Caesar Salad

Learned in 1988 from Suellen Wenz whose excellent Caesar salad impressed my toddlers, this has been a family staple since. This is also very useful for pastas and anything else! (Okay, not chocolate cake.)
Fresh, crisp romaine lettuce torn into pieces.

Dressing:
juice of lemon or lime
twice as much olive oil
2--4 cloves of fresh garlic, crushed
lots of freshly ground black pepper.

Toss lettuce with dressing, then sprinkle generously with grated Parmesan cheese.

Variations: sometimes I substitute mayo for half of the olive oil for a creamy dressing. In these instances, I can add the parmesan right to the dressing. Sometimes I add a 1/4--1/2 teaspoon of mustard or brown mustard for a more caesary flavor. In my twenties, I worked as a country club waitress where I watched the hostess make the real thing in a cured wooden bowl with all these ingredients plus anchovy which was rubbed in the bowl before proceeding with the rest, as well as a raw egg yolk (we waitresses, in putting together the order, would place a fresh egg in its shell in a coffee cup of boiling water. By the time the hostess made the salad, the whites would be solid, and only the yolk would come out. Ostensibly.

I like this WITHOUT croutons, so I ain't sayin' anything about them.