Cheesy Bread

I didn't take a picture of this; darn! Next time!

As I teach piano 3 afternoons a week, I am often looking for short-cuts to good dinners. One of my fall-back side dishes is to buy a $1 loaf of French bread from the grocery store across the street. Typically I slice it diagonally into about 1" thick pieces, spread butter on one side, and keeping in "loaf-shape" I wrap it in foil and put it in the oven to warm while finishing the rest of dinner.

Last week though I decided to do something a little different, and it was quite tasty.


Ingredients:

1 loaf of store-bought French bread
1 to 1 1/2 sticks of butter
garlic powder, parsley
1 c grated mozzarella cheese (I actually used Jack since that's what we had; it was good but I think mozzarella would be a little bit better)

Pre-heat your broiler. Slice French bread horizontally, as if you're going to make a giant sandwich, making the halves as even as you can. Place on a cookie sheet with cut-sides up; spread each half with at least half a stick of softened butter. If it's a very large loaf you may need more butter; coat it well! Sprinkle with a little bit of garlic powder and parsley (I just like the parsley on there for color). Put under the broiler for a few minutes, watching it closely, until the butter is melted and the edges of the bread just start to brown.

Remove from the oven and sprinkle cheese on each half; return to the broiler until cheese melts and starts to bubble. To serve, cut into 1" strips/slices.

I did the first step about 20 minutes ahead of time, and then prepared the rest of our dinner. Right before calling everyone to the table I did the cheese part. Another tip: even though I was broiling, I put the sheet pan on a lower rack in my oven: it took longer for the cheese to melt but I wanted the bread to have a chance to heat through. Easy, quick, and delish! Aaron ate 6 pieces of it and enjoyed the re-heated leftovers the next day.