Croutons, the icing on top

I apologize for the brief hiatus of posts. After going home for a weekend of skiing and returning to several nights of roommates cooking, I didn't have much cooking to post about. But I'm back, with my newest tasty adventure:

Like any hot-blooded lover of carbs, I feel that no salad is complete without some really spectacular croutons. They truly are the icing on top of an otherwise (usually) healthy decision. Alas, this coincides well with my extreme cheap-o status for not one, but two reasons:

1. Bread is pretty cheap if you're not buying anything fancy. Store bought croutons are marked up for the convenience of having them premade right when you want a salad.

2. Stale bread make for great croutons, so you can save double-y save money by using bread that you would throw out otherwise. (Other great uses for stale bread? Breadcrumbs for breading or making burgers/meatloaf or stuffing)

When I discovered the last bits of my baguette in my cabinet I immediately thought of making croutons. It was essentially rock solid at this point so it wouldn't have been good for much else besides breaking teeth.

I like bigger croutons so you get real flavor with them instead of just a little bit of crunch so I cubed the baguette into pretty big chunks. Then you just sprinkle with olive oil and whichever spices you most want on your croutons. I used basil and garlic powder with a little salt and pepper. For easy coating, I did this in a big tuberware so that I could put the top on and shake it up so all my bread chunks got some oil and spices.

Lastly, just spread them out on a cookie sheet and pop 'em into a preheated oven. How long you cook them depends on how crunchy (burned) you want your croutons to be. I put mine in for about 12 or 13 minutes and they were nice and crisp but kept that homey baguette flavor.

Looks pretty good, no? I didn't use all of them in one go, but they keep pretty well in a tuberware largely because they came from stale bread to start with, so how much worse could it get?

Check back tomorrow for the salad I put these little babies on.