Catered family event occurs and I (with the most kids) end up bringing home a shopping bag of nice restaurant bread yesterday. The good kind, with no preservatives that really must be used up within a day or two. Although the saying sounds a little offensive "send it home with Carol, she has all those kids," the epithet spills accurately. Between teenagers, a freezer and 2 large dogs, little food waste remains.
After the day of family togetherness I set about turning all the sliced bread into delicious French Toast (Recipe Below) which I flash froze on a cookie sheet with waxed paper between each layer and then popped into several 1 gallon freezer bags. We look forward to grabbing a couple slices when desired, heating them in the toaster oven and enjoying for the next few months.
French Toast
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 c. milk
- 1/4 tsp. vanilla
- 1/8 tsp. cinnamon
- sliced bread (about 8-10 slices)
- butter
1. Heat griddle and run a pat of butter around it to melt and coat the griddle.
2. Whisk eggs, milk, Vanilla and cinnamon together; pour mixture into shallow bowl
3. Dip bread 1-2 pieces at a time in mixture until coated
4. Fry on the griddle about 2 minutes per side.
Serve with Vermont Maple Syrup
Yeah, I did that 5 1/2 times last night to get through all of my bread. Hubby helped by mixing up a few batches. I like to keep the proportions accurate so I chose not to make a huge batch of mixture, I also had no idea how much I would need so working this way allowed me to judge when more mixture was needed AND most importantly allowed me to more easily quit at any time if I didn't feel like standing over a hot griddle any longer! But I made it through.
Where is the domestic bliss? Why the story about powdered sugar?...I'm getting there.
While I was going through the bread I set all of the ends (heels, butts, whatever you call them) on a cookie sheet. I put it in the oven set to 250 degrees. When the oven reached temperature, I shut it off and set the timer for 20 minutes. Then I left them in the oven all night so the timer did nothing productive. I had decided to make bread crumbs. In the past I had heard of saving bread ends and making your own breadcrumbs and I had done this several times. It seemed like a lot of work (and kitchen mess) for something I could buy on sale for $1.99.
Today I followed the procedure below and turned my dried ends into breadcrumbs. Thrifty! Productive at home! Yes, Domestic Bliss! Since I was using a sharp knife and the food processor blade always scares me I had to focus on the task at hand. Doing this frees the mind of all the distractions and mental lists running through one's mind. When I finished I felt proud and now understand Loulou's powdered sugar smile!
Bread Crumbs
Collect old bread ends.
1. Dry them out but setting them in an oven, turning the oven to 250 degrees and then turning the oven off when temperature is reached. Depending on the size/density of the bread, leave them in the oven from 20-60 minutes. Longer will do no harm. If the bread is still a little spongy in the center, that is OK.
2. Cut hard chunks with a very sharp knive into 1/2" x 1/2" squares (no need to be fussy, just small enough for the food processor)
Work in batches and don't worry if a few chunks remain.
