Super Crispy Bread

Flash back to about 6 or 7 years ago with me for a moment. We has just started family dinners at Michelle's house with Kyle (her son, my husband) and Jared (Kyle's older brother). At that point in time I was rather novice cook, but it was my turn so I put on my big girl underpants and planned a menu. As if cooking in your future mother-in-law's kitchen isn't intimidating enough, I had to cook in my future mother-in-law's kitchen, who just so happened to be a semi-professional chef. I believe I made lasagne. It was the one dish I knew I could cook and everyone would like it. I had brought a loaf of bread to go with it (not traditional garlic bread, but the kind with the whole cloves of garlic in it). About ten minutes before the lasagne was done I went to put the bread in the oven so it could heat up before serving, you know, like normal people do. Michelle asked me what I was doing, and I believe my response was "Putting the bread.....in.....the....oven?" She snatched the bread from me, and, to my horror, stuck it under running water. I resisted the urge to ask her what on earth she was doing to the bread I brought for us, but then I thought maybe she was offended that I had bought bread rather than baked it myself. I stood there dumbfounded while she threw it into the oven dripping wet. When she looked up at me I must have looked like the most confused person on earth, and, of course, she laughed at me. Nice huh? After she was finished laughing she explained to me that getting the crust of the bread wet before baking it makes the crust crunchier, which is always better than only semi-crunchy crust. I still didn't quite believe her until I started slicing the loaf. Amazingly, she was right.

I figured this would make a good first kitchen tip for everyone. Run your loaf of store-bought bread (or homemade if you're crazy like that) under water, then throw it in the oven for 5-10 minutes before serving. You'll have lovely, crunchy crust with a warm soft center to go with it. I know it feels weird to run a loaf of bread under the faucet, but, trust me, it works and you'll never go back to the old way again. And don't forget to use real butter; it's so much better than the fake stuff.