Grilled Halibut, Sauteed Green Beans, Rice

Dinner: Grilled Halibut with Garlic and Sage, Sauteed Green Beans in Garlic with Toasted Pine Nuts, Lemon Rice, Pinot Grigio

Our second night in a row of eating together as a family! (Duh, it's the weekend, Carol) Since Declan has been getting tired early, we planned an "early" dinner - 6pm - definitely early for this family. Javier gets most of the credit for tonight's dinner (I did the beans). We chose grilled fish because I've been trying to avoid red meat two nights in a row, and I try to do fish dinners on the nights that I make it to the grocery store since it's fresh. I bought 1.1 lbs of the halibut fillet, probably could have done slightly smaller, but not by much.

Javier put a little bit of lemon and olive oil on the fish, and then salt, pepper, fresh garlic and sage from our herb pot. (Picture of it "marinating" is above.) While the fish was sitting, he sauteed 1 cup of white rice in a little bit of olive oil, added lemon zest and garlic, and then added two cups of hot water from the microwave. He lets the water cook down until it's about the same level as the rice and then covers it, lowers the heat, and lets it simmer for 12 minutes. Then he takes it off the heat and leaves it covered until it's time for us to eat.

To cook the fish, Javier pre-heated the grill so one side was set to medium, one side on low, and had a temperature of 350-400 degrees F. He put the fish on the low-heat side of the grill, skin side down, and let the fish (about 2" at it's thickest) cook for about 20 minutes. When I asked him how he knew the fish was ready or wasn't ready, he said he touched it and it just felt "cooked". This is no help to me, but he says it's practice. He does say it feels firmer. I'm sorry I cna't be any more help than that.

The green beans were easy easy easy. I toasted the pine nuts in a dry pan over medium heat. I got distracted while they were toasting, so I over toasted one side, but they weren't burned. Lesson: pine nuts toast quickly and next time I won't wander away. Then I put the green beans (ends trimmed off) in a bowl with a little bit of water, microwaved them for 45 second to get a pre-cook. I heated up a teeny bit of olive oil over med-low heat, added chopped garlic, and then added the beans. I didn't cook them too long since Jav and I like the beans on the crisp/crunchy side, but I did leave about 10 beans to cook longer and get soft for the boys.

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