Romaine Lettuce and the perfect Caesar Salad

I don't think I need to sell anybody very hard on the deliciousness and insane simplicity of a really good Caesar salad. So... I'll skip all that and get straight to why you should be making your own at home. 1. You have an abundance of perfectly crisp, delicious romaine on hand. 2. After reading the title of this post you're really dying for a Caesar salad. 3. It takes virtually no time to make, unless you want to get all fancy like and make your own fresh croutons, which I highly recommend and that can be accomplished in mere moments. 4.It will be perfect with what ever you were planning on grilling for supper. 5. No good cook should pass up the opportunity to make their own Caesar. Here goes: Wash any grit from the lettuce, tear it to your preferred size (I like to leave the leaves whole) and then roll up the leaves gently between two dish towels. Refrigerate until ready to serve. With the back of a fork mash two cloves of garlic with pinch of salt and three whole anchovy filets. You like anchovies. I promise. Scrape all of that into a bowl and whisk in two tbs. of mayonnaise, one perfectly fresh, raw egg yolk, the juice of one lemon, a good grating of parmesan, one tbs. of milk and salt and pepper if desired. Done. Chill that until serving and whip up a batch of fresh croutons. Cut a loaf of crusty bread on the bias making long angled strips. Toss those with a bit of good olive oil and some minced garlic and arrange them on a baking sheet in a single layer and then run them under the broiler on high for about a minute or two.It wouldn't hurt to watch them pretty closely to prevent burning. Now... just dress those chill leaves of romaine with a few huge croutons, a nice drizzle of that dressing and some shards of pungent parmesan cheese. That is a serious salad. If you want you can scare up someone to split it with but, for me, eating a whole head of lettuce like that couldn't be easier.