Breaking Bread

Herb-seasoned Croutons

Growing up in a large family, supported by a modest one-parent income (my mother stayed at home while Dad worked), you learn to be thrifty. You might be familiar with the saying, "Waste not, want not". We stuck to that in my family. I wore hand me downs, we ate a lot of leftovers and we were always finding ways to re-purpose or recycle lots of items. My family was "green" before global warming became an everyday term. These habits have stuck with me as I have grown and have come to live on my own. Thriftiness is especially helpful in my current tight financial situation.

I received a comment last week asking what I was doing with all the pastries I am making. No, I am not eating them all by myself (though I do consume my fair share). Most are distributed amongst my friends. My roommates pretend to groan when I bring another pastry box into the house, but by the following week's class the box has mysteriously been emptied. I also freeze some of the items I'm making. I have 2 loaves of cinnamon raisin benoiton, a few muffins and scones, and 3 small individual tarts in the freezer for whenever I need a quick dessert to go with tea or coffee, of just a midnight or early morning snack. My thriftiness does not end there.

I had a bag of baguettes drying on my counter since week 2? I just couldn't bare the idea of just throwing them out. This morning I woke up feeling the need to attack my kitchen and whip it into shape, along with making quiche so I have something to eat this week. The bag of dried baguette pieces caught my attention. I tried breaking the large chunks into small enough pieces to put in the food chopper to make bread crumbs, but it hurt my hands. This was some seriously dry bread. Then inspiration struck; I grabbed my rolling pin, a plastic bag and headed to the table. Thankfully my roommates were already awake before I started pounding away with my pin, busting the bread into bits. It was very therapeutic.

Once I felt I had sufficiently broken up the bread (and the plastic bag had split and was leaking crumbs), I picked out large pieces for croutons and moved the smaller ones into the food chopper to reduce to smaller crumbs. I seasoned the crouton pieces with some dried herbs and olive oil, spread them on a baking sheet and set them the oven at a low temperature to dry. Then I made Pate Brisee and a mushroom and sweet onion quiche filling. Both turned out lovely, but now that I look at those beautiful croutons all I can think is, I need to make Onion Soup Gratinee.... Maybe tomorrow morning after I get my $5 thrifty hair cut and do some bargain shopping at Wal-mart.

Sorting the big pieces from the little pieces

Ready for the oven

Sweet Onion and Mushroom Quiche

I'm off to school. Meringues and dessert sauces/fillings this week, and more Crepes!