850). Illustration at the CDC Emerging Infectious Diseases, "Diphyllobothriasis Associated with Eating Raw Pacific Salmon." Link And they do mean emerging.

". . . in the past several decades, regions with endemic diphyllobothriasis nihonkaiense have disappeared from Japan, yet the infection has been perpetuated among urban people who eat sushi and sashimi."

Sort of makes those farm raised salmon look a little better, don't ya think?

Dinner Menu

This was last night's, but was so yummy, I thought I'd post it in case I'm standing in front of the refrigerator some day at 4:30 wondering what to fix, and need to check my blog.

Oven baked, wild-caught salmon
Fresh greens, tossed salad
Freshly sliced cantaloupe
Peanut butter chocolate pie

The salmon was frozen from Trader Joe's (yes, of course, fresh would be better, but we live in Ohio, not Seattle). After it thawed (a bit--don't let it go all mushy on you), I set the oven for 375, sprayed a glass 8 x 8 dish, arranged the salmon in it, and put a light coating of mayonnaise on the salmon pieces, which I then sprinkled with some dried onion flakes, garlic salt, dill and parsley. Why not fresh herbs, you ask, but I never have those on hand.

While the salmon was baking (about 20 minutes) we had a small glass of wine and watched the evening (local) news. I don't like white wine, so we had Charles Shaw (3 buck chuck) Merlot, in my pretty 4 oz. stemmed glasses, which is just a perfect size for me. I get light-headed with 5 oz. I never drank wine before my heart surgery in 2002, but think it's probably much healthier than the chemicals in drugs. At least it's natural. In California this is called "two buck chuck;" in Ohio we pay import fees so it's $1.35 more per bottle. I can always tell the expensive stuff--doesn't taste nearly as good.

For the salad I used chopped red leaf lettuce for the base. Lettuce doesn't have much nutrition, so the darker the better--then grape tomatoes, shredded carrots, chopped organic mushrooms, fresh broccoli (and I use that term loosely, since I think it's been in the frig 2 weeks and God only knows when it was harvested and shipped) and sliced olives. The cantaloupe was cut just before I served it, but January isn't the best season for this fruit, so it wasn't like getting an Indiana cantaloupe in the summer.

Sounds really healthy. But ah, the dessert.

I used a purchased 8", chocolate crumb crust (Keebler), ready to use. The filling was made with 8 oz. low fat cream cheese, mixed with 1 cup of natural peanut butter (I use Krema), 1 cup of Splenda, 1 tsp. of vanilla, and about 4 oz. of sugar-free Cool Whip. It's stiff, so don't give up until thoroughly mixed. Put it carefully in the crust. Return to frig. When it set up a bit, I warmed up some sugar-free fudge topping, and made a design on the top of the filling. I serve that (very small pieces because it is terribly rich) with a dollup of the Cool Whip.

We both told me it was a great dinner. My husband always does, but I'm a bit pickier.