Romaine Wraps with Pear and Gorgonzola

I’m just going to come out and say it, winter lunches are a drag.  I swear it’s been soup, soup, soup and more soup for days.  The soups themselves aren’t really the problem.  I mean come on, who doesn’t love a warm bowl of chicken and dumplings, or a cup of chicken tortilla soup topped with cilantro and studded with creamy chunks of avocado, or a crusty piece of gruyere-smothered French bread hovering over a bowl of savory french onion soup?  It’s just that surviving on only soup (and healthier no-bake cookies by the handful) has left me craving the crunch of fresh fruits and vegetables.

In case you hadn’t noticed, the market isn’t exactly teeming with delicious looking produce these days.  In fact, all I saw today were a few unripened bananas and some pretty sad looking heads of cauliflower.  There were, however, still a few pretty good looking pears.  (Growing up in Washington State has left me on a life long quest for quality apples and pears as I traipse around the globe, and I have to say, our nation’s capital has note fared well in that department.)  Anyway, I found some passable pears, which was pearfect because romaine wraps with pear and gorgonzola!  (Obviously.)

Shockingly, I did not immediately dig in to the pears the moment I walked in the door (which is what I usually do when I get home from the grocery store).  As soon as I picked up the pears, I remembered one of my favorite childhood snacks.  When I was growing up, my mom used to crumble gorgonzola over romaine lettuce and a few slices of pear and wrap them up in a tortilla.  Sooooo good!  Since we ate all of the homemade tortillas, I decided to forgo the tortilla and used a few leaves of romaine as a base.

These romaine wraps with pear and gorgonzola are just as easy as they look. Chop up a few pears, a few tablespoons of red onion.  Drizzle with oil and vinegar.  Spoon onto romaine leaves.  Top with a few pecans and a bit of gorgonzola.  Enjoy.  Perfect for a snack or lunch, with ingredients that you will actually be able to find in January!  How cool is that?  There’s really no secret to these, except maybe that they taste even better than they look.  Well, that and make sure you chop the pears and pecans small enough to get a little bit of everything in each bite.