Waste Not, Want Not

I made a beer bread last week to go along with a crockpot roast/stew. Hadn't used this recipe in years. Quite easy, and with the cold spell and rain all week, hit the spot. But with Conrad having several lunches out, we had some left over. So, for Sunday brunch, I turned the bread into savory french toast sticks. I added dried herbs and a little hot sauce to the milk and eggs and baked in the oven. Alongside, on lipped foil to catch drippings, I cooked sausage patties (I have a huge box of frozen Old Folks, made from local pig, bought pre-Weight Watchers - 1 sausage patty, 4 pts.)  Any leftover savory bread can turned into french toast for a simple supper.

Herbed Beer Bread

3 cups self-rising flour
3 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. dried Italian herbs
12 oz. room temperature beer
1/2 grated Parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp. shortening
3 Tbsp. cornmeal
2 Tbsp. melted butter or margarine

Preheat oven to 325. Grease loaf pan with shortening and sprinkle bottom and sides with the cornmeal.  In large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cheese, and herbs. Mix well. Stir in the beer. Turn batter into pan. Bake for 65 minutes. Brush baked loaf with melted butter or margarine. Turn out on rack to cool.

Conrad is a special events volunteer with Louisville's Kentucky Humane Society. Their recognition event was Saturday and as part of the festivities, a chili cook-off was announced. I work most Saturdays, but had this one off, and of course, my competitive juices were flowing. 8 chilis were entered and as our names were announced as winners, my fist went up in the air with a loud "Yes!". This always embarrasses my husband, but hey, I like to win. Based on the comments of the judges, I believe it was the cumin. I discovered cumin as a teenager and haven't made a chili without it since. I use Penzey's spices. Not cheap, but of the best quality. http://www.penzeys.com/
Anyway, here in Kentucky, the natives tend to put spaghetti or macaroni in their chili, but I could not force myself to do that to my chili entry. Growing up, I had heard of Cincinnati spaghetti, where the chili is served on top, and these chili leftovers will be perfect for that. (I'll use whole-grain.) We will serve it with chopped onions and jalapenos and a salad with fresh avocado and ripe olives before heading off to a nearby second run movie theater.

More on last night's apple desert. I grew up an only child and Dad had no sweet tooth, so I still prefer savory over sweet any day. Yesterday's attempt was to use up a little of this, that, and the other. I took two of Conrad's apples, very tasty this time of year, (Cortland's I believe), sprinkled with lemon juice, added chopped dates that Conrad had bought at grocery but did not care for as snacking dates, a few chopped walnuts that were hanging out in a bag, tossed with a little cornstarch, mixed with a 1/3 cup apple juice and placed in pie dish. I covered it with the softened remnants of horribly broken pie dough to fashion a fairly decently-looking pie and baked in the 375 oven till brown. It was much lighter and less gummier than a real pie. Conrad had three pieces.