A lot of my GFs make cooking so difficult it is so not funny. They add a 1000 ingredients into each dish and the flavor is just too complicated. You cant even taste the food. KISS - keep it simple stupid! I had Jillian, Donna and Jessica over for dinner and drinks on Saturday and I just made something everyone would love. A plain old caesar salad with sliced filet on top. Everyone loved the food and all it takes is a few easy steps to make any meal good. Here is what I did....

-You could make your own caesar dressing but that is not necessary. Go to the store and buy a good caesar dressing (I used Cindys Kitchen All Natural Roasted Garlic Caesar Dressing from Whole Foods) and doll it up a bit. I grated some parmesan cheese and added it to mine with a little fresh ground black pepper.

-Make your own croutons. So easy to make and make the salad so much better. I bought a sout dough round that was fresh baked at the store and took a third of it and cubed it. Toss it in a bowl with a little salt, pepper, paprika and oil then bake them at 350F until they are just turning crisp. You can serve the remaining bread in slices with the salad.

-I added a few amarosa tomatoes to give the salad a bit of color.

-I grilled the filets (three 8oz filets is enough for four people) to medium on the grill and let them rest for a few minutes before slicing them up and putting the slices on top of the salad.

-Some more freshly grated parmesan on top and you are done.

I served a Grgich Hills chardonnay with the salad. It was divine and so easy to make.

For dessert I made panna cotta but I'll save that recipe for another day. And yes, panna cotta is so easy to make and so delicious youll be wondering why you do not have it more often.