Now that's just NUTS!

I've been a grilling fiend lately, now that I have a new gas grill. It's one of those purchases that you realize you should have made years ago, once you bring it home. I've been grilling practically every meal for the past week, besides breakfast.

Yesterday I made a grilled pork loin from a cookbook of Bobby Flay. I decided I wanted a salad, and an episode of Everyday Italian on Food Network came to mind. Giada De Laurentis popped her salad on the grill, lettuce and all. I figured I'd give it a whirl, with a little variation.

Her recipe calls for using endive, raddichio, and romaine lettuce. I only had some romaine-type lettuce, so I decided to grill up a red onion, and then some kabobs of green pepper and cherry tomatoes to go in the salad. I oiled and seasoned with salt and pepper all of those, and started with the red onion, since that was going to take the longest to cook. Once the veggies were done, I oiled and seasoned the lettuce, and placed it on the grill, still completely whole. It doesn't take too long before the lettuce will start to wilt, so after flipping it a couple of times, and seeing that there were some nice char marks on the lettuce, I pulled it off--maybe 30 seconds later than I will next time.

I went inside, chopped everything up, mixed it in a bowl with a little more olive oil and balsamic vinegar and gave it a try.

One word: amazing! I think you can grill just about anything, and it's going to taste better. Give it a try sometime, no matter how nutty it sounds. It's really tasty! I just wish I had a chunk of parm in the fridge, so I could shave off some nice big chunks to add. Next time!