Lucy was so great today that the man and I were able to rekindle an old tradition ~ cooking dinner together.

Yesterday, our neighbor gave us two fresh trout for dinner, but because I was exhausted, hurting and completely unmotivated to do anything, we didn’t end up eating it.

But fresh trout is sort of amazing, so we had a lot of fun ideas to try tonight.

The man is excellent at being creative in the kitchen.  Our final plan?  Citrus stuffed trout with potato pancakes.

And that is almost what we had!

First, we grated some potatoes and mixed them with grated cheese, bread crumbs, hickory smoked salt and parmesan cheese.

Next, I pressed some garlic cloves, and grated the rind of an orange. I mixed the garlic and the orange rind with some oatmeal (we were out of breadcrumbs!) and stuffed the fish, adding two thin slices of orange to the inside, plus layering orange on the outside.

We cooked the potatoes around 400 degrees on cookie sheets, checking them every so often, and flipping them ~ we discovered that they weren’t really sticking together like potato-cakes, so we just tried to make really yummy potato hash.

When the potatoes looked nearly done, we pulled them and bumped the heat to 425 for the fish.  We cooked the fish for a little under ten minutes, while prepping the dishes.

I have to say, the potatoes tasted amazing!

When the fish felt nearly done, we put the broiler on, and slid the fish on the top shelf to “crispen” up the skin.

In the end, I would say we were 80% happy with the results.  We felt as though we could have seasoned things more (we used some S & P on the potatoes and on the fish, but not nearly enough in the stuffing).

However, it was our first foray into baking fresh trout (I have previously only sautéed in butter), and when a bite came together … the orange, the garlic, the potato … it was a really good bite.

And it was a really good Monday night.  I hope Lucy continues to have great days, because cooking with the man again ~ so very nice.