What's Annie Making?: Back to reality

How do I even follow up a series of amazing cake baking and decorating? I go back to normalcy. As normal as spring break is in unseasonably warm weather. Thank you weather gods for not making me feel so terrible about my lack of a tropical vacation.

Warm weather makes me a happy girl! Sun on my skin (with sunscreen of course), windows open, flowers blooming, long runs outside, and grilled food. Mmmmmmm. Too bad it's only spring break, and I have to go back to school in a few days. Oh well, I'll take my mini vacay any day.

This is NOT another boring house salad - promise!!!!

Towards the end of last summer I started to hear about this crazy thing called a "grilled salad". You grill lettuce, and eat it. What the what? Naturally, I was curious and decided the first grill out of the year would be an appropriate time to try this out. (Side note - I had extra lettuce to use in the crisper, if this experiment turned out horrible). Josh came home from work and was very skeptical, rightfully so. Normally I hate it when lettuce gets warm and soggy, like in leftover subs, or mexican food. Gag me. And I was about to do this on purpose? Yep!

To start I bought 3 heads of romaine lettuce and sliced them in half (leave the ends on)

Next I drizzled them with 1 t of olive oil and 1 t of lemon juice each.

Then I put them on the preheated grill, for 3 minutes.

I was scared to do this too close to the flames, but I would move them down a rack next time to get them more charred. The result is a crisp (yet slightly warm), smoky lettuce.

mmmm doesn't that look good

I chopped the romaine heads up and added a few cherry tomatoes and my new favorite caesar dressing. The simpleness of this salad really enhanced the smoky lettuce flavor. I loved it! This will definitely be a new regular side for nights we grill out. I think the flavor combinations are endless for the salad and dressings.