Over at Slashfood, Marisa McClellan wonders whether she should take those few slices of bread left over from restaurant foods. Is it polite? I say take it. You’ve paid for it, and it will be thrown away if you don’t. Odds and ends of bread can be used for a lot of things. I’ve started cubing the ends of bread my family won’t eat. Before I started doing this, I would find a lot of green fluffy bread ends hidden in the back of the cupboard.
Now I cube the bread and throw it in a bag in the freezer. The whole process takes about 2 minutes. Of course, if you’ve brought home some particularly yummy bread, by all means make toast as Marisa did, or make toasted garlic bread. Stale bread makes the best toast. But once cubed it’s ready for a number of uses. With the holidays coming, the obvious use is in stuffing. Or, make an old fashioned bread pudding. Toasted, the cubes become croutons for soup or salad.
Or turn the bread into crumbs. A blender, food processor or old meat grinder will do the trick. Soft crumbs make nice crusts over veggies mixed with grated cheese. Dried crumbs can be used to coat meats or make crumb cakes. And although you can buy gourmet bird feed, chickadees and juncos aren’t too sophisticated to eat breadcrumbs scattered on the snow.
If you are feeling creative you can make a bread dough sculpture with your odds and ends. Take the crusts off (put them in the bread cube bag in the freezer) and use about a tablespoon of white glue per slice. Knead the glue in until you have a slightly sticky modeling dough. You can colour the dough with a drop of food colouring or some powdered tempera paint. Or you can paint and varnish it once it’s dry. Of course the finished result is inedible.
So what do you do with your odds and ends of bread? Leave a comment below!
bread, cubes, baking, cooking, crumbs, freezing
Most grocery stores have online flyers, so if you don’t get the paper version in your mailbox, or at your doorstep check for an electronic version. I’m a NoFrills shopper and a bulk food buyer. I’m the person who snaps up all the last-day-of-sale meat deals and buys the on-sale canned foods by the case. I’m not however, a coupon user. But today I thought I might check out what online coupons I could find. What I found instead was a very convenient website called GrocerySavings. Here you can compare flyer prices, make up your grocery lists, keep a price book, find coupons and get money saving tips. The site is easy to use and navigate. The price book entry is simple and quick. I really like that you can make up your grocery list and compare prices between several grocery stores. This is much easier than leafing through flyers looking for an item. By the look of the forum, the site isn’t very busy yet. But considering the features and ease of use I think it has a ton of potential. I’ve left some comments on the forum under the username Freyfrey. Check it out!
GrocerySavings - Find the cheapest grocery store flyer prices
food, groceries, canada, shopping, grocery, save, buying, shopping
Today is Remembrance Day in Canada and Veteran’s Day in the USA. On both sides of the border we will be taking time to reflect on the meaning of this occasion. Not only will we take time to ponder the human sacrifice, but on the sacrifices of those beings who unknowing contributed with little thanks or tribute. On my About Horses website, I’ve posted a blog about the Forgotten Army.
I came across these web pages during my research and found them worth reading.
2005 Mayor of Toronto’s Speech (that’s strange punctuation isn’t it?)
In Flander’s Fields Did you memorize it in public school?
remeberance day, poppies, legion, veterans, flanders field, poetry, poem
Competition season is over for us. While it’s important to keep our horse’s hooves in good shape with regular farrier trims, it might be a time to take a break from shoes. Do you shoe your horse over the winter months? Why? Do the type of shoes (or pads etc… change?) Take the Poll
horses, polls, hooves, shoeing
Poorly fitting saddles can cause a number of different problems for you and your horse. What is your horse trying to tell you about the saddle he is wearing? Read more
Those ads you see scattered around newspapers may be effective advertising for some groups and businesses. Here’s a few things I learned when I sold display advertising:
- If there are people (or anything with eyes), position the picture so they are ‘looking’ into the center of the ad. If you have a picture that is ‘looking’ out of the ad, you’ll draw reader’s eyes to the ad next to yours. (Consider this in your webpages too.)
- No more than 3 typefaces in an ad. (That’s fonts to you youngun’s.)
- Keep borders very simple–such as a solid one point line.
- Leave lots of white space. Don’t try to cram too much in.
- Make sure your information is correct–double check spelling of contact, business names and places and accuracy of phone numbers and prices.
- Don’t use a solid line anywhere across the ad.
- If your ad is a coupon expect a low return. (Way back then the rate was 2%–can’t imagine this has changed.)
- Most newspapers have someone on staff that can design your ad. You probably don’t need to hire anyone else if you don’t want to create your ad yourself. They should also be able to send the ad to other newspapers if you want them to.
Anything to add? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
A very long time ago I read a book about a young woman who rode across Canada in the earlier part of the 20th century. I remember being fascinated by the book and over the years wished I could find it again. The problem was, I couldn’t remember the book’s author or title. Then I ran across HorseTravelBooks.com. After searching through the site I came acrosss Saddlebags for Suitcases, by Mary Bosanquet. Although the title and name don’t sound familiar, the description does. Whether it is the book or not, I’d like to get my hands on a copy because it sounds like a wonderful story.
I just put the last touches on my President’s message of the Sun and Sand Speakers Toastmasters website. If you are curious about Toastmasters and what we do, I encourage you to go to a meeting as a guest. There is never any charge and even if you decide Toastmasters isn’t for you, (and I can’t imagine who it wouldn’t be for) you’ll still have learned something new. I think my enthusiasm for this group comes through in my message.
Here’s a great place to start if you want to learn to cook: StartCooking.com. Watch the videos, check out the recipes, and get great tips like how to reduce mess as you cook (some suggestions aren’t very environmentally friendly but should provide ideas you can adapt).
recipes, cooking, learn to cook
There are some things I shouldn’t learn how to do, and making crullers is one of them. I recently learned how to make kettle corn. Of course I always have to tweak a recipe. So it takes a few batches to get it right: add a 1/2 tsp of vanilla, use brown or white sugar depending on how you want it to taste, margarine tastes better than oil. Now I’d like to wipe the knowledge from my brain because I really don’t need to EAT kettle corn. Crullers are another thing I shouldn’t learn how to make. No one should eat crullers. There is nothing nutritionally redeeming about crullers. Deep fried white flour and sugar…the deadly sins of a good diet all rolled into one. I can hardly wait try the recipe. Apron Strings & Simmering Things: Crullers