Cheesy Bread 3.05 Eight O'clock at the Oasis

“He gave us free cheesy bread.” “He did? Oh!” “Yeah.” “I love the cheesy bread.” “I know you do.” “It’s all hot, too.” “Now doesn’t someone feel a little silly?” “Me?” “Should we call Pete tonight?” “Okay, after cheesy bread.” “Fine, after the cheesy bread.”

Ingredients:

• 1 ¼ cups lukewarm water

• 2 tbsp granulated sugar

• 1 packet of active dry yeast

• 2 tbsp olive oil

• 3 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 tbsp butter, melted

• 2 cloves of garlic, minced

• 1 ½ cups mozzarella cheese, grated

• ½ cup parmesan cheese, grated

• ½ tsp dried parsley

• ¼ tsp red pepper flakes

• ¼ tsp salt

• ¼ tsp pepper

• Marinara sauce for serving

Directions:

1. Mix the sugar into the lukewarm water until sugar is dissolved. Stir in the yeast and allow to sit for about 5 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, mix the olive oil, flour, and 1 tsp of salt in a large mixing bowl. Once the yeast mixture has become foamy, pour into the flour mixture. Use a dough hook or your hands to form a smooth ball of dough.

3. Brush a bowl with some olive oil and place the ball of dough in the bowl. Cover and allow to rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

4. When the dough is almost done rising, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

5. Remove dough from bowl and punch it a couple of times to knock back the air.

6. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until it forms a rectangle, about ½ inch thick. Then transfer to a baking sheet.

7. Brush the melted butter across the dough. Then evenly spread the minced garlic on top. Sprinkle on both cheeses evenly across the dough. Add the spices: parsley, red pepper, salt, and pepper evenly.

8. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until the bread is golden brown and the cheese is nice and melted.

9. Allow to cool slightly then cut in half lengthwise and then into 2-inch wide breadsticks. Serve with your favorite marinara sauce.

You can use this dough recipe to make your favorite homemade pizza.

If you’re in a rush or don’t have the patience to make your own pizza dough, you can definitely use store-bought dough and skip ahead to step 6 above. However, the dough is easy to make, you just have to deal with waiting an hour for it to rise. Cheesy bread is such a good combo with pizza, but you could have this with pasta because carbs rule! And really, you could even have this cheesy bread for breakfast, I won’t tell on you. I was on Zoom with a coworker the day after I made the cheesy bread, and I was having some of the leftovers. I noticed her eating something that looked awfully familiar. So I asked her if she was also eating leftover cheesy bread, and SHE WAS! This is your sign to have a cheesy bread Zoom date with your friend, and now you have a recipe to make your very own homemade cheesy bread.

Form your dough into a rectangle shape.

This episode is often glossed over in my mind. To me, there’s a lot in this episode that’s not really important, and I feel like it’s just filler. Granted, in a 22 episode season of hour-long episodes, there are bound to be a few filler ones, and this just happens to be one. Overall, I think season 3 is one of the strongest seasons, but this is one of my least favorite of the season just because there isn’t much that happens. This episode is essentially the Peyton Sanders of season 3 (too harsh?).

Load up your dough with lots of cheese!

Speaking of Peyton Sanders, this is his episode. Jon Hamm’s appearance in this show is somewhat of an oddity because it was before he made it big time. Before this short stint, he only had a handful of small roles, but now he’s one of the most recognizable TV actors after starring in Mad Men for 7 seasons. So perhaps, Gilmore Girls was lucky for him. I have a hard time believing Peyton is as boring as the show makes him out to be. He and Lorelai have great chemistry at the auction. I could easily see their first date going badly, but I don’t see it going badly because he’s boring. I also don’t think Lorelai would just give up free Bowie tickets. I get that Peyton is boring and maybe it's selfish and materialistic to go on another date with a guy just for free concert tickets, but you don’t do much talking at a concert, so I don’t think it would have been that bad. Besides, it would have appeased Emily. What would you have done in that situation?

The red pepper flakes give this cheesy bread a little kick.

In this episode, we’re also introduced to another character never to be seen again, Dwight. I’m actually a little sad that this is the only episode we get to see Dwight. Even though he’s an outsider, he fits in so well with the other Stars Hollow townies, and I think he could have had a couple of interesting storylines. At the very least, it could have possibly given Alex Borstein another role on the show. You know her as Drella the harpist in season 1 and Miss Celine who first appears later this season. But she also plays the voice of Dwight’s wife that appears on the answering machine. On my Instagram, I asked a poll about what everyone thought happened to Dwight. If he moved away or lived quietly in Stars Hollow since we never see him again. Quite a few people messaged me with the theory that his wife actually killed him. That’s what I call Gilmore Girls after dark.

Look at that golden brown goodness!

Dwight asks Lorelai to water his lawn while he’s away on a business trip. I’m not in the habit of getting to know my neighbors, but if I lived in Stars Hollow, I don’t think this would have been that weird of a request. For someone who has lived next door to Babette for many years, I think Lorelai would be used to off-centered neighbors. In fact, I would have loved to have seen Babette and Dwight interact as neighbors. Can you imagine the conversations they’d have?

Cut your cheesy bread into slices.

Watering Dwight’s lawn does bring us a fan-favorite scene, a soaking wet Jess. This is a popular scene amongst Team Jess for obvious reasons, but I can’t help but have a few questions. Is the spigot system really that challenging or is it just Rory? As she says to Jess, “you made it look so easy.” Is that because it actually is just that easy? How does Jess get so wet in just a matter of seconds? He’s completely soaked after standing under the sprinklers for not very long (though I don’t think fans mind that). Dwight is Lorelai and Rory’s neighbor, but Rory gets to the middle of town and runs into Jess in a matter of no time. It seems like she just rounds the corner and he’s there. Stars Hollow is a small town, but I don’t think it’s that small of a town. And lastly, I think it’s out of character for Jess to turn the sprinkler back on so that Dean can turn it off for Rory. He’s always trying to mess with Dean, so I feel like he would have wanted to stick around to see Dean’s face when he realized Jess had gotten there first to help Rory. What are your thoughts on this scene? Let me know down below.

Happy Cooking from the Hollow!

Enjoy your cheesy bread with marinara sauce!

If you missed what I made last episode, catch up here!