Junior kept asking me if I wanted my Christmas gift early. I kept telling him no, Christmas would be fine. We’d already got his, and I thought he wanted to make it even.

Turns out, it was big and he didn’t want to wrap it. So when we stopped by his folks’  house, he made me cover my eyes and dragged it down the hall.  It was an electric smoker, the exact model I’d oogled at Bass Pro Shops a couple of weeks before. Good thing too, as he’d already bought it when we went there. I’ve wanted a smoker for a long time, one that’s easier to use than the vertical charcoal models. He has one of those, but we’ve had the damnedest time keeping the temperature steady in that one.

Besides the smoker, his dad had a gift for me of a bag of trout fillets that he’d caught for me. It was the perfect gift, really.  A bag of fish may not suit everyone, but it suits me just fine.

Last night, I marinated the fish and this morning, we seasoned the smoker. Just before lunchtime, I set the fish on the grates and Junior set the timer. I put the wood chips in and set a bowl of some more out there with it, although I never needed the extras.

Three hours later, it smelled delicious and the fish was smokey-brown. I pulled them out and sealed the extras up to freeze for later. Five bags of smoked trout are too much for one sitting.

Since Junior was gone to work, I had myself a light supper of smoked trout and cream cheese on crackers. Delicious!

Now I’m all jazzed up about smoking everything that will hold still for it. Ribs, brisket, jerky, tri tip. The dogs better keep out of the way too; if they hold still, they’d be delicious too.