[1] Garlic bread made on the grill with Lucero garlic olive oil. The recipe is below (photo © Lucero Olive Oil [now closed]).

[2] Baked in the oven. Here’s the recipe from Taste Of Home (photo © Taste Of Home).

[3] Italian garlic (photo © Burpee).

Now that grilling season is on, make one of our favorite foods to come off the grill: garlic bread.

Garlic bread, also called garlic toast, is toasted baguette or sourdough, sliced and spread with olive oil or butter, and garlic*.

Additional ingredients may be added:

 
On the grill, individual slices are cooked. In the broiler, the loaf is partially sliced through, then brushed with garlic oil or garlic butter.

Our Mom, who made garlic bread often, wrapped the seasoned loaf in foil and cooked it under the broiler. It was the simplest and easiest of our favorite dishes from Mom.
 
 
GARLIC-INFUSED OIL

Using garlic-infused olive oil saves the step of rubbing the slices with a cut garlic clove (although mega-garlic lovers can do both). You can buy it or make it.

Here’s how to infuse your own olive oil.
 
 
RECIPE: GRILLED GARLIC BREAD

Alternatively, separate slices can be individually seasoned and grilled.

There’s nothing better than garlic bread grilled crisp on the grill, with grill marks providing extra appeal. The recipe couldn’t be simpler. We used Lucero Garlic Olive Oil.

Ingredients

 
It isn’t “official,” but you can also add crushed red pepper flakes.

Preparation

1. BRUSH the olive oil onto the bread. Grill it using a grilling pan at medium-High heat until golden. Flip halfway if you want grill marks on both sides.

2. REMOVE from the heat and rub a cut raw garlic clove across both sides of the slices, as they do in Italy.

3. SPRINKLE with garnishes and serve hot.
 
Broiler Or Oven Technique

Garlic bread baked in the oven.

Broiled garlic bread, with or without grated cheese.

Garlic bread is the most basic form of bruschetta, grilled, sliced bread which appeared in the written record in 15th-century Italy.

It can be traced back to ancient Rome, and doubtlessly before then when any bread-baking people needed to extend the life of stale bread [source].

Italian restaurants introduced garlic bread to Americans around 1950. It arrived in a bread basket, to much acclaim.

But who needs an Italian restaurant? It’s easy to make your own garlic bread, to serve with:

 
You may hear some people insist that garlic bread is not an authentic Italian food. It certainly is: as noted, it’s called bruschetta (broo-SKET-tuh).

For a more substantial variation, top the cooked slices with as many extras as you wish: cheeses, meats, vegetables, whatever.

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*If you don’t have fresh garlic, you can mix garlic powder into the butter or oil.

Ready for zucchini season?

This recipe, from Lucero Olive Oil, adds zucchini to a thicker pesto-like recipe, that’s used as a spread instead of a sauce.

You can use it on crackers, crostini, grilled eggplant rounds, pizza dough and of course, toast.

You can even add it to a savory oatmeal breakfast, mixed into the oatmeal and topped with a fried egg.

The following recipe is made with olive oil. Here’s a version made with butter and different seasonings, from Dishing Up The Dirt.
 
 
RECIPE: ZUCCHINI BUTTER

Ingredients For About 2 Cups

 
Preparation

1. COARSELY GRATE the zucchini. Let it drain in a colander for 3 to 4 minute,s or until ready to begin cooking. To hasten cooking time, squeeze the water out of the zucchini by wringing it in a clean cloth towel or paper towels.

2. HEAT the olive oil in a deep skillet. Sauté the shallots or garlic briefly. Add the zucchini and toss.

3. COOK and stir over medium to medium-high heat until the zucchini reaches a spreadable consistency, about 15 minutes.

If you scorch the bottom, turn the flame down—and scrape those delicious bits into the butter for added flavor. You can splash in a little water to help deglaze the pan. The zucchini will hold its bright green color and slowly caramelize into a vegetable jam.

4. SPREAD on toast (crostini!), or serve as a side dish/condiment Keep in a tightly-lidded jar in the fridge.
 
 
National Zucchini Day is August 8th.

[1] Spread zucchini butter on toast or crostini (photo #1, courtesy Dishing Up The Dirt).

[2] A close-up (photo courtesy Lucero Olive Oil).

[3] Zucchini on the vine (photo courtesy Burpee).

[1] Peach lemonade: lemonade and peach purée with a fresh peach garnish (photo courtesy Flavor & The Menu).

[2] Mulled lemonade, with cinnamon, cloves, fresh ginger, orange peel and pink peppercorns. Here’s the recipe from A Spicy Perspective.

[3] Blueberry lemonade, with blueberry purée and fresh blueberries. Tip: Freeze the blueberries first, and they’ll keep the drink colder, longer. Here’s the recipe from The Blueberry Council.

[4] Cucumber lemonade. Here’s the recipe, from Kimpton Hotels.

[5] Sparkling melon lemonade. Here’s the recipe from Zulka Sugar.

Love lemonade?

Here are some tips from Flavor & The Menu, a website that scouts restaurants nationwide for new ideas (with some of our own ideas for good measure).

Summer is lemonade season. You can create flavored by perusing these tips and adding a second flavor to your lemonade.

You also can do the same with limeade, which for some reason is rarely on the menu. We don’t know why: It’s just as delicious as lemonade.

August 20th is National Lemonade Day, but we didn’t want to wait until then to share these recipe ideas.

Start with fresh-squeezed lemonade. O.K., you can use frozen, but if you want to make lemonade from scratch, here’s how.
 
 
ADD FRUIT

You can do it by infusion, or by mixing purées (much faster).

 
ADD FIZZ

Sparkling water and soft drinks can create unique takes on lemonade. Use a little or a lot of:

 
Two ideas from restaurants:

 
ADD HERBS & SPICE

We’ve already mentioned basil lemonade, but there are other sweet herbs, plus spices.

 
Examples:

 
You also can make mulled lemonade. Like mulled wine, the lemonade is heated with spices and peel. But then it’s cooled and ready to refresh. Here’s a recipe from A Spicy Perspective (photo #2).
 
 
MAKE FROZEN LEMONADE

Use fruit purée or syrups to create frozen lemonade. Here’s how to make frozen lemonade.

 
Examples:

 
 
FLAVORED LEMONADE RECIPES

 
LEMONADE COCKTAIL RECIPES

 
 
THE HISTORY OF LEMONADE