Stale Bread

 The rain was back, leaving me to entertain myself inside. While the weather here is not as hot as other places are experiencing, it is still very humid. Since my house is tiny, using the oven means the entire house gets warm. Very warm.

I had a loaf of Italian bread that was stale. We had eaten about 1/4 of the loaf while it was fresh. You all know how I hate waste and I was pondering what to do with the rest. Bread pudding came to mind, then I remembered I didn't want to use the oven. Even with the air on, the house would be uncomfortable. The rain was steady enough to keep us indoors.

I logged onto Pinterest, hoping I could stay on task, as Pinterest has so many things I could easily get caught up in and forget my objective. French toast is a option, but how much French toast can two people eat? I really wanted bread pudding. Then I remembered the Instapot sitting abandoned on my counter. What is better than bread pudding? Bread pudding with rum sauce!

I sliced the bread and toasted it .... in the toaster. I know the oven would have been quicker, but the heat would linger. If I was going to fire up the oven, then I would just use it for the entire process. I found that turning the bread slices on end allowed three slices to be toasted at once.

While the toaster did its thing I mixed the wet ingredients. It called for a cup of heavy cream and a cup of whole milk. Like the oven, a trip to the store was not in my plans, so I just used the 2% milk I had on hand. I figured the five eggs would bind the ingredients enough and look at all the calories I was saving! 

Rum was the next missing ingredient. I had rum extract and there was some vodka left from making vanilla extract. I am still determined to make this with what I have on hand. It is not like we are hosting a dinner, it is just the two of us. For company I would have gone shopping. I figured that vodka is the mainstay of most extracts and I was adding rum extract in place of vanilla, so .... I used the vodka.

I was out of nutmeg! Maybe I should have gone to the grocery, but I just left it out and added a little more cinnamon and a touch of allspice. It is right there in the name, ALLspice! The bread was toasted and torn into bitesize pieces and placed in the buttered insert from the instapot. I poured the liquids on and it was quite soupy. Maybe the cream was important? Too late now. I set it to slow cook for four hours without much confidence for success.

The aroma was heavenly. I had used the slow cooker very early in the day to make a Portuguese pork dish that turned out to be really good served on rolls. It is hard to cook for two people after having a family of seven to feed. We always have leftovers for another meal.

We ate our supper while the rain continued and the bread pudding was nearing the end of its cooking process. While I cleaned up I turned the slow cooker off and peeked at the pudding. It looked okay, but I knew it could have a good bit of liquid hiding in there. I made the rum sauce to top it off, hoping I wasn't wasting my time with my vodka concoction.

I had not settled in my seat before HeWho inquired about the pudding and when it would be ready to eat. The recipe called for raisins and I was happy to find a box of golden raisins in the pantry. HeWho loathes raisins, but I have found that using golden raisins is okay. If he can't see them, he is none the wiser.

I scooped into the pudding and it was perfection! I added a scoop of vanilla ice cream, then topped it off with my fake rum sauce. Oh my goodness! I would have skipped supper and just eaten this had I known just how good it would be. I had some for breakfast the next day, hey, it had 5 eggs in it!