Romaine Spears with Blue Cheese and Cherry Tomatoes

For the past few months I have been compiling a cookbook. No, not one that I have actually written (although I always tweak my recipes and I do make sure that I take notes on this) but I have been taking all those scraps of paper with recipes scrawled on them, recipe print outs, and the stack of about 30 issues of Food & Wine, Gourmet, and Bon Appetit and transcribed or pasted them into a large binder. I will talk more about this soon, maybe when the project is complete, but it seems endless. Technically I suppose it could last forever, as there will always be a new issue coming out and it seems that recipes are endless. But it has been really fun so far and a lot less expensive than buying all the cookbooks I want. I dove into my new book the other night and decided I would make a delicious romaine and blue cheese salad. This was a lighter take on blue cheese, it has an oil and vinegar vinaigrette mixed with chunks of bleu. Delicious!
I took my romaine spears and artfully (ha!) placed them on two plates. Then I followed the recipes to make the vinaigrette, white wine vinegar, olive oil, shallot, garlic, a smidge of anchovy paste (right? I know!), salt and tons of fresh cracked pepper, and a large chunk of blue cheese crumbled. You can't really get better than that! The actual recipe called for red onion and no tomatoes, but I had shallots and I thought that the tomatoes would add color, sweetness, more vitamins. I poured the dressing all over the spears, then added on the tomatoes and some chopped shallots. It was delicious!
The garlic, pepper, and cheese really gave it a bite. Actually I was pleased with my addition of cherry tomatoes because the tartness really helped mellow and cut those stronger flavors. This was originally going to be our starter for dinner, but after making these and eating them, John and I were completely full! Glad I didn't go ahead and make the planned meal. I simply pushed it to the next day.
Also, this is a wonderful dish but I wouldn't make it for a first date! Garlic, onions, and pungent cheese is best for two people know each other quite well. In my opinion.