dinner for one.

my other half was at a work dinner at sierra nevada tonight (lucky) and so i found myself faced with the glorious task of making dinner for one. now don't get me wrong, i love eating dinner with mr. brown sugar, and we love to sit down for dinner with a bottle of fancy, expensive wine and gaze lovingly at each other over softly glowing candles and our coq au vin (ala julia child, of course).

but, i also enjoy a night of dinner just for me.

sometimes, that may consist of thick spaghetti noodles cooked al dente and coated with butter and parm. sometimes, a bowl of ramen with an egg dropped in the last 4 minutes and a healthy drizzle of sriracha. rooster sauce, baby! tonight, it meant cheesy garlic bread with pecorino romano, sharp cheddar, butter, mayonaise...

wait! 

did i just lose you at mayonaise?? no, no, no. i haven't gone loco and started putting disgusting and weird things in my garlic bread. just hear me out...


a month or so ago, i was out to dinner with some girlfriends and we ordered the garlic bread. i've had garlic bread about a million and one times, so i wasn't expecting any surprises, but what showed up at our table was something different. something cheesy, yes, but also something super creamy and bubbly and garlicky and just plain delish. i drifted off into my own little happy, cheesy world while i ate that first slice. so while the girls discussed nuclear physics and how best to end world hunger, i thought about what made this bread so flippin' good??!

then i remembered a post i had read a while back by the pioneer woman. a post about garlic cheese bread. with mayo! i remembered that it sounded so wrong (mayo?? in garlic bread??)  but even when i read the recipe last year sometime, i thought it just might taste so right. so i made a mental note to myself to make some of her crazy mayo bread when i had a chance.

well, tonight was my chance.

the mr. would have been gagging on his kitchen stool if he saw me try to sneak mayo into our garlic bread. so i made it just for me. i slathered that mayo, butter, garlic, double cheese schmear on that bread. i mean, i went for it!

and you know what?

it was epic. epic.

creamy, cheesy, bubbly, garlicky, soft in the middle and a little crusty on the edges.

next time you find yourself eating solo for the night, give this recipe a go.  since it was just me, i used 1 french roll and just used a few tablespoons (each) of the butter and mayo, 2 garlic cloves and a small handful, each, of sharp cheddar and romano. if you are cooking for a small crowd, follow the recipe as is.

recipe to heaven here.