We were packing up our table at a healing and psychic fair when a couple, Jane and Charles, stopped by. I pulled out information to share with them and that was the beginning of an enjoyable and interesting conversation, which wound up with us talking about bagels, lox, and cream cheese. As those of you who have been reading this blog for a while know, lox and cream cheese, especially TempTee cream cheese holds a place near and dear to my heart. Charles and I were talking about how hard it was to find good lox in Rochester and how it inspired me to learn how to make it. “How do you smoke it?’ he asked. “ I don’t, I brine it for three days.” I replied. “Oh, so you’re a loxsmith,” he responded and the seed was planted as I found myself staring at these beautiful wild Alaskan salmon fillets at the store the other day, but knowing this was not the week where I would have the time to pull out all those pin bones. I could have also gone with the farm-raised salmon, which tend not to have the pin bones, but some things are worth paying a little bit more for. Even paying more for the wild salmon is still considerably less then what I would pay for the pre-packaged lox, so I would be saving money and giving myself a special treat to enjoy for the week to come.