Spoiler alert: I overcooked the shit out of this fish.

I’m okay with that though. I went on an adventure. The only thing I knew was that I wasn’t in the mood to follow a recipe and my only requirements for the evening included salmon, oranges and wine-turned-sangria-because Granny Smith makes everything better.

I took two slices of orange and placed it on a sheet of aluminum foil. I gently placed my mysterious slab of salmon on top (let’s be real, this is Wisconsin here, where the hell is my fish from? Exactly, mystery). I then sprinkled some ginger, sage, thyme, pepper, orange zest and a teaspoon of soy sauce (I’d rather not ingest 1,000 milligrams of sodium in one bite if I don’t have to)–hence why I should’ve used three more because I couldn’t taste it. Oops.

I baked this for too long. Probably about 20 minutes. In the meantime I was sautéing some kale and attempting to toast garlic (only 3 out of the 8 tiny pieces were salvaged, my oven went HAM with the broil). My B.

Not everything was a total fail. Actually, nothing was an epic fail. The fish just overcooked a bit…I’m happy to say that the burnt orange was awesome. A simple task that looks way fancier than its prep. Two slices of orange thrown on the pan for about two minutes total and bam, a sexy, zesty beast with a lot of flavor.

Then there was sangria-ish. I didn’t get all fancy and add brandy, or an exotic fruit medley, or any sparkling beverage for that matter. Although I worked with some Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon, Granny Smith and a stick of cinnamon. I’m really into cinnamon sticks lately.

That’s all.