Saving stale bread

I don't know about you but when itc omes to bread, the biggest problem or rather, conundrum, I face is not how to bake a good loaf but what to do with stale (or about to be stale) bread? Unlike commercial bread which can keep for a week or so, home made bread keeps for four days, if you are lucky. Unless you freeze it, in which case, you can store it for a month or two or three.

Usually, I use stale bread to replenish my supply of breadcrumbs. Sometimes, while toasting the bread en route to crumbling them into crumbs I season them with a little oil and herbs or parmesan or black pepper. But I've been doing that so often now that my supply of homemade breadcrumbs is  close to obscene. Don't believe me? You know the huge peanut butter jars? Well, I have six jars of breadcrumbs. Six. Yes, six.

I needed to find some new use for stale bread because my little Dachshund Mojo (my next resort, after making breadcrumbs)  has also had enough of stale bread. I swear he rolls his eyes everytime he sees me adding the bread to his chunk of beef. Poor thang.

So, what to do with stale bread. That was my mission last night. I baked some wholemeal buns on Saturday and forgot to freeze the two leftover buns.  I needed to act quick. I decided to cut them up in strips, drizzle them with some olive oil, sprinkle with herbs and pepper (lotsa pepper) and a little salt and grill them in the oven for about ten minutes or till they were crunchy.   Good idea. These turned out wonderfully flavourful and dipping them in olive oil/balsamic vinegar would have sufficed.



But I decided to go a step further.

I tried adding pesto to the mix. Spreading it on the bread sticks or simply dipping the ends in. I had some parsley pesto in the fridge ... hmmm, pretty good.

What else. Oh, I made some almond nut butter a couple of weeks ago and had about a couple of spoonfuls left. I slathered on a thick layer on two of the strips. And I mean, a really thick layer. Oh, my.



And finally when all else fails, stale bread = crutons + soup. Never fails.

If you've got any ideas for stale bread, would love to hear em. God knows I forsee a lifetime supply...