Trying to be thrifty and not waste any food items - yesterday I created a dish that will definitely be served if I get to make the trip to Alabama later this week.

On the counter, in the kitchen, was a loaf of 2 day old French bread that was rather hard and Teeny and I considered sawing it in half and doing a little rendition of a sword fight through the house. But instead we decided to rummage through the cupboards and fridge to see what scientific experiment could be made out of stale French bread. Here is what it look like and yes it cooked a little bit too long:

Now, usually, stale bread is relegated to bread pudding but instead I was thinking, "breakfast" and something savory instead of sweet. What we found in the fridge was a package of Extra Sharp Cheddar cheese slices and some of those little Canadian bacon rounds. So we grabbed the loaf of bread and sliced it into 10 equal slices (about an inch thick). Then we slit a little pocket down into each slice, slathered the inside of the little pouch with some Stone Ground mustard and proceeded to stuff 1 Canadian bacon round (folded in half) and a half of a slice of cheese into it. Half of the loaf was put into the pan one way and the other half was put in the pan the other way. Next we mixed together 1 ½ cups of Eggbeaters (about 6 eggs), 2 ½ cups fat-free half & half and a teaspoon of vanilla. The reason the Eggbeaters were used is because they were leftover from the Spinach Quiches (recipe can be found at chefhester) I made the other day to take on my 713 mile trip to see some Mindsay friends.

Proof of Quiche, prepared, frozen and food-vac’d – ready to go.

Oh yeah - snuggs I actually made 2 of these little suckers and if you can keep your company from eating both of em then one of em will be hid in the back of your freezer, along with cooking instructions, for you eat at your convenience.  No, the crust isn't homemade - I suck at making pie crusts and it is soooooooooooo much easier to just buy them (not to mention less messy).

Back to bread experiment.  The whole egg mixture was poured over the bread, the dish covered with foil and placed in the fridge overnight to soak. This morning when I got home or rather late morning when I got up I just put the whole dish into a cold oven, turned it up to 400 and let it cook for about 30 minutes. The reason I didn’t pre-heat the oven is because I used a glass baking dish and was taking it straight from the cold fridge to the oven. I figured

Hot Oven + Cold Baking Dish = another hester fuck up.

Not that I've ever done this, but have heard that this could happen (grins).

What I will do differently next time is"

• Use metal pan instead of glass
• Spray the bottom of said pan with Pam or slather with butter (depending on whether I’m watching calories or not)
• Use Dijon mustard just because I REALLY like the taste of it
• Cut the pocket as deep as I can without cutting through bottom of bread slice
• 1 whole slice of cheese per bread pocket instead of ½.
• lower the oven rack
• cook for 20 minutes and then check for brown-ness of top

Even Magpie liked this dish - but I've been told that she inherited my taste buds and eats wierd things.