mmmmmm…. food
Theresa found this in her good housekeeping book and figured they would be good. She was right. It is really simple. 1 sheet of filo dough brushed lightly with butter, sprinkled with cheese and black pepper, top with another sheet of filo, fold in half, roll up, and bake at 475 till brown. They only last a few minutes till they get a bit hard from the cheese cooling. The pepper was nummy.
First try at making a vid. Old post, just added vid. Learned a bit from this one 
Our very first date I took Theresa to Spaghetti works. I might still have the matchbook from that date. Sure it was awesome to hang with her, but the garlic bread. Oh, that garlic bread. It is to die for. I have heard stories of some old lady that comes in every day and all she does is make garlic bread. I wish to meet her someday. Something about the slight goldenness and flecks of parsley encased in that crispy garlic cheese crust.
We garlic bread a bunch and have gone through many styles over the years. I have tried to recreate SW garlic bread many times and never came close, till tonight. It was so simple I am amazed. Butter, parm cheese, parsley, and fresh ground garlic. The fresh garlic was key. I used a microplane to turn it into liquid mush. We have used raw garlic before, but only the minced stuff in the jar. Powders just do not cut it. Spread it, let it brown, done. The garlic is sweet and the cheese flavorful. We have made it a few times and I think I still need to cut back on the butter, more cheese.
At the Haymarket beerfest I talked with the Le Quartier guy about some issues I was having. My biggest problem is during the second rising I get issues with the dough sticking to anything it touches. The no knead bread is very wet. I tried a very floured up tea towel with flour on top. When it rose gooey bits stuck to the towel. I heard wheat bran works, but did not like the taste. I just ended up using a bunch of flour which would build up a white crust that took a bit of work to scrape off. Pic below.
I hoped to get some good info from the Le Quartier guy and waited a bit to ask. He was glad to share the secrets I needed. First on the second rising no cling wrap. It needs to breathe a bit since it is so wet. But the real trick is to use rice flour to keep it from sticking to stuff. I got some white rice flour and it seemed like a really fine sand. When the loaf came out it was not crusted with the flour and you can hear the crust crackling while it cooled down. When it cooled enough I was able to wipe the little bit of flour sticking to it off with my hand. It was good.
On Dinner impossible they make this lasagna which looked pretty good, and we have been trying different styles and figured this would be good. It is 3 layers deep, two cheese, and the top tomato sauce based.
The garlic bread I wanted to mix up a bit and add real garlic to it instead of some powdered variety like I usually do. I was looking for some sort of a cheesy garlic spread we could have around and use easily. Man did I over do the garlic. I used my microplane grater to work it in there. It was seriously intense. Will try again later.
The lasagna was pretty good. Without meat or other bulky fillings it was pretty flat and cheesy, but still really good. Some chicken would of been nice. We split it into two batches so we can check it out again here soon. Gonna need some soft foods for the next two weeks since Theresa gets braces.
This is about all I “cooked” this weekend. It was nice enough for me to get out on the bike, which I did. The first time I made the no knead bread the towel I proofed it with stuck pretty bad and after a washing it became a rag. So I used a ton of flour figuring I could just brush it off. It was more like chiseling out a dino bone and ended up looking like a moon rock according to jschwa. I mowed about 1/2 that loaf while it was still warm. Fuggles enjoyed the other 1/2. She so long and me not push stuff to back of counter. You win this round Fuggles.
I had heard about this bread from the food blogs and had to try it. We found an enameled cast iron dutch oven on clearance from shopko for $38 and I knew the first thing I would make with it. This bread. It did not fill the house with the awesome smell, it took two days, and it is awesome. The inside is so moist and chewey. The outside is hard and crunchy. I will make this again and again.
Those are supposed to be baguettes, well they kinda are. I slept so much this weekend. I woke up Sunday so early I had no clue what to do with myself. Not wanting to spend money and already took the dog for a ride and hit the rollers I needed to find something to cook.
I grabbed some cookbooks and Theresa thumbed through one and gave me suggestions. She mentioned bread and that sparked my interest.
I am the cooker, she is the baker. Well it was time for me to go to the other side. I decided to go with a simple crusty loaf to get my basic skills down. Well I learned that rushing the rising can hurt, and that a bit of butter on a piece of freshly baked bread is heaven.
I did try a focicia as you might be able to see. It was a bit too much and stuck in the dish really bad. Still I am hooked. Sure I could pick a loaf for a buck or spend hours making my own, I think I will spend the time. Being able to make a good loaf of bread might just come in handy some day.
