Boredom plus Bread equal Bread Pudding.

Another boring evening of reruns, so I decided it was a good time to clean out the fridge once again. There were so many different bread products - hot dog, hamburger and sub rolls, pita pockets, English muffins and what did my wandering eye see, a forgotten loaf of Texas toast bread. Only slightly stale, therefore, still usable for some recipes: French toast, garlic toast, stuffing or something that I have wanted to make from scratch for a long while, but never got to it - Bread Pudding.

I had a few recipes, looked them all over to see what was similar and what was different, and then like Dr. Frankenstein in his lab, began to experiment. Making a vanilla sauce, so I don't want the bread pudding to be overly sweet; cut the brown sugar and granulated sugar down. Love the scent of baked items that have cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla, so lets up that a little more. Milk is just too thin while heavy cream is too thick; I'm going with half n' half. Eureka!!! It's alive, it's alive!!! I mean, "it tastes good!, it tastes good!", and it did. The bread pudding by itself is not overly sweet, but once the vanilla sauce is poured on...perfect, not to the extent of being sickeningly sweet either.

The moral of this story is, " to conquer boredom, become creative".

Bread Pudding with Vanilla Sauce

Ingredients:

6 slices thick white bread*, cut into cubes (16 per slice)
½ cup raisins
2 cups half n’ half
¼ cup salted butter
½ cup brown sugar
3 eggs
1 Tbsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp granulated sugar

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease bottom and sides of a 1 ½ qt baking dish. Put bread cubes into dish and sprinkle raisins over top.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter in the half n’ half over medium-high heat; do not let it boil. While butter is melting, whish together brown sugar, eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla. Slowly add in milk mixture to bowl, constantly whisking to keep eggs from scrambling. Pour this mixture over the bread and make sure to work the mixture between the bread cubes; press bread down to help it soak up liquid.

Sprinkle sugar over top; bake for 45-50 minutes; top will be browned and all liquid would have been absorbed. Serve with vanilla sauce**.

*Note: bread, usually called Texas toast style, should be slightly stale;

**Option: Whipped topping or vanilla ice cream.

Makes 6 servings.

Vanilla Sauce

Ingredients:

½ cup each of granulated and brown sugar
½ cup half n’ half
½ cup salted butter
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preparation:

In a small saucepan, over medium heat, combine all ingredients and bring to a boil; stir occasionally while letting mixture continue to cook for 5-8 minutes to desired thickness. Pour over bread pudding.

Makes 6 servings.

Mary Cokenour