Rebecca Stark is the author of The Good Portion: Godthe second title in The Good Portion series.

The Good Portion: God explores what Scripture teaches about God in hopes that readers will see his perfection, worth, magnificence, and beauty as they study his triune nature, infinite attributes, and wondrous works. 

                     

Entries in use it up (3)

Friday
Jul032009

Thirteen Ways to Use Stale Bread

If the bread is moldy, you’ll want to toss it out, but if it’s just old and dry, it’s a handy kitchen ingredient. With the help of my readers, I’ve compiled this list of ways you can use up bread that’s gone stale.

  1. Make homemade croutons. This favorite way to use up old bread was suggested by Rosemary and seconded by Kim. I’d say that most of my leftover bread ends up as croutons. The great thing about using your old bread to make croutons is that just about any type of bread except sweet breads is good for it. I use rye, corn, whole wheat, french, sourdough and more. We prefer our croutons made from a mixture of different types of breads. I make croutons as directed in these instructions for homemade croutons from About.com except that I toss my already-cubed bread in the oil mixture instead of brushing precubed bread slices with oil. This is because I cube my odds and ends of bread and collect them in a bag in the freezer until I have enough to use. We use our croutons in green salads like everyone else, but the boys also eat them as a dry snack food like you’d eat popcorn or potato chips.
  2. Make toasted bread crumbs (Rosemary’s suggestion) to use as toppings for baked dishes or as an ingredient in meatloaf (Kim’s suggestion) or meatballs. I just make my bread crumbs by crushing already toasted croutons.
  3. Use your past-its-prime bread for garlic toast, a suggestion that also comes from Rosemary. One thing we never have in this house is leftover garlic toast. The boys who eat croutons as a snack food are  also crazy about garlic toast.
  4. We can’t forget french toast, can we? From Emmie:
    Stale bread? French toast! An egg, some milk, vanilla, and a little sugar; dunk the bread, fry it up, put some butter and syrup on it. Cheap and a favorite breakfast-for-supper here.
    We do the french toast for supper thing here, too. And did you know you can make child-pleasing baby french toastlets from leftover hot dog buns?
  5. Those baguettes or loaves of French or Italian bread get old so quickly, but you can use the less-than-fresh slices for bruschetta.
  6. While we’re on a toast kick, can I just say that any old dry bread is better after it’s been toasted? If you’re too lazy or busy to make garlic toast or french toast, just put that dry bread slice (or two) in the toaster and finish with your favorite toast topper.
  7. Kim suggests using leftover bread for stuffing for turkey or chicken. (Did you know that bread cubes of mixed types make delicious stuffing?) Your favorite cook book will have recipes for you to use. Since we prefer wild rice stuffing in our holiday turkeys, once in a while I’ll put together this mix for stove-top stuffing to use in more ordinary meals.
  8. Then there’s bread pudding, which was also suggested by Kim. My mother made bread pudding often and I love it. I make it when oldest daughter is home because she loves it, too. We like our bread pudding flavored with cinnamon and brown sugar, but there are many different recipes. In bread pudding, you can use up those bits of sweet breads you can’t use for croutons.
  9. Kim also uses old bread “to make a panade when making bolognese sauce.”
  10. Serve a strata for brunch. Here’s a basic strata recipe than can be switched up using different ingredients.
  11. You can crumble dried out bread in a bowl and add sugar and milk like you would to breakfast cereal. When I was a girl, this was one of my favorite after school snacks and I wasn’t the only kid I knew who ate bread this way. This simple comfort food even warrants a recipe from Nigella. Lately, my youngest son has been eating leftover cornbread like this and he likes it so much that I double the recipe just to ensure that there’s some left for another day.
  12. It’s summer, so why not use your bread leftovers in panzanella, a salad made from bread cubes.
  13. If all else fails, Kim says you can take the kids to feed pieces of dried out bread to the ducks. 

This list, of course, is not exhaustive. What ways do you use old bread at your house?

Monday
Jun292009

Stale Bread: How You Can Help 

The post with ways to use up leftover mashed potatoeshas been very popular, so, link hog that I am, I’ve decided to add to the posts in the use-it-up category with a post on ways to use up stale bread. I’m shooting for Friday as the day to post it and this time I’m asking you to help me out beforehand.

Do you have a favorite way to use up old bread or a recipe that calls for it? Tell me all about it in a comment on this post or post the information on your own blog and give me the link. If you’d rather not comment, just email your info to me by clicking on the contact button right under the blog title above.

On Friday, I’ll collect everything into one big (I hope) post, adding my tips and recipes (if there’s anything left for me to add) and giving credit where credit is due, with a name acknowledgement for nonbloggers and link acknowledgement for bloggers.

So what have you got for me?

Tuesday
May052009

Eleven Delicious Ways to Use Leftover Mashed Potatoes

Sometimes I make extra on purpose just to make sure I have leftovers because there are so many tasty ways to use them.

Potato patties are just one of many mouthwatering ways to use them up.

  1. Make potato patties from your leftover mashed potatoes. (Maybe you call them potato pancakes or potato cakes.) You can serve these with eggs for breakfast or accompanying a meat dish for dinner. I just use my hands to form 1/3 cup cold leftover mashed potatoes into a 1/2 inch thick patty, place the patty in greased and heated non-stick pan, fry it until the bottom is browned, and then turn and brown the other side. Sometimes I add an egg to the potatoes before forming them into patties and sometimes I coat the sides of the patties with flour before frying them up. If you need more specific instructions, here are two recipes: Crispy Potato Patties and Irish Potato Cakes.

  2. Use your leftover mashed potatoes in raised breads. Most recipes for potato breads and rolls tell you to use potatoes mashed without butter and milk added, but there are a few recipes that will work with leftover mashed potatoes. I posted a recipe for Mashed Potato Bread last week, and here’s one for dinner rolls that uses 1/2 cup mashed potatoes prepared with butter and milk.

  3. Mashed potatoes can go in soup, too. Make a simple potato soup with your leftovers or stir them into any creamed soup.

  4. Deep fry leftover mashed potatoes as potato balls or potato cheese puffs.

  5. And as long as we’ve got the deep fat fryer out, we might as well make make doughnuts.

  6. Mix an egg and some garlic powder in your leftover mashed potatoes and turn them into a baking dish. Top with pats of butter and bake at 400F for 30 minutes. I don’t know what this dish is called, but it’s my sons’ favorite way to have their potatoes served.

  7. I’ve never used mashed potatoes in the center of a meatloaf, but some people have and it looks yummy. This recipe uses instant mashed potatoes, but there’s no reason you couldn’t substitute your already made leftover ones.

  8. Put leftover mashed potatoes on top of hot dogs. I haven’t tried this, either, but the recipe contributor says that kids love their hot dogs served this way. Who am I to argue?

  9. Put together a shepherd’s pie. This is a good way to use leftover meat, gravy and cooked vegetables, too. Just cut the meat into bite-sized pieces, mix the meat and vegies into the gravy, and then spread the mixture in the bottom of baking dish. Top with a layer of leftover mashed potatoes and bake at 400F for 30 minutes. If you want a cheese topping, you can sprinkle the potatoes with grated cheese during the last 15 minutes of baking. Here’s a recipe for Shepherd’s Pie that uses up turkey dinner leftovers: Turkey Shepherd’s Pie with Leftover Mashed Potatoes. This recipe is called Mashed Potato Hot Dish, but I’d call it a shepherd’s pie made with ground beef. Or how about Rachel Ray’s 30 Minute Shepherd’s Pie, which also uses ground beef?

  10. Bake muffins. Another way to use leftover mashed potatoes that I haven’t tried, but I bet these muffins are moist.

  11. If you have leftover cooked roast beef along with your leftover mashed potatoes, serve Italian Beef Rolls.

What do you do with your leftover mashed potatoes?