Holy guacamole … seems to be exactly what I am looking for … hard to find, but for the next person along the same path … here is a direct to the doc on it 
(fyi - the forum strips the #candid-serialization … search for “Candid Serialization” in this page … )
Muchas gracias @icme (a.k.a. Canscale) … and again thanks to @jzxchiang @timo 
going to try it right now …