Food. #2

Al's grilled salmon:
-fresh salmon fillet
-kosher sea salt
-ground black pepper
-olive oil
-pre-made marinade of your choice

Cut fillets into single portions; make sure to remove the light scales that result. Oil a dinner plate (or equivalent) and add seasonings to taste, onto oil. Place salmon fillets flesh side down to coat them generously; they'll be going on the grill so being liberal here will go a long way. Flip and repeat on the skin side. Keeping the skin is necessary to cook salmon directly on the grill grates, however if you'd like to remove the skin or make the fillets easier to remove once done, you feel free to cook fish on top of oiled foil. For those of you looking for more flavor, oil the grill grates and after getting your grill temp to about 350*, place your fish on top of the grates skin side down. Cooking time will vary depending on the thickness of the fillets, but for these pictured cuts from a ~2.2lb fillet the total cooking time was about 25 minutes. Shuffle fish on the grill only to even heat distribution (if your lower-end grill has hot spots like mine), but cook on the skin side only. You'll know the fillet is cooked when you see juice bubbles appear on top and clean flaking is present. Brush on marinade a few times during the last 5 minutes for added flavor. If you have the time you can soak the fish in marinade for 6-10 hours prior to cooking and skip that last step. The result should be tender and succulent.

Beth's string beans:
-fresh string beans
-clove or two of garlic
-red onion
-white onion
-olive oil
-kosher sea salt
-ground black pepper

Prep the aromatics, chopping onions into 1/8ths and dicing your cloves of garlic. Chop the ends off the string beans, then wash them thoroughly. Get an appropriately sized pot for your string beans (I believe what you see is about one pound) and bring water to a boil. Season water lightly and add string beans. Beth cooks her beans al dente, so there's still some bite to them; once beans reach your desired firmness (eat one), pour into a strainer to cool and empty the pot. Put the pot back on the stove and liberally pour olive oil into it, reducing heat to about medium. Introduce your onions and garlic, seasoning them with salt, black pepper and your garlic as you sweat them. Once the onions become slightly translucent, reintroduce your string beans to the oniony goodness now melding flavor in the pot. At this point you're pretty much done; stir to mix seasonings and coat the string beans completely with the resulting broth. That's it.



When you take these two dishes and add the red potatoes from Food. #1, you get a plate that looks like this:

Beth and I ended up making a low sodium version of the string beans and bbq chicken for a pre-Father's Day lunch at my parents house this past Saturday. They both seriously watch what they eat, the two of them averaging ~70 years of age, and they enjoyed the meal thoroughly. Healthy and tasty...what a novel idea.