Friday Food. Garlic Bread.

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I tried this recipe last week with a larger loaf of bread and it wasn’t quite right. When I sliced the Italian bread into thinner, medium slices, the oil was perfect. My son likes to make simple garlic bread with garlic powder, but I find that it doesn’t quite have the same oomph as using fresh garlic.

I take about half a head of garlic, but use as many cloves as you want. Mash them in a mortar and pestle or just with a spoon.

Put a small skillet on medium heat, and add olive oil, I probably used about two tablespoons, then added the garlic, oregano, and basil, and let it saute until the garlic was fragrant.

Pour over sliced bread. I made six slices.

Broil on high for five minutes, perhaps longer, but watch it carefully.

It was delicious as you can see on the right!

Garlic Bread. (c)2024

Friday Food. July.

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Continuing Monday’s theme of Louise Penny’s Armand Gamache mystery series, I thought I’d share some things from the publisher’s related blog.

There is a lovely selection of recipes and gorgeous photos to admire and to choose from for each of the books here.

French Onion Soup from the Gamache Series Website

There is also a PDF download of a short cookbook, The Nature of the Feast which includes a preview excerpt of book #12, The Great Reckoning.

My own Bistro-esque recipe below the cut:

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Friday Food – Idiosyncrasies

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As these come up in my life, I notice them more and more. I know that they are idiosyncratic, and some are downright weird, but they are what they are, and I thought I’d share them with you. Please share some of yours in the comments.


I call everything “jelly,” but I never buy jelly. I only buy jam or preserves.

When I add ice to my cup at McDonald’s, I always pour out a couple of cubes.

I only and always eat latkes with applesauce AND sour cream. I also eat them year-round, and more at Passover than at Chanukah.

This isn’t food related, but I put NO Chanukah ornaments on our Christmas tree.

Now that I have a collection of Big Mac Sauce packets, I bring them with me when we go to a local restaurant that has patty melts (which I love) but no Thousand Island dressing.

Food adjacent – I don’t use Saran Wrap. It never works.

I wing cooking but never baking. Baking is too precise.

I won’t eat matzo or gefilte fish after Passover. I may make an exception for matzo brei.

I only eat kosher all beef hot dogs. When people talk about not knowing what’s in their hot dogs, I have no idea what they’re talking about. My hot dogs only have beef, no fillers, no anything else. Also, Mustard only. And sauerkraut when available.

Real NY bagels – never toasted.

I love bagels and lox, but I only eat it on Fridays in Lent.

The only soda I drink is Diet Coke. Not Pepsi, not Coke Zero, not RC.

I have had a recent obsession with peanut butter and bananas – any bread including matzo. (Not pictured English muffin.)

Peanut butter and banana on a Waffle.
(c)2024
Peanut butter and banana on egg
bagel.
(c)2024
Peanut butter and banana on matzo.
(c)2024

Brand names. I am a good tryer of generic and store brand foods. Except:

  • Cream Cheese – Philadelphia Kraft
  • Macaroni & Cheese – Kraft in the blue box, 7.25 oz.
  • Butter – Land O Lakes or Cabot. Exception for Kerrygold when I have the money for it.
  • Orange Juice – Tropicana or Florida’s Natural
  • Bachman Jax Cheese Curls only.
  • Skippy Peanut Butter.
  • Pretzels – Rold Gold
  • Hot dog rolls – Martin’s Potato Long Rolls
  • Craisins – Ocean Spray only
  • This is also food adjacent: Ziploc bags and Reynold’s Aluminum Foil. Hands down, generic just doesn’t have the same strength.

Friday Food Favorites

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The foods of my life.
(c)2024

From the top, clockwise: Peanut butter and banana on toast, egg bagel with cream cheese and lox, sweet potato, grilled cheese, Berry French toast bake with strawberry syrup.

We all have foods that we go back to throughout our lives, a lot of them from our childhood. All of the above are in some way, shape or form from my childhood and teen years. My favorite thing as a child, home sick from school, was a soft, buttery sweet potato. I can recall sitting in the darkness of my mother’s bedroom, basking in the soft glow of the television eating this ever so slowly.

Recently, I have become obsessed with peanut butter and bananas. I’ve even slathered on the peanut butter and put a whole banana in the center of the bread and eaten it like a hot dog. A great snack!

Bagels with lox really needs no explanation; nor does grilled cheese. I enjoyed this on a few of my meat-free Fridays during Lent.

This French toast bake is from Cracker Barrel and has a custardy, cheesecake filling on top with whipped cream. Decdadent and delicious. This was a special treat. I am a French toast purist, dipped in egg, griddled, butter, and maple syrup.

In anticipation of Passover, my mouth is already watering when I think about the Matzo-brei that I will make, eat, and share with you here in a few weeks.

What are your own food favorites?

Friday Food – Easy and Loved by All

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For the Picky Eater, and Easy for the Cook

I made two weeknight meals recently that were a complete hit with my family, even the picky eater. They were both easy, and the goulash was with leftovers, so it was doubly exciting for the kitchen and the checkbook. There was a minimum of prep for each, and it was so great that the goulash is already planned for dinner for Monday night.

Recipes and pictures below the cut:

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