If you’ve ever belonged to an organization where you are asked to supply snacks, or luncheon fare, then you are probably familiar with leftovers.
Peg volunteered to help with lunch for her P.E.O. AY chapter. My job was to buy baguettes and cut them into rounds. This meant visiting the Safeway at North 26th and Pearl in Tacoma. They bake excellent French and Sourdough baguettes. I bought three and had a full bowl with just two. The next morning we took the remaining loaf to a friend’s home and presented a “bread sabre” to him as his birthday present. He was overwhelmed, or was it underwhelmed?
Peg returned from her meeting with the entire bowl of baguette rounds. Saturday, after looking at the bowl for two days, I suggested Peg make bread pudding. I showed her a simple one paragraph recipe and we made it together. I tore the pieces into smaller chunks, drizzled melted butter over them and then threw a handful of raisins into the pan. Next I added half a can of southern fried peaches. Peg prepared the eggs, brown sugar, cinnamon, and milk. We poured it over the bread crumbs and put the pan into the oven for forty minutes.
After letting the bread pudding cool for twenty minutes Peg and I shared a wonderful piece of custard and two-day-old bread. It was very, very tasty. At first Peg had been reluctant to eat a piece of bread pudding because she wanted to save the entire pan for Easter Dinner, but I cut a good sized piece and gave her a taste. On Sunday morning, however I noted a second smaller piece had disappeared.
Saturday morning I had made French toast out of five rounds. Sunday morning I decided on little round toasted cheese sandwiches. They were easy to make and easier to eat. I used some shredded Cheddar and Romano with a couple shakes of black pepper. Each round took two bites. They were crunchy, buttery, and slightly salty. I washed them down with my homemade concoction of lime juice, mango nectar, and two diet lemonade single packages. The breakfast made reading the Sunday papers from Seattle and Tacoma even more pleasant. Hopefully, there will still be bread pudding to share at our family Easter dinner. And there was. Peg’s sister and nieces made oatmeal cookies as well as bringing Girl Scout cookies and assorted Easter bunny chocolates. Monday morning a small serving of bread pudding was still available, but not for long.
Another recipe is party bread. Slice the baguette lengthwise, put ground meat (seasoned and with chopped onions) on top, then place slices of tomatoes on top. Season the tomatoes. Bake till the meat is browned and the tomatoes are sizzled, then bake over with cheese. No left-overs ever!
Sounds delicious!
Jaynie,
Thanks for commenting.
Actually, it got even better. Monday I made the little rounds as French toast, again, but this time cooked up some leftover ham from the Easter dinner. I injected mango nectar before placing the ham in the oven and then near the end poured both mango nectar and ginger syrup over the ham in the last ten minutes in the oven. I kept the drippings and then in a small frying pan warmed up the ham and reduced the drippings to a red-ish brown tar. Each little round had a two by three inch hunk of ham coated with mango tar. The mango tar even elevated some thinly sliced lamb a couple of days later. OMG I’m hungry again . . . Thanks for reading. Don
Susanne,
We’re waiting for a dinner invitation.
Don