Chessa and I were invited to do a cooking class for some friends (Dana Fallentine and Britney Gharring) down in San Diego focusing on brunch items. I love smoked salmon and we had just done these Thomas Keller Yukon Gold Blinis and I thought that they would go perfect together. I wanted a little action on the plate so we placed the blini over a sprinkling of chopped egg white, egg yolk, capers and shallots. I also ran a line of parsley oil across the plate for a little bright green color on the plate. (Ideally this would have been dill oil, but I had parsley oil on hand and decided that it would work just fine). Most women that I know (including Chessa) aren't big fans of smoked salmon, but I love it. I think that this would make a perfect breakfast on Sunday morning.

Yukon Gold Blini (Thomas Keller Recipe)
1 pound Yukon Gold Potatoes
2 Tbs all-purpose flour
2-3 tablespoons crème fraiche, at room temperature
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
Kosher salt

Place potatoes in a saucepan with cold water to cover by at least 2 inches. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce the heat and simmer until the potatoes are thoroughly cooked and tender.

Peel the warm potatoes and then press through a potato ricer. Pass them through a fine mesh sieve. Immediately weight out 9 ozs of the pureed potatoes and place them in a medium metal bowl. Working quickly, whisk the flour into the warm potatoes, then whisk in the 2 tablespoons crème fraiche. Add 1 egg, whisking until the batter is smooth, add the second egg, and then add the yolk.

Hold the whisk with some of the batter over the bowl. The batter should fall in a thick stream but hold its shape when it hits the batter in the bowl. If it is too thick, add a little more crème fraiche. Season to taste with salt.

Heat a griddle over medium heat. Spoon between 1 and ½ teaspoons of batter onto the griddle and cook until the bottoms are browned, 1 to 2 minutes. Then flip them can cook the second side for about a minute. The blini should be evenly browned with a small ring of white around the edges. Transfer the blini to a small banking sheet and keep warm while you make the remaining blini, wiping the griddle with a paper towel between batches.

To Complete
Hard boil two fresh eggs by placing eggs in medium sauce pan covered by 2 inches of cold water over medium-high heat. As soon as the water is at a simmer, turn the burners off and let the eggs sit for 10 minutes. This will gently cook the eggs and make for perfect yellow yolks. When done, place eggs under cool running water to peel. cut the eggs in half and separate the egg whites from the yolks. Chop each separately.

Sprinkle a line of chopped egg whites in the center of a large plate. Top with a sprinkling of egg yolks, then chopped capers and finely diced shallots. Top with two warm blini and 2-3 ozs of sliced Alaskan Smoked Salmon. Mix a few table spoons of creme fraiche with about two table spoons of finely chopped dill. Place 1/2 tsp of the dill creme fraiche on the smoked salmon and top with a sprig of dill and you're done.... These potato pancakes go great with the salmon. They're very good on their own as well...

Friends Christmas Dinner - 2008

Every Christmas season, Chessa and I like to have one big dinner party. We normally don't go any higher than 14 total people because that's all the pot de creme pots that I have and all of our dinners finish with pot de creme (a favorite dessert of ours). This year, we got a bit aggressive and had 20 people for dinner. We had to sit everyone in three rooms and we hired Finley to stand at the sink and wash dishes all night so that we could quickly turn out each course. It was fun. We really enjoyed trying to painfully stuff everyone.

I normally like to try to get people to try something that they haven't had before. One year, we did truffle infused custards with shaved black truffles and chive chips. Another year, we had sauted baby octopus... But we kept it fairly calm this time around. The menu went as follows:

Black sesame cornets filled with smoked salmon tartare and whipped dill cream cheese or tomato tartare with shallots, basil and creme fraiche

Yukon gold blinis with eggplant caviar and sweet roasted red and yellow peppers

Spicy Artichoke Soup with handmade artichoke ravioli and Croatian cold pressed olive oil (I bought this oil from an old lady selling it from her cart in the heart of Dubrovnik. She pressed the oil herself at her family's mill). It was dang good.

Kalmata Olive and Rosemary Bread

Roasted Kabocha (Japanese Pumpkin) Ravioli with butter glazed brussels sprouts with brown butter, sage and amaretti crumbs.

Cara Cara Orange Rolls (Chessa made these dessert-like rolls... They are awesome!)

Tilapia cakes (supposed to be cod cakes... but no one can tell) with sauteed tilapia, clam chowder vegetables and parsely oil

Pomegranate Sorbet with a Kiwi Jus (Brittney Gharring made this... went great with the sorbet)

Beef Tenderloin with Caramelized French Shallots on Crimini Mushrooms and Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Fresh Micro Greens (my new favorite find at Trader Joes)

Triple-Cream French Cows Milk Cheese "Le Delice de Bourgogne" with fresh Orange Blossom Honeycomb, Turkish Figs, Blackberries and Red D'Anjou Pears

Passion Fruit Pot de Creme

Petite Meyer Lemon Chesse Cakes with Fresh Blueberries

It was fun plating up all these dishes. Chessa and Brittney Gharring were a big help in the kitchen (We acutally like to involve everyone platting these courses up). Brittney took these amazing pictures. It was fun, we only wish we could have invited more people. Our house isn't big enough and I need to buy more dishes....

I'll post the recipes as soon as I figure out how to post them on a different page.

Here are some of the pictutres. The rest of the images can be viewed here.

Chelsea Gharring preparing the sesame cornets with salmon tartare and tomatoe tartare

The "cones" ready to go in a jalapeno roaster (I bought this piece just for these cornets)....

Weighing out the potato puree for the blinis

Blini batter (these are the smoothest potato pancakes that you've ever tasted)

Yukon Gold Blini with Eggplant Caviar and Sweet Roasted Peppers

Spicy Artichoke Soup with Artichoke Ravioli

Finley and Maddyn helping make the pasta dough

Maddyn "painting" the pasta dough with water to seal the ravioli


Brussels Sprouts poaching in water and butter

My daughter Maddyn loves helping me make these Pumpkin Ravioli. The sweetness of the pumpkin goes perfectly with the slightly bitter taste of the brussels sprouts

Cara Cara Orange Glaze

Chessa's Cara Cara Orange Rolls. (our favorite orange)

Parsley Oil filtering through cheese cloth
Jon Billings being a bit "creative" with the parsely oil...

It's tough with only four burners... We need a bigger stove.

Sauteed Tilapia with Tilapia Cakes, Chowder Vegetables and Parsley Oil

Pomegranate Sorbet with Kiwi Jus


Sauteing the Shallots

Beef Tenderloin with caramelized shallots and roasted garlic mashed potatoes

The "fromage" course... I was excited to find the honey comb from the farmers market. The figs were cool too.

Passion Fruit Pot de Creme. We need to find more of these lidded pots.

Chessa's petite Meyer Lemon Cheese Cake. Perfect bite size dessert.

My cheat sheet... I love getting to the end of the menu!

Look at all of the beautiful women that I got to cook for....

Eggnog French Toast with Vanilla Bean Pastry Cream, and Fresh Blueberries

Chessa and I are doing a cooking class for some friends down in San Diego in a couple of weeks and we wanted to try some Christmas brunch type items. I thought that eggnog french toast would be fun but then wanted to plate it up as a napolean with vanilla bean pastry cream and berries. We used blueberries and blueberry syrup. With a brunch there are normally several different menu options, so I wanted to keep this dish small. I used a round pastry cutter and kept the toast slices to about 2.5" wide.... I used three toast slices and piped a ring of pastry cream and filled the center with blueberries for each slice. I topped the napolean with more blueberries, blueberry syprup and then dusted with powdered sugar. All of my kids loved this one.

Eggnog French Toast
1 egg
1 cup eggnog
1/4 teaspoon cinnamin
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Beat egg and add eggnog, cinnamin and nutmeg. Place batter in a shallow dish and soak bread for about 10 seconds each side. Cook on a non-stick griddle until golden.

Pastry Cream
1.5 cups half and half
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
1/2 vanilla bean
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons Flour

Split vanilla bean and scrape seeds into half and half. Bring half and half to simmer in heavy medium saucepan. Whisk sugar, eggs, egg yolk and flour in medium bowl to blend. Gradually whisk in hot half and half. Transfer to saucepan. Whisk over medium heat until mixture thickens and comes to boil, about 5 minutes. Boil 1 minute. Pour into medium bowl. Stir in vanilla. Press plastic onto surface of pastry cream. Cover; chill until cold, about 4 hours. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep chilled.)

Fin liked it and thought that we should have french toast like this every day for breakfast

Pasta Shells with Broccoli and Anchovies

A quick pasta dish that is really easy to put together. You can knock this one out in about 15 minutes and if you don't tell anyone that it has anchovies, they won't even notice it.... The sauce is just olive oil and a little butter...

2 large heads of broccoli
2 cloves of garlic (chopped)
4 anchovy fillets
1 jalapeno (seeded) finely diced
2-3 ozs of butter
1 lb of dried pasta shells
handful of grated parmesan

Trim the broccoli into florets and chop the stems into match sticks. In a saute pan, add a little olive oil and the butter. When the oil is shimmering saute the garlic, japapeno and broccoli stems. Cover with a lid and cook slowly for 8-10 minutes while you cook the pasta in salted boiling water. Add the broccoli florets to the water when the pasta is about 4-5 minutes from being done. This will leave the broccoli soft enough to eat and will maintain the color and texture.

Drain the pasta reserving some of the pasta liquid. Add pasta back to the pan that it was cooked in, season with salt and fresh ground pepper to taste and add the rest of the butter and a handful of the paremsan cheese. Add the sauted stems, garlic, anchovies and chilis and then finish with some good olive oil and you're done. Quick and easy....

Rosemary and Olive Oil Cake

(w/meyer lemon jus)

It's tough not to love rosemary. We have three big rosemary bushes on our side yard that we are trying to turn into a hedge. The kids love being sent out with a pair of scissors to go cut off 3-4 tender rosemary sprigs for dinner. We love rosemary with pork, chicken, fish.... just about anything. I saw a picture of a rosemary and olive oil cake and had to try it. Chessa thought that a lemon sauce would go well with it and she was dead on. We had a couple of meyer lemons laying around and she whipped up this great little sugary jus. The sour/sweet was perfect with the cake. The kids actually thought that this was a tasty little dessert. Who would have known?

Ingredients
4 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 325 F. Spray a 10-inch loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.

Using the whip attachment, beat the eggs in a mixer for 30 seconds. Add the sugar and continue to beat until the mixture is very foamy and pale in color. With the mixer running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil. Using a spatula, gently fold the rosemary into the batter.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer on low speed, gradually add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes.

The cake is done when it is golden brown, springs back when touched, and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool briefly in the pan, then tip out onto a cake rack to continue cooling.

Smoked Salmon with Shallots, Capers and Fresh Chives

One of the FEW good things about having church at 12:30 pm on Sundays (I would prefer a 6:30 am start on Sunday to be done by 9:30.... but I can't get anyone else to agree with me on that) is that we have time in the morning to make a good breakfast. The kids were up way too early and ended up making their own breakfast. Chessa doesn't like smoked salmon or capers so I had to eat this one by myself.

A couple ounces of smoked salmon, a tablespoon of capers, one hard boiled egg (white and yolks finely chopped separately), a couple of tablespoons of shallots, some chopped fresh chives and a little freshly ground black pepper and you're done. Went nicely with a toasted bagel. My boys were wishing they had not eaten breakfast so early.... (they all got a couple of bites, so I think that I need to make more of this next time.

Heirloom Tomatoes with Baby Field Greens, Shaved Parmesan and Balsamic Glaze

The Temecula Farmers Market always has great produce. The boys and I went last Saturday after a morning swim workout to get flowers for Chessa. I couldn't resist getting these two huge heirloom tomatoes. One was a rainbow heirloom and the other was a persimmon heirloom. Nothing beats a really fresh ripe tomato right off the vine.

We had the missionaries and Chessa's parents over for dinner last Sunday and started with this simple salad. Just slice the tomatoes into 1/3" slices, drizzle with a little good olive oil, a sprinkling of sea salt, top with a slice of mozzarella and a small handful of field greens. Shave some parmesan, drizzle with a little more olive oil and sea salt and you're done... We added a few dots of balsamic glaze that added a little more sweetness to the salad.

It's all about the fresh tomatoes.

Tomato Aspic with Buffalo Mozzarela Basil and Toasted Coriander Seeds

A different take on the caprese salad. Juice is extracted from very ripe tomatoes and is seasoned with vegetable stock, chilies, basil and a little sea salt. The juice is then mixed with powdered gelatin and allowed to sit overnight to set. When ready to serve, cut the Aspic (tomato gelatin) into 2"x2" squares, place on top of a fresh basil leaf and top with a equally sized piece of the freshest buffalo mozzarella that you can find. Toast some coriander seeds, lightly crush in a mortar and pestle and sprinkle over the top. Drizzle with some peppery olive oil, a nice sprinkling of sea salt and you're done. The kids will probably NOT like this one, but I thought that the textures were interesting. They did kind of look cool on a plate, but don't let sit too long or the aspic will start to melt on you.

Petite Lemon Cheese Cake

I love cheese cake... All kinds of cheese cake. The light and airy ones to the heavy dense ones. I don't complain. We love doing these petite ones for our dinner parties. They are the perfect size and are small enough that you can justify having a dessert tasting menu with 2-3 different types of mini desserts. Chessa makes some awesome bruleed mini cheese cakes. You'll have to try them.

This one is a lemon cheese cake made with the zest of three lemons. I love meyer lemons the best, but if they are not in season, any smoothed skinned lemon will do. We have two mini-cheese cake pans so we can knock out 24 of these babies at one time. If you don't have a mini cheese cake pan, a regular spring form pan will do just fine.

Ingredients:

Cheesecake
1 pound regular cream cheese
3 meyer lemons, washed and dried
1/3 cup heavy cream
2/3 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour

Crust
1 cup graham cracker crumbs (7 or 8 whole crackers)
1 tablespoon sugar
Pinch of salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Pull the cream cheese out of the refrigerator to soften. It will be about the right temperature by the time it's needed.

Remove the zest from the lemons with a zester and put the zest in a small saucepan. Add the cream to the zest and heat just until the cream starts to bubble. Watch the pan carefully, since cream goes from bubbling to overflowing in a split second. Remove the pan from the heat,cover it, and let the zest steep for about an hour. In the meantime, prepare the cheesecake's crust.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.

Stir together the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and salt. Stir in the butter until the mixture is uniformly moistened. With the bottom of a small glass, press the crumbs into the bottom of each well of the mini cheese cake pan. Bake the crust for 4 to 8 minutes, until it is barely browned at the edges. Let it cool.

When the zest/cream mixture has steeped for about an hour pre-heat your oven to 500 degrees F.

Using a kitchenaid with a paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese at low speed until smooth. Add the sugar and continue beating until smooth, scraping down the bowl regularly.

Increase the speed to medium-high and add the eggs one at a time. Then beat in the flour. Finally, strain the lemon zest cream and add the cream, beating until the mixture is smooth and uniform.

Pour the batter into each of the prepared crusts. Place the pan on a baking sheet to catch any leaks, and bake the cheesecake for 8-10 minutes. Lower the temperature to 200 degrees F and bake the cheesecake for another 10 to 15 minutes, until it is light brown on top, cracked, and just barely set in the center. (check the timing at it varies with a larger cake)

Cool the cheesecake on a rack and let "age" overnight to allow the flavor to develop.

You can serve this with fresh berries or powdered sugar, or top it with a fruit glaze. I like eating them right out of the pan (that's why we always make 24).... They are the perfect 2-3 bite dessert. You'll love them.

The Perfect Scrambled Eggs with Fresh Chives

The Perfect Scrambled Eggs with Fresh Chives

Sorry for not posting in a while. June was a crazy month for me. Started a new job, took the scouts backpacking in the Sequoias for a week, swam the Alcatraz sharkfest and ran with my wife and friends in the Pendleton MudRun... It was all very fun, but busy. July should be a bit more restful...

I love scrambled eggs, but I can't stand dry rubbery ones that have no flavor. This is my favorite way to make eggs on a Saturday morning after a nice long swim. We have some great herbs growing in our garden and the kids love being sent out to "harvest" whatever herb has been requested. Chives are perfect with scrambled eggs adding a nice peppery/oniony flavor. If you like eggs, you'll love these.

3 fresh eggs
1 small bunch of fresh chives finely chopped
2 table spoons of butter
sea salt
Toasted wheat bread

The trick to great eggs is the heat of the pan and constant stirring. Treat the eggs like a risotto and you'll end up with creamy eggs that are really flavorful. I start by whisking the eggs in a bowl with a fork until you can't see any of the egg whites. Place a plan over medium heat and add one table spoon of butter. Add the eggs and turn the pan down to medium low (more towards the low side). With a rubber spatula keep stirring until you see curds form. Once they form keep moving the eggs until they get to the consistency you like. If the eggs are cooking too fast, just take the pan off the heat for a few seconds and then return (keep stirring)... Once the eggs are to done to the consistency that you want (about 2-3 minutes), remove the pan from the heat, add one more table spoon of butter, the fresh chopped chives and the sea salt to taste. Fold those remaining ingredients into the eggs and serve immediately with wheat toast. (You can add grated cheese if you really want to go over the top). But try making them this way the next time you are in the mood for a great simple breakfast. Your kids will love them this way.

Roasted Beets with Feta, Baby Mesclun, and a Beet Glaze

I normally don't like feta cheese, but at our Temecula Farmers Market, there's an old Greek guy there who has the best tasting feta. It is not tangy, but it is very mild and very smooth. I thought that it would go perfect with some roasted beets. (Chessa hates beets so I can't do these too often). The Foxes came over Sunday evening and I was able to get Erin to try this. I love it... Beets are growing on me. I didn't always like them. I just roasted whole beets wrapped individually in foil with a tablespoon of butter for about 2 hours at 350 degrees. They come out very tender with a lot of juice in the foil wrapper. Pour this juice into a small sauce pan and reduce slightly to thicken. Peel the beets and cut them into about 1/3" slices. I cut the slices with a 2" ring mould so that they'd all be the same size. I also cut the feta with the same mould so that it would stack nicely with the beets. When the beet juice (sauce) had reduced slightly, I added a couple table spoons of cold butter and swirled the pan to melt. (this makes for a very smooth rich tasting sauce). Spoon a couple of tablespoons of the sauce onto a plate, stack the beets and feta on top of the sauce and top with some baby greens. (I have these mesclun greens growing in my herb garden. I love them). Sprinkle some of your favorite sea salt, drizzle with a little olive oil and you're done.... You'll love beets done this way.

Happy Mother's Day Chessa!

To the best mother in the world!!!

We're deviating a bit from the food part of this blog (but only just a bit, because what would Mother's Day be with out a great breakfast and dinner?), and the focus of this post is to our lovely wife and mom... Where would we be without all of her hard work and caring? The kids and I wanted to list just a few of the things of why we love having Chessa as our mother and wife....

Quotes:
She's awesome!
She's THE BEST
She takes us on trips
She's fun
She treats me extra special on my birthday
She takes care of me when I'm sick
She cooks me "fantabulous" meals
She lets me live in her house (I liked this one from Brennan)
She helps me with the dishes
She takes me to school
She gives me money for lunch
She gives me hugs and kisses
She is so sweet
She buys nice flowers
She loves and cares for me
She drives me to practice
She's pretty
She has nice legs
She works hard for us at the school
She does a great job with the girls hair (I'm most thankful for this because I had to do Lorien's hair yesterday for soccer and it was a bit of a nightmare... the girls are very lucky that they don't have to rely on me to look nice... I'd fail)...
She makes our house look nice
She takes us fun places
She makes me feel special
Most importantly, she loves us....

We love you Chessa!!!

Lorien helped pick out these flowers and the fresh strawberries at the farmer's market yesterday

Mother's Day Cards & Breakfast

Chesse filled Crepes (blintzes) with fresh strawberries, chantilly cream, and strawberry puree
Maddyn wanted to take a picture of the plates being built... Man, I'm I really that bald???

Mother's Day Crepes

Basic Crepe Batter
1 cup milk
1/4 cup cold water
2 eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
Pinch salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus more for cooking the crepes

Chesse Filling, (recipe follows)

Combine the milk, water, eggs, flour, salt and sugar in a blender. Blend on medium speed for 15 seconds, until the batter is smooth and lump-free. Scrape down the sides of the blender and pour in 3 tablespoons of melted butter. Blend it again for a second just to incorporate. Refrigerate the batter for 1 hour to let it rest. If the crepes are made immediately, they have a tendency to be rubbery; when you let the batter rest, the crepes have a better texture and a softer bite.

Put an 8-inch crepe pan or nonstick skillet over medium heat and brush with a little melted butter for added assurance. Pour 1/4 cup of batter into the pan and swirl it around so it covers the bottom evenly; pour back any excess. Cook for 30 to 45 seconds, until the crepe batter sets. Flip the crepe and cook the other side for an additional 30-45 seconds. The crepes should be pliable, not crisp, and lightly brown. Slide them onto a platter and continue making the crepes until all the batter is used. Cover the stack of crepes with a towel to keep them from drying out. This makes 10 crepes.

Assembly: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Forming the blintzes is kind of like making burritos. Spoon 1/4 cup of the cheese filling along the lower third of the crepe. Fold the bottom edge away from you to just cover the filling; then fold the 2 sides in to the center. Roll the crepe away from you a couple of times to make a package, ending with the seam side down. Put an ovenproof skillet over medium heat. Brush with melted butter. Pan-fry the blintzes for 2 minutes per side until crisp and golden.

Transfer the pan to the oven and bake for 10 minutes so the egg in the filling cooks slightly and the cheese sets. Dust some plates with powdered sugar. Fan out some cut strawberries and place two blintzes on top. Top with a little chantilly cream (freshly whipped cream) and a few dots of strawberry puree.

Cheese Filling
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
6 oz cream cheese
3 tablespoons confectioners sugar
zest of one lemon
1 egg

In a food processor, combine the ricotta cheese, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, lemon zest, and egg and blend until smooth. Chill the filling to firm it up a bit so it doesn't squirt out of the blintzes.

Strawberry Puree
6 ripe strawberries
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tabespoon water

In a food processor, combine all ingredients and blend until smooth. Pass through a fine mesh sieve (to strain out all the seeds) and put in a small squirt bottle.

Cedar Plank Salmon with Grilled Romaine

I think that this is one of the coolest ways to do salmon. It is very easy and very quick. You can have everything done in about 20 minutes. (if you've pre-soaked your boards). The brown sugar creates an awesome glaze and the cedar impregnates the fish with a wonderful smoky flavor. The best place to get cedar planks??? Costco... They run about $8 for 6 of them. I soak them all at one time overnight and then just put the planks in the freezer until I'm ready to use them. My kids love salmon done this way.

Cedar Plank Salmon
One salmon filet
1-2 cups of brown sugar
little olive oil
Sea Salt
1 Cedar plank (soaked in water for at least 4 hours)

Lay out your cedar board that has been soaked in water for at least 4 hours (I prefer overnight), sprinkle sea salt over the board and place your fish, skin side down right on the plank. Drizzle with a little olive oil and season with a little sea salt. Cover the top of the fish with brown sugar. It will look like a lot of sugar, but most of it runs off when it caramelizes. Place on a hot grill and let it do it's thing for about 12 minutes. The bottom of the board will probably be on fire (this is ok) and there will be a ton of great smelling smoke (you want this)... Pull the board off the grill and let sit for a couple of minutes (until it stops flaming). Place on a platter you're done....

Grilled Romaine??? I thought the same thing, but brushed with a little olive oil and quickly grilled it's awesome. We drizzle more olive oil and some really good balsamic vinagre on top, shave some parmesan cheese and add a few teaspoons of pine nuts.... (Don't let the romaine sit too long on the grill or it will burn. You just want to lightly char both sides. It goes great with the cedar salmon....

Salmon served with grilled romaine and brown rice