Blah to Hoo-yah!

Last night's dinner: Chicken Caesar Salads Makes you yawn a little, right? Not the most exciting nor original dish. A boring dinner is not welcome in our house. Don't get me wrong, we get lazy, we get tired, but we really try to jazz things up whenever possible. Hence, the title of the post. I'm not talking about taking two hours to make dinner either. "Special" doesn't have to mean "I slaved in the kitchen for hours to make you this meal".  Just a little effort, a couple snazzy ingredients and dinner can become more of an occasion than a chore. I had picked up some mixed greens on sale at the market, already pre-washed, so I just piled those onto plates. I seasoned chicken tenders with salt and pepper, brushed them with olive oil, and grilled them up in the trusty grill pan (thank you, Mom-in-Law). Meanwhile, I cubed six slices of closer-to-stale bread and tossed them with olive oil and chopped fresh herbs. I always plant an herb garden in the summertime so I can just walk onto the deck and grab basil, oregano, parsley. That's not necessary though, sprinkling the bread cubes with your favorite dried herbs works fine. I popped the bread into the oven and voila! Homemade croutons. Finally, I grated Parmigiano-Reggiano onto the salads. Yes, this is a very expensive cheese. It took me years to buy some without a guilt trip. But I found a market that sells it in smaller, easier for the pocketbook, chunks. So I try to keep a wedge in the fridge and I'm always happy when I reach for it. For the dressing, I just used a certain bottled dressing courtesy of a dreamy blue-eyed actor/philanthropist. Some salad dressings require no time at all to throw together, but Caesar is not one of them. When I served dinner, I waited for G's reaction to my creation. Between the MMMs and the shoveling of salad into his mouth, I knew that I had a hit on my hands.