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She calls the resulting timidity "pescaphobia" -- fear of fish. "I was as much a victim of it as anybody else. And that's why this book was the most fun of any book that I've done. It was a great adventure. I learned so much about seafood. And I discovered how fast and how easy it was to prepare most seafood dishes."

Ms. [Jane Brody] also notes: "Fish comes out very well when it's cooked in the microwave. Almost everyone's got one nowadays, and they heat their coffee or leftovers, but they rarely cook in it. . . . I was one of those people who rarely cooked in the microwave. And when I started trying to do some seafood in it, I was astonished with the result because it comes out so moist. You don't even have to mess up a pot. You can cook it on the plate you eat it on."

While the shells heat, add the remaining 2 teaspoons of canola oil to the skillet. Heat the skillet, ad the onion and the red bell pepper, and saute the vegetables for 2 minutes or until they are soft. Add the corn and the beans, and cook the mixture just long enough to heat it through. Remove the skillet from the heat and add the cooked scallops to the vegetable mixture, tossing the ingredients to combine them well.