My computer geek husband, who I do adore, joined a Flickr photo group called Friday Food Fiesta. A new theme is announced every Friday, and everyone contributes a single photo that illustrates that theme. The first themes he contributed to were burgers and pizza, but when salads came up, he needed help. Luckily for him, I love making salads. So Casey, my husband, asked me to be his partner in crime and create a salad for him to photograph and submit.

Well, it was a gorgeous spring day to I decided we’d grill and make a little party out of it. I wanted to create an original salad and I decided it would be a surf and turf salad. I tossed a big bag of spring mix greens in a lime vinaigrette and l spread them out a large serving tray. Then I grilled up a bunch of jerk marinated beef and some pineapple slices. If you’ve never grilled pineapple you must try it! It gets a wonderful caramel crust. (Would also be fabulous with some vanilla ice cream!) I sliced the beef in thin strips and arranged it on the tray with the grilled pineapple. Then I added some mandarin oranges and large handfuls of lobster meat. I garnished the platter with the top of the pineapple and served the salad with the extra vinaigrette on the side.

The resulting salad was a visual and taste delight. We invited over some friends and had an impromptu party. I whipped up some cocktails with pureed frozen raspberries, dark rum, and seltzer. And we mellowed out in the back yard with some good cocktail tunes. (I recommend the Zumanity soundtrack by Cirque du Soleil and anything by Pink Martini.)