The Ultimate Garlic Spread (is here!)

Folks, brace yourselves; I've found the ultimate garlic bread spread for the ultimate garlic bread!

I hereby declare my search for a garlic bread recipe over! Yes, it's that good. Three ingredients and less than 20 minutes - that's all you need.

The first time I ever had garlic bread was at a Pizza Hut restaurant as a little girl. I admit, I do have a penchant for Italian food. But still, I think garlic bread is an excellent comfort food, especially when you're generous with the cheese. You can make it in minutes, you can eat it on its own or turn it into a meal by pairing it with your favourite stew or soup. What more can you ask of a loaf of bread?

I first tried store-bought garlic spreads to make my own garlic bread (Ick!). Then I graduated to making my own spread with fresh crushed garlic, butter and parmesan, but that combination doesn't keep well, nor does it taste as good with all the butter involved.

Then I discovered Laura Vitale's garlic-parsely-olive-oil formula. Trust me - it is belissimo! It positively saturates the bread with garlicky goodness and the recipe ensures the right amount of crusty and ooey-gooey-chewiness. Plus, as always, this recipe is a winner because it takes minutes to make.

I used mini Italian loaves but any dense bread should do, like ciabatta, baguette, focaccia or even bagels. I would, however, advice against ordinary sliced bread because you do need some thickness to absorb the spread and withstand the heat to melt the cheese. I followed Laura Vitale's recipe as a guide but I made a few adjustments; I reduced the amount of garlic, upped the parsely and sped up the cooking time. I also experimented with different garnishes and herbs like red pepper flakes (Hot! Hot! Hot!), oregano (my favourite!) and fresh chopped parsely (fresh!).

Here's a final tip: double the volume for the recipe, put it in an old jam jar and stick a fun label on. The next time you're craving for some cheesy comfort food, simply head over to your fridge! (Click here to see how I used the spread in my Red and Green Pasta Stir-fry!)

Read on after the jump for the recipe.

Zucchini pizza bites

"Zucchini? Yes, please. Zucchini pizza bites? Marry me!"

That's my stream of thought when I saw this recipe on The Comfort of Cooking. As I've mentioned in a previous post, zucchinis are currently my ulitmate favourite vegetable so I'm always on the lookout for recipes using these delectable moss-coloured squashes. I must have stared at the computer screen for a full minute after I stumbled upon this recipe.

I have to be honest, though, and tell you that the recipe had me at "zucchini". I didn't realize what a bonus the rest of the ingredients were until I assembled each "bite". The fun part of this recipe was that I got to play around with toppings. This made preparing and eating these little bites so much fun!

 The recipe only takes about fifteen minutes so this is definitely going into my bank of quick bites. I decided to jazz things up a bit with a few extra toppings but you can definitely make these with just the sauce, cheese and herbs.

A few extra tips for beginners:
1. Be sure to cut the zucchini slices no less than 1/4" in thickness and to grill them on medium high heat just enough to brown, NOT to cook through. This is important to ensure the zucchini slices will be firm enough to hold their toppings and keep some of their crunch.
2. If you're using relatively small zucchinis, as I was, cut them diagonally to get more surface area for your toppings.
3. Finely shred your cheese. If you're using pre-shredded ones, chop them up well. Long or thick strips of cheese might not fit well on the slices.
4. I used some left-over spaghetti sauce, but any marinara or pizza sauce should do the trick.
5. Feel free to substitute the vegetable toppings, cheese and and herbs to something of your liking.

How fabulous do these look?

Get the step-by-step guide and recipe after the jump.

Cheese stuffed grape tomatoes

Every summer, my parents zealously plan and work on their vegetable garden. Last year, we got over zealous with our tomatoes and peppers so this year, we decided to scale down so we don't end up with rotten unpicked vegetables on the ground. There was some improvement, but we still ended up with LOADS of tomatoes. Fortunately, we discovered the sweetness of vine-ripened tomatoes and have since learned to snack on freshly-picked tomatoes. Beside that, I also got to experiment with different - and SIMPLE - ways to enjoy tomatoes. One of my favourite is stuffing them with cheese.

I simply cut the tops off the tomatoes and gauged them slightly to make room for the cheese stuffing. I then added about one table spoon of olive oil to my baking dish and tossed the tomatoes in it. I found this step to be helpful because I can see how much tomatoes I need to fit them all snugly in the dish*. I cut Monterey Jack cheese into small cubes - about 1/8" by 1/2", but it depends on the size of your tomatoes and how much cheese you want in each. The next step is simply to push each cheese cube into the tomatoes. Some of the seeds would overflow out of the tomatoes - let these fall back into the dish and they'll make for a richer tomato-flavoured sauce! Finally, season lightly with salt and pepper, sprinkle some chopped basil or cilantro overtop and bake for 15 minutes at 350F. 

I would suggest letting the tomatoes stand for a few minutes before serving because the hot cheese inside could be an unpleasant surprise. I know, the waiting can be hard but it's worth it. Enjoy!

*Filling the baking dish snugly with tomatoes helps keep them upright, thus keeping the cheese inside the tomatoes rather than spilling over and filling the dish.

Zucchini Chips!

I.Love.Zucchinis. There are no two ways about it. And this recipe, by far, is my most favourite way to enjoy my favourite squash. A healthy vegetable turned into the equivalent of potato chips - who could argue with that?

Slicing the zucchinis with a mandolin slicer made the job so much easier although, looking at how much they shrink after baking, slicing by hand is probably sufficient if you have a steady hand. All you need to do is line the slices up on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, brush with olive oil and season lightly with salt. DO NOT overseason or the chips will be too salty due to the shrinkage. 

Unfortunately for me, my oven is extremely temperamental with its hot spots, so I spent two hours switching my baking trays around to make sure the chips brown relatively evenly. Due to the amount of time and energy to make what I consider a small batch of my favourite thing, I'm not sure if I'll be making this very often. But then again, I'm already craving for some more, so....

Recipe and instructions courtesy of Table For Two.
(Also, thanks Aunty Surya Ni for suggesting this recipe in the first place!)