Another kitchen flop...or is it?

Unlike my last kitchen tip, this kitchen adventure actually turned out well!

Well....it didn't start well. As some of you may remember, I have had many bread-flops in my life. Several weeks ago, I added yet another bread recipe to my "this-one-doesn't-work-for-me" list.

Perhaps it was the flour. Perhaps it was the recipe. Perhaps it was the cooking time. Whatever the case, the loaves turned out very hard, "wheaty," and dry. ...Oh yes, and did I mention that I doubled the recipe? Never do that until you try it out at least once!!!

Well, as my mother says, I can't stand to waste food.

My whole family helped me eat the first loaf, when it was fresh from the oven.

Two or three family members helped eat the second loaf, a day later.

I was stuck with the last two.

I tried valiantly. For several days, I cut myself a slice to eat with every meal. Each day the bread got harder, drier, and less flavorful.

When I had about 2/3 of a loaf left, Mom positively forbade me to eat anymore, telling me I would make myself sick.

But I can't stand to waste food.

To make a long story short, I turned the hard, dry, unflavorful loaf into crisp, spicy croutons. Rescued!

I didn't have a recipe, so a simply cut the bread into cubes, discarded the crust (so hard to throw it all away! Surely I could have used it for something...), and put them in a bowl. Then, I poured about a cup of oil over the bread cubes, and added whatever smelled good from our spice rack. A pinch of parsley, a pinch of something else, and LOTS of onion and garlic powder.

Then they went into the frying pan, where I added more onion and garlic powder, and a little salt and pepper. It took them a long time to reach the "crisp" stage, but oh how good they smelled as they cooked!




All in all, my family admitted that they were glad I hadn't thrown that last bit of bread out. Yes!!