I love the element of unknown in summer.
You never know what’s going to happen – a walk around the neighbor hood turns into a pool side BBQ with neighbors. A drive to the ocean turns into Lobster Rolls for dinner. A birthday party outside turns into an all day al fresco affair (happened last weekend). All because the weather is just. so. gorgeous.
And a Monday night turns into a grill night, and the ingredients I had for a Ceasar Salad were like, hey can we hang out on that grill?
Why yes, yes you can.
And then a slice of Ciabatta becomes a fluffy, golden, smoky pillow of goodness.
And a head of Romaine becomes a combination of everything I love about Kale chips, bok choy, and grilled veggies. With cheese on top.
The first step: slice your ingredients and coat with Olive Oil.
Sprinkle the Romaine with salt (this is a super important step – every bite is so yummy with its salty, buttery goodness).
Then lay them on the grill. Use medium-high heat, and the bread gets 2-3 minutes per side, the Romaine you watch for when the edges just start to curl up black, then flip it to the other side.
Meanwhile, I used a store bought Ceasar dressing, but because everything was coated in oil for the grill I wanted to lighten it up. I read a recipe for grilling Romaine (without the end goal of making it a Ceasar salad) and it said to sprinkle Parm or Manchego on it right off the grill, and sprinkle lemon juice over it. I really think this alone would be delicious, but how fitting then to turn it into a Ceasar salad? So I grated fresh Parm and poured this dressing on it – a mixture of 5 Tablespoons of this Ceasar dressing with juice from half a lemon and a splash of milk to thin it out.
It was perfect, and the lemon and salt on the Romaine combined made this dish. Then I cubed the lovely Ciabatta slices…
And sprinkled them on top. Heaven.
I can’t even believe how good this was. You will THANK ME in spades after you try this super easy, super yummy soon-to-be-summer staple. It is so easy to feed a crowd too, and you could also make a ton of appetizers with it by slicing the cheese, chicken and Romaine and putting it on top of the Ciabatta slices (that may have been what I ate for lunch the next day.)
And speaking of venturing into the unknown, I have big news (NO I AM NOT PREGNANT). I was riffling through my mail the other day and found this letter:
I have an agent!! (Ok, almost. Some technical signing still has to happen but I have an agent who wants to represent the book after reading the whole thing!) So if anyone reading this happens to have a publishing company, give him a call. Thanks!
Happy grilling everyone!
xoxo Katie
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