2 cloves garlic, minced
19 ounces canned cannellini beans
1 small cucumber, seeded and chopped
1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1-1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
coarse salt and fresh black pepper

1. Crush garlic with enough salt to form a smooth paste in a mortar with pestle.
2. Add lemon juice and season with pepper, then slowly whisk in the oil.
3. Combine the remaining ingredients and coat with the dressing.
4. Refrigerate. Serve on a lettuce lined platter.

Makes 4 servings

4 six ounce fish steaks or fillets
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and pepper

1. Grease the grill with non-stick spray then preheat on highest setting until very hot.
2. Season olive oil with garlic powder, salt and pepper and coat fish well.
3. Place flesh side of fish on the grill and allow it to sear for 3-4 minutes.
4. Gently lift it up with a 2 pronged fork and turn over. Continue cooking until flesh is opaque.

Makes 4 servings

Along with the Moose Steaks from Last Night, my mom also brought a large anonymous fresh frozen fish. After eating it I'm still not quite sure what it was. Sturgeon? Steelhead trout? Perch? It's all the same to me. I am quite happy about this fish because it's the first time I've made Grilled Fish without it falling apart or otherwise disassembling itself and burning to death.

I am disappointed in this fish because it had a distinctive lake water taste that was exceptionally unappealing. Also, I cut it into steaks myself and I don't really have knives sharp enough to do so without butchering the meat. Shannon said half of hers was delicious and the other half had a fishy taste to it. Strangely enough, I'm thinking that if I had overcooked it and dried it out more it would have been more palatable. I microwaved it for several minutes in an attempt to do this, but it doesn't seem to have the same drying out effect that a barbecue does.

I made a quick White Bean Cucumber Salad, which would've been fine; it's a simple recipe, but I goofed. See, in the process of making the garlic and coarse salt into a paste, I found it necessary to indiscriminately continue adding salt to make more paste, regardless of how salty salt happens to be. So my first bite involved a lot of wincing and lip puckering, my second bite involved some cursing and the third bite landed the whole plate in the garbage. This shouldn't turn you off of the recipe itself, which would be fine if it weren't so salty, since it's just a simple lemon and olive oil dressing. This would be great on its own with some grape tomatoes and chunked tuna added in. I also had some of the Woodland Wild Rice from last night because I made so much of it and fish and rice are ingrained in my head as a perfect combination from low-fat advertising.