Sleepless Oregano Cheesy Bread

I’ve been losing a lot of sleep over this blog lately.

I mean that literally; I don’t mean that I’ve been worrying about the blog. I mean that I’ve been up in the evenings writing, and that for one reason or another I've been getting distracted, haven't been able to either write or get to sleep, and have been up until the wee hours. I've seen sunrise twice this week. That's not good times when I've got a baby to watch. (Who just turned one, by the way.)

I think part of it is the fact that I'm just not super-jazzed by oregano. I've definitely got some delicious oregano in the house, and I'm discovering that it is not the boring, flavorless spice that I've always thought it to be. But in the end, oregano is oregano; I've used it before. I could make a red sauce, or a pasta dish, or something, but that honestly sounds kinda boring - and honestly, several of the people who I know read this blog are better Italian cooks than I am.

The other problem is that Victoria's parents are down from Toronto for Benji's birthday, and we've been going out a lot. Like I said yesterday, I'm really into the idea of making lamb, but they're vegetarians - yet another thing that throws a wrench in the works. Maybe when my folks come down on Saturday, I'll make some lamb... or maybe I'll just say "I said what I felt I needed to about oregano, which was less about dishes - because most people know where and when to use oregano - and more about the common problems people face with, i.e. the sucking."


In any case, I made some cheesy bread as an appetizer/side dish tonight. (I say cheesy bread because... well, you'll know why I don't feel right calling it garlic bread in a second.) It was really good. It's also not a particularly long or involved recipe - hence the whole discussion about the fact that I don't feel like oregano is really getting its due.


Sleepless Oregano Cheesy Bread

Take a loaf of crusty bread and cut it open. Butter both sides. Sprinkle liberally with oregano, then minced garlic, then shredded mozzarella (or any other cheese that will get melty.) Bake at 300 degrees for fifteen to twenty minutes, or until the cheese is starting to brown. Let cool for 5 minutes, cut, and serve with tomato sauce for a-dippin'.

When I say sprinkle liberally - the bread was about 1/2 covered with oregano, and I used a big soup spoon scoop of garlic on each side.


See what I mean? That's not much of a recipe. Oh well. I need sleep more than I need a long wordcount. (I don't think that it helps that I look at the counter in MS Word which reports how many words your document is as my score for the post. Hey, if it's good enough for Dickens...)

(Oh, wait. I hate Dickens.)

Anyway - I used the Mexican oregano, which was probably not the obvious choice. The thing is, I wasn't likely to make anything Mexican in the next few days, and I haven't cooked with the Mexican oregano at all yet! It was delicious - deeper than the Mediterranean oregano, with that hint of piqancy. It definitely made the dish more interesting than it would have been otherwise. An old girlfriend always used to talk about "the wrong touch at the right time", and that's the feeling I got here - the Mexican oregano was absolutely not the flavor you were expecting, but not nearly different enough for it to taste wrong. It just jolts you out of your expectations for a moment or two, which is a lot to get from a simple choice of spices.


I'm not sure where to go from here, to be honest - I've still got a dish or two (a Greek potato dish forwarded to me by Mike, and the lamb I keep talking about) that I want to cook, but at the same time, I feel like it's time to move on. Oh well, we'll see. For now... sleep.

PS - I never realized how much of a racist I was.