Fried baguette with fresh spinach

We have had some amazing meals but I have not blogged them. The last week has been a special kind of crazy. On a whim, I started grad school (first step toward an MA in European History). And I broke my ankle.

Between boredom and necessity, I started experimenting in the kitchen and developed these:

So good I had to plate them on my fancy Royal Doulton. 

The ingredients are all hunks of leftover things... A day-old baguette, a random chunk of mutilated cheddar, some fresh spinach that is trying so hard not to wilt and a partial stick of butter my eleven-year-old daughter removed from the wrapper so she could use the wrapper to grease a pan.

I sliced the day old baguette thinly, to increase the chances that a layer of butter smeared across it and heated in the cast iron skillet would restore its edible potential.

I prepared each slice with a thin layer of butter on each side, dropping them directly over the center of the skillet preheated on medium. This allowed them to heat quickly and brown nicely on the edges. I flipped the bread over, topped with a very small piece of cheddar, a spinach leaf or two and a second small piece of cheese.

The assembled discs I pushed to one side of the pan, farther from the heat, and covered. I wanted to melt the cheese but not burn the bread. Probably 60 seconds.

I sprinkled with the tiniest bit of garlic pepper and some crushed red pepper flakes. I will be expanding on the concept for dinner.