Bread Pudding

Before you feed your moldy bread to the ducks outside, STOP. Back up the truck. Don't let your bread go moldy. If you're looking for a way to use up a buncha bread, then just know that you can eat it before your mold does. Last week at Break the Fast, Sister Heiss made bread pudding and posted her recipe on the ward facebook page. When she said she used hot dog buns for the bread, I thought GENIUS! I, too, had some hot dog buns leftover from the ward party and I needed to use them fast. Hot dog buns probably taste better as bread pudding than anything else. If you disagree, I'd love to hear a better way to use old (but not yet moldy) hot dog buns. But here's my adaption of Sister Heiss's bread pudding recipe.

Prep time: 10 minutes. Maybe less.

Sitting time: However long you prefer. It can sit anywhere from 10 minutes to 24 hours (in a fridge, of course)

Cooking time: 35-45 minutes

6 slices of day old bread (or 5 hot dog buns)

2 Tbsp butter, melted

3 eggs, beaten

2 cups milk (or 1.5 cups milk + 1/2 cup heavy cream)

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp butter softened (but not melted)

Pecans (if desired)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350

Break bread into pieces into a lightly greased 8 x 8 cooking pan.

Drizzle bread with melted butter. Sprinkle with pecans (if desired).

In mixing bowl, combine milk, eggs, white sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon. Beat until well mixed. Pour over bread and lightly push down with a fork until bread is covered and soaking up the egg mixture. Let it soak for (at least) 10 minutes. Unless you're SUPER rushed. Then just stick it in the oven. But not before you do this:

Mix and crumble together brown sugar, softened butter, and pecans. Sprinkle over bread/egg mixture.

THEN stick it in the oven for 35-45 minutes or until the top springs back when lightly tapped.

And while it's cooking, you can make the sauce of your choice.

Caramel Sauce (a.k.a. Kneader's Syrup)

1/3 cup light corn syrup

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

Combine in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Let boil for one minute, then remove from heat. Drizzle over bread pudding (or french toast or waffles or anything you want, really).

Tomato Basil Soup

Zupas is almost the equivalent of love. But butter already took that title. Butter=love. Zupas=infatuation? Maybe. Either way, I REALLY like their tomato basil soup, and I've tried to find a recipe for it for the longest time. Zupas posted this one on their blog (http://www.zupas.com/2009/09/recipe-roasted-tomato-soup/ ), and I'm not sure if it's the real deal...but it's super delicious. (I think the "real deal" is prepackaged and not actually made fresh at Zupas. But it tastes so great, so I don't mind.) I found this recipe like almost a year ago, but it's taken me forever to make because I didn't want to buy flippin 4 lb of tomatoes. But now that everyone's garden is exploding with tomatoes and they can't use them up fast enough, I got flippin 4 lb of tomatoes for free. Except for some of them went moldy. So I threw them away. And only made a half batch. But here you have it: my adapted recipe of Zupas' soup.

Prep Time: Maybe like 15 minutes, depending on how fast you move. Maybe more like 30 if we're counting the blending in here too. But once again, it depends on how fast you move.

Cook time: About 90 minutes total.

Makes 8 servings

This recipe does take a long time (mostly just for the tomatoes and garlic to roast) and you'll need a blender (for sure) and a sieve (unless you're lazy).

Ingredients:

4 lb tomatoes, halved lengthwise (1 lb = 2 large tomatoes. Or 3 medium tomatoes. Or 8 small plum tomatoes. Take your pick.)

6-8 garlic cloves, left unpeeled

3 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 tsp fresh oregano, minced (or use 1/2 tsp dried)

2 Tbsp fresh basil, minced (or use 1 tsp dried)

2 tsp sugar (unless, of course, you want to add more)

2 Tbsp love (a.k.a. butter)

3 cups chicken stock or low-sodium broth

2 Tbsp cream cheese (optional. Just makes it more creamy)

3/4 cup heavy cream (give or take. I'm a giver.)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Arrange tomatoes, cut sides up, in 1 layer in a large shallow baking pan and add garlic to pan. Drizzle tomatoes with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast tomatoes and garlic 1 hour, then cook in a pan on a rack. Peel garlic.

Cook onion, oregano, basil, and sugar in butter in a 6-to 8-quart heavy pot over moderately low heat, stirring frequently, until onion if softened, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, garlic, and stock and simmer, covered, 10 minutes. Mix in cream cheese (doesn't have to be mixed in super well. You're putting it all in the blender anyway.) and continue to simmer, covered, for another 10 minutes.

Puree soup in batches in a blender (be careful - you're blending hot liquids), then force through a sieve into cleaned pot, discarding solids. Stir in cream and salt and pepper to taste and simmer 2 minutes.

Divide soup among 8 bowls. Unless you're really hungry. Then get bigger bowls and divide it however you please.

Enjoy!