Cheesy Garlic Bread

The Superbowl will be here in less than two weeks so it's time to start thinking about my favorite part of football games, the food.  We had some friends over this past weekend to watch the Packers game.  It was a rough afternoon in our house, but luckily we had delicious snacks to cushion the blow.  This Cheesy Garlic Bread was phenomenal!  I got the idea from Lauren's Latest and just made a few tweaks based on what I had on hand (and to make it easier on myself).  The ingredient list is blissfully short: refrigerated French Bread loaf, butter, garlic, basil, oregano, and cheese, lots of cheese.

This Cheesy Garlic Bread is incredibly easy.  Pop open a tube of Pillsbury Crusty French Loaf dough, and put it on a parchment lined baking sheet.  Use a sharp knife to cut slits about 3/4 of the way down, about an inch apart all along the loaf.  Bake it at 350 until it is mostly done and starting to brown (I baked mine for 17 minutes).

While your bread is baking grate 1/3 of a lb. of cheese (I used Trader Joe's cheddar gruyere blend but a white cheddar or a Dubliner would be great too).  To make the garlic butter, melt 1/3 of a stick of butter in a small dish in the microwave.  Add one clove of minced garlic along with some dried basil and oregano. 

Pull the bread out of the oven and re-slice along all of the slits you made before you baked it.  You want the slits nice and deep because that is where you will be putting the garlic butter and cheese.

Take that scrumptious garlic butter and brush it inside all of the slits and all over the top of the loaf.

Then take the grated cheese and tuck it into all of the slits pushing it down as much as you can.  Sprinkle the remainder along the top, no cheese left behind. 

Put it back in the oven until the cheese is melted, about 5 minutes.

Less than 30 minutes to Cheesy Garlic Bread nirvana!  This Cheesy Garlic Bread is the perfect party appetizer for any occasion, but it just screams football food to me.  Add this to your Superbowl menu.  Your guests will be impressed, your taste buds will thank you, and you can spend your time watching the game instead of working in the kitchen.

Cheesy Garlic Bread

• 1 tube Pillsbury Crusty French Loaf dough
• 3 tbls. butter 
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/4 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp. dried basil
• 1/3 lb. Cheddar Gruyere blend (White Cheddar or Dubliner are good substitutes), grated

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Open tube of dough and make slits 3/4 of the way down, about 1-inch apart, all along the loaf.  Bake until almost done and starting to brown, about 17 minutes.
3. While bread bakes make garlic butter: Melt butter.  Mince garlic and add to butter along with oregano and basil.
4. Re-cut all of the slits in the bread.  Brush garlic butter into the slits and all along the top of the loaf.  Press grated cheese into all of the slits and sprinkle the remainder on top.
5. Return to oven and bake 5 more minutes, until bread is cooked through and cheese is melted.

I'm linking up with Tasty Tuesday, Two Cup Tuesday, Whimsy Wednesdays, Wednesday Whatsits, Moonlight & Mason Jars, Create It Thursday, Cook It Craft It Share It, Crafty and Delicious, Showcase Your Talent Thursday, Thrifty Thursday, Creativity Unleashed, Pin Junkie, and Weekend Social, Pinworthy Projects, Best Recipes, Best of the Weekend, Link Party Palooza, Saturday Night Fever, Weekend Potluck, Inspiration Monday, Mix It Up Monday, Craftastic Monday, Busy Monday, and Munching Mondays.

Easy Halloween Snacks

When the sign-ups for soccer snacks came out I knew that I wanted to be snack mom for the game closest to Halloween.  I love holidays and everything that goes along with them.  The decorating, the crafts, the food, I love it all.  I had so many ideas and as the day of the game approached I knew that I needed to narrow it down and make some decisions.  I had originally planned on making something homemade, but I know that a lot of people are uncomfortable with homemade treats these days so I decided to go with pre-made foods.  Just because I was using pre-made foods did not mean I couldn't add a fun holiday spin to our snacks.

I had seen people make butterflies by filling a ziploc with grapes and clipping it with a clothespin for the body so I decided to use the same method to make little bats.  These turned out so cute and while they did take a little bit of time, they were super easy.  Start out by getting some clothespins and painting them black.  If you can find black clothespins, even better, but I couldn't so I just painted them.  Once the paint was dry I used a white paint pen and a black sharpie to draw the eyes and the fangs.  Then I cut little triangles out of black construction paper and glued them on for the ears.  Each snack size ziplock got 4 Halloween Joe Joes (Oreos are perfect too if you don't have a Trader Joes near you).  Then I just bunched up the bag in the center and clipped it with the clothespin.  Halloween bats made of Joe Joes, check.

I had a sweet snack so now I wanted something savory.  Cheez-Its are one of Jake's favorite afternoon snacks and since they are orange they were exactly what I needed.  I picked up a box of the little fold over plastic bags and drew jack-o-lantern faces on them.  Then I filled them with Cheez-Its and used a little piece green pipe cleaner to close it up.  I also curled the end of the pipe cleaner to make it look like a piece of the pumpkin vine.

Jake doesn't like Gatorade so I knew we would be bringing juice boxes.  A little white duct tape wrapped around, a couple of googly eyes glued on, and a wavy line from my sharpie and we had mummies.

The final part of our snack was the mid-game fruit.  The traditional orange slices were a no go because my picky eater doesn't like oranges.  He does like cuties though so we just peeled them, cut a little "stem" out of celery and our snacks were ready to go.  Mid-game pumpkins followed by post-game bats, jack-o-lanterns, and mummies made the perfect Halloween themed snacks.  Any or all of these would be perfect additions to any Halloween celebration!

I'm linking up with Tasty Tuesdays, Whimsy Wednesday, Wednesday Whatsits, Moonlight & Mason Jars, Create It Thursday, Cook It Craft It Share It, Pin Junkie, Showcase Your Talent Thursday, Pin Junkie, Pin It Thursday, Thrifty Thursday, and The Weekend Social.