Bread Pudding

Well, we voted on a bell schedule.  It was one our school developed which is quite similar to the current bell schedule.  Now we need to hope it passes muster (some brass has to approve it).  If it passes, I'm going to be happy.  I think it's a sound schedule, and it really is workable.

I spent the better part of the week agonizing over how to motivate the students to do better on schoolwide reading assessments.  I certainly don't want to be called the albatross of the language arts department!

My sweet tooth escalated this week, and I ended up making several desserts.  One thing I made was bread pudding.  For some reason, we always seem to have odds & ends bread pieces in the freezer.  Not wanting to waste, I think I'm the one who keeps throwing bread (still in the bag) into the freezer, thinking I'll eventually get around to making croutons.

I accumulated enough bread slices to make the volume requirement for this recipe.  But this recipe is so delicious that it wouldn't be a bad thing to buy bread just for a pan of bread pudding.  Of course, there was one occasion where I bought a loaf of French bread on the way home from work.  When I got home, I realized the bread was old and hard (perhaps this was the reason for the discounted price).

What to do?  Make bread pudding of course!

click on recipe title for printable recipe

Kikukat's Bread Pudding

     1 lb bread, cut or torn into 1/2" cubes (about 12 cups)

     1/2 c dried fruit

     6 eggs

     1 c sugar

     2 tsp vanilla extract

     1 block butter, melted and cooled

     1/2 tsp cinnamon

     1/4 tsp nutmeg

     4 c milk, heated in microwave for 1 minute

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9 x 13" pan.  In a large bowl, toss bread cubes and fruit.  Combine eggs, sugar, vanilla, butter, cinnamon, and nutmeg using a whisk.  Gradually whisk in milk.  Stir egg-milk mixture into bread-fruit mixture.  Pour into prepared pan.  Bake for 40 minutes.

When I was younger, I liked eating cold bread pudding.  I liked the cool, creaminess of it.  But as I got older, a heated chunk of bread pudding with a generous pat of melting butter is my favorite way to eat it.

 

Hilo welcomed Chinese New Year this weekend with a festival at Kalakaua Park.  We arrived just after 10 am, and it was already crowded.  There were a handful of food booths and a whole bunch of craft fair type booths.  The only quasi-Chinese foods sold were shrimp chips and gao.  I was tempted to buy a bag of shrimp chips, but I changed my mind when I saw them sodomized with odd flavors like garlic and furikake.  The gao booth was another scene of corruption.  In addition to traditional gao, they had the audacity to sell green tea-flavored and chocolate-flavored gao.  Popo would've fainted! 

The Big Island Shaolin Arts Lion Dancers culminated their trek throughout downtown Hilo with a performance on Kalakaua Street (between the park and the East Hawaii Cultural Center).

I didn't buy anything at the festival, but on the way back to the car, I bought 2 Kendama from the Irie Smoke Shop (on the advice from one of my favorite students).

I remember taking the Ds to "feed the lion". . . feels like a thousand years ago!