Fish On!

For the Labor Day weekend, we decided to take a road trip up to Mt. Baldy village, which is a mere 10 miles up the road from the Claremont Wilderness Trail. It was such a beautiful day, and the mountain was surprisingly more green than I expected in our drought. We took my son to a trout pond (stocked with rainbows) to try his hand at fishing. He hasn't fished in a long time, so this was a compromise. We caught 3 total, with Aidan catching 2 himself and me the other one. One was huge, and one was a real fighter, as evidenced by this:

The trout farm is cool; you pay by the fish size, then they cut, clean, and pack them in ice for you.  It was great. We then stopped for lunch in the village before we came home. Later for dinner, I did baked trout with long grain & wild rice.  Baked them whole, then separated the fillets.

This was an entire trout, and I could only eat half of it.  It was huge, but very tasty. In the cavity, I sprinkled thyme, fresh garlic, onion powder, smoked paprika, lemon pepper, sea salt, butter, and a few slices of fresh lemon. In the pan below the grill rack, I added 1/2 c of white wine and a little water.

It was delicious and fell apart from the bones relatively easy.  Nothing like seafood when it's fresh!