Another Memory from Germany

When it comes to Easter, my family doesn't really have any traditions outside of going to church as normal. This past Sunday, we had dinner together at my parents house and the meal was Lasagna, Garlic Bread, and Salad...not the standard/traditional meal because, like I just said, we don't really have Easter traditions...and that's okay.

My mom had me pick up a loaf of Garlic French Bread from Albertsons on my way to their house, which I gladly did. My sister protested once I arrived that we should have made our own instead and while I normally like to make things from scratch, this time I didn't care...it's just garlic bread. But to appease her desires, she melted a couple tablespoons of butter, threw in some minced garlic, basted her slices and enjoyed it immensely.

The best garlic bread I ever remember having was was back in 2001. I went to Buca di'Beppo for the first time and my friend and I ordered some. In my distant memory, it seems that the bread came with a layer of sliced garlic on top and it was AMAZING, which finally brings me to my memory from Germany (thanks for bearing with my tangent mind).

So within the first few months of being in Germany I was making dinner one night and I believe it was spaghetti, garlic bread, and salad. I made dinner for my dorm about 3 times a week and I loved it. When I was preparing this dinner, I had the Buca di'Beppo flashback and started salivating over this garlic bread, thus prompting me to try to mimic their recipe. How hard can it be?

I took the bread, buttered it up, took a handful of garlic gloves and minced away. I layered the bread with garlic, threw it in the oven, and then when it was nicely toasted/warmed, I cut it up and added it to the dinner table. Because my dorm was small (about 20 people) we served almost all our meals family style. So after the prayer, all the dishes were passed around and we started eatting.

I think I had a bite or two of my spaghetti or salad before taking my first bite of the glorious garlic bread. I quickly felt the burning sensation in my mouth and throat as I chewed that first bite and swallowed. It was awful! I had WAY overdone the garlic...I tell you, that bread was potent. There was enough garlic on that bread to burn holes in stomach, I bet. I quickly swallowed and washed down my bite of bread and then told everyone to not eat the garlic bread since it was awful.

Evidently, at the other end of the table, one of the kiddos had taken a bite of this bread right after the meal was passed around and discovered how horrid it was. They quietly asked the dorm dad, who was sitting right next to him, if they had to finish it and were told by dorm dad to do their best. The poor kid!

Needless to say, I learned my lesson and have never tried to mimic their garlic bread again and my little cooking disaster remained a regular point of teasing throughout the rest of the two years I was there.