This morning I acquired a weird craving for a slice or two of garlic bread, the sort my mother used to make.
But she would make up a whole loaf of the stuff, and she used ingredients I haven’t even looked at in decades: garlic salt or garlic powder, margarine, and that fake Parmesan cheese that you shake out of a cylindrical box covered with bright green metallic stuff. It was good! At least, it was seemed so to a ten-year-old. 😀
While bucketing around town, I picked up a loaf of country-style bread. Everything else was in house.
For a couple of slices…
Preheat the oven’s broiler. If possible, set it on “low,” but it doesn’t matter — you’ll need to keep an eye on it.
You need:
- Two slices of fresh French sourdough bread
- Two or three tablespoons of butter
- Some dried green herbs, such as oregano, marjoram, fines herbes, tarragon, or herbes de Provence
- Grated Parmesan cheese
- One clove fresh garlic, chopped or minced
The gear
Move an oven rack fairly close to the oven’s broiler element.
Place the butter in a microwavable dish, and add the garlic plus dried herbs to taste. Melt in the microwave — about 10 seconds on high or medium-high.
Using a pastry or basting brush, wipe the herbed garlic butter generously over the bread slices.
Ready for the oven!
Place the bread, buttered-side up, on a baking or broiling pan. I like to line my baking pan with aluminum foil, so I don’t have to wash it. Cover the top of each slice generously with grated Parmesan.
Run the garlic bread under the broiler and let it sit until the cheese is melted and golden. Watch! Do not wander off! This cooks very fast!
This makes a quick, delicious snack, appetizer, or side. I served it with a bit of grilled hamburger and some miscellaneous goodies residing in the fridge: a beet, a tomato, and a ripe pear. So good!
How our lives have changed since our mothers’ day! When I was a girl, I imagined garlic powder and garlic salt were concocted in a factory — which, I guess, they were. It wasn’t until I was grown and married that I first saw a head of garlic. Didn’t have a clue what to do with it!
And come to think of it, I was probably in my teens before I saw a slab of actual Parmesan cheese. I had no idea it was supposed to taste of something other than cardboard.
You can find more 21st-century recipes made of real, unprocessed foods, many of them deliciously diet-friendly, in 30 Pounds/4 Months, a guide to losing two pounds a week while eating like the Queen of Sheba. Find it at Amazon, or order a print copy through the Plain & Simple Press Contact form.