Payback is a... Halibut?

Usually, payback is a bad thing, commonly referred to as a B and not in the endearing (I hope?) way my friends refer to me.

In this case, however, my payback for giving John a flight to Alaska for 10 days to visit Drue is an endless supply of the freshest, most delectable smoked salmon!  In just over a week, the man caught over 100 lbs of halibut and salmon, which means that annoying, top-loading extra freezer in our kitchen is finally full of something I can't wait to thaw!

Look at my impressive husband-to-be! (if you're impressed by this sort of thing, which I guess I am, even though I have no idea how they got a stick through 6 salmon or whose idea it was to put a stick through the gills of these fish)

We've been eating smoked salmon with nearly every weekend bagel, savoring the texture and barely-there fishiness I've never experience with store-bought lox.  The halibut—impressively thick steaks so fresh it's nearly impossible to overcook them to dryness—have provided endless opportunities for new recipes.  We've made baked halibut with blue cheese cream sauce (a John concoction), grilled halibut with chipotle lime butter (low-calorie Ellen option), lemon and red onion pan-seared halibut, even white wine and mushroom halibut with fingerling potatoes!  I can't get enough of it.

Payback is awesome.  Where will I send John next?!