Garlic Breadsticks

Ahem.  It's been a while.  Ok, a LONG time.  I had every intention of scheduling some posts before we left for Christmas but one thing led to another, and it was better to leave the blog posts undone and catch our flight instead.

But now we're back and back to normal life. Which is great! As much fun as vacations are (and we went on two vacations in the past 10 days, thankyouverymuch) and as hard as it is to leave family, it still is wonderful to come home.

In between our two vacations, we came home for a very brief 12 hours on Christmas Eve into Christmas morning.  It was wonderful to be able to go to our Christmas church service but after a weeklong vacation, we had almost no food in the house.  My vegetable drawer is usually overflowing but only contained...carrots.  I also own the smallest freezer known to man so there wasn't much in there, either.  And, of course, being Christmas Day, just about the only places open are Chinese restaurants.  So it was pretty clear that I needed to make something out of very little. 

I was able to dig up some frozen homemade gnocchi and we always have marinara sauce, but, somehow, that alone didn't seem like it would cut it for Christmas lunch.  Enter: these breadsticks.  They're really simple to make and since they aren't yeast-based, they don't need any time to rise.  When you're crunched for time, it's hard to beat these. And while Christmas lunch wasn't the perfect meal (although we more than made up for the lack of vegetables later), it was delicious and fresh.

No-Rise Garlic Breadsticks
Taken from: Life's Ambrosia
Makes 20 breadsticks

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I used 3/4 cup white whole wheat and 3/4 cup all-purpose)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup yellow corn meal
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1-3 tablespoons butter (I only used 1 tablespoon but add more as needed)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1. Preheat oven (and baking stone, if using) to 400 degrees.
2. Combine first six ingredients together in a bowl. Slowly mix in milk until dough forms.
3. Lightly flour a cutting board or other hard surface and kneed dough about 4 times until forms a ball. Roll dough to 1/4 inch thick and cut into about 10 long strips.
4. Brush 1 tablespoon of olive oil on breadsticks.
5. Dust baking sheet or baking stone with the corn meal. Place bread sticks directly on the baking stone (or baking sheet). Bake 10 – 12 minutes or until golden.
6. Melt butter (I only used 1 tablespoon but feel free to use up to 3). Add in garlic and basil. Cook just until garlic is fragrant. About 30 seconds. Brush over cooked breadsticks. Cut breadsticks in half. Serve hot.