Mama’s Garlic Bread
Ingredients:
1 loaf of good bakery quality Italian or French Bread sliced lengthwise
1 stick of REAL butter
5 cloves finely minced garlic
2 teaspoons of garlic salt
1 1/2 tablespoons of Italian seasoning (this is usually a combo of dried parsley, oregano, basil, rosemary, etc)
1 cup grated Parmesan (again I don’t like it to be too fine and powdery)
Prep:
Basically you melt the butter any which way you please. Mama usually just puts it in a bowl in the microwave but I prefer to do it on the stove top in a little saucepan. Then you mix in all the seasonings & minced garlic. And pour it evenly over the bread. Set the bread under a broiler until it’s all crispy and golden. When toasty top with grated Parmesan cut into slices and serve.
Variations: In the past I’ve also topped it with olive tapenade, artichoke tapenade, bruschetta, or fresh mozzarella and roasted red peppers.
Sometimes mama gets crazy and roasts a whole garlic first. This involves cutting the top off the garlic so you can see the inside of the cloves. Then you put it in a piece of tin foil and pour olive oil all in and around it. Wrap it tightly in the foil and bake at a really high temperature (425 or so) for about an hour. When it’s done you can press at it with a fork and all the soft roasted cloves will just squirt out. Discard skins and rub the roasted cloves all over original prepared bread. This version is particularly good with the roasted red peppers.
Zucchini Sticks 
3 big zucchinis washed and sliced into pieces the size of thick steak fries
4 eggs beaten (you might need more depending on sizes of Zuchs and eggs) with about 1 cup of milk (skim milk is fine it doesn’t matter)
4 cups of bread crumbs
2 cups of flour
1 cup of grated Parmesan
2 tablespoons of dried Italian seasonings (parsley, rosemary, oregano, basil mixes)
A few cups of vegetable oil for frying
The easiest way to do this is to use those giant gallon size freezer bags. Put flour in one bag and bread crumbs, Parmesan, and Italian seasons in another.
Whisk the eggs and milk together in a bowl.
Throw zucchini sticks (a few at a time) into the flour bag and shake them up until they get coated. Then use your hands to get them coated in egg milk mixture and toss them into the bag of bread crumb mixture and shake them up. Repeat the egg milk dip followed by the bread crumb dip again.
The trick to not getting clumpy ones is having a wet hand and a dry hand. Use one hand to dip in egg and another to pull sticks from bags of dry ingredients. Otherwise the mixtures get all mushy.
Line a cooling rack with paper towels.
Pour vegetable oil into a large skillet until it is about half the depth of the pan. Heat it up and fry zucchini sticks until light golden brown. Set on top of paper towels for a couple of minutes to so that the towels absorb some of the excess oil.
The Svelte Version
3 big zucchinis washed and sliced into pieces the size of thin french fries
3 egg whites whisked together
1 cup of grated Parmesan
As many fresh herbs as you can get your hands on (think: Rosemary, Chives, Dill, Thyme, Oregano, Basil, Parsley, etc)
Chop up all the herbs as finely as possible. Mix chopped herbs into egg whites. Place all zucchini sticks in a large bowl and pour egg white herb mixture over the top of them. Use your hands to gently mix them around so that all sticks are complete coated in the mixture.
Spray a baking sheet with non stick spray and spread out sticks on it. Bake at 425 for about 40 minutes, moving around every 10-15 minutes so that they don’t burn or stick. I haven’t been entirely successful in getting them to come out crispy enough, so feel free to volunteer any advice. They are still delicious even when a little flimsy though!
Sassy Ranch Dipping Sauce (for both fried and baked sticks)
1 packet of Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix (it’s cheating but good)
1 tablespoon Horseradish
1 1/2 cups mayo or light mayo
1 cup of Buttermilk or light buttermilk (the name is deceiving it’s just soured milk)
a squirt of fresh lemon juice
Note: There are many instances where you just need to use ‘REAL butter’ (so to speak) or just not do it at all. This dipping sauce is truly not one of them. I feel that it tastes just as good with light mayo and light buttermilk for a reasonably healthy alternative.
