Sunday Breakfast

A Bread Pudding Recipe and Story

We are privileged to live close to a group of friends, and we gather formally (hah! it’s a warm and casual gathering, but it’s the official meeting) once a week on Saturday evening. Sunday breakfast is just a few of us, usually, and the custom was to rotate through the breakfast restaurants in town. Only this season that has been disrupted, and we’ve been meeting up for breakfast and a quiet time of fellowship at our house, instead. I like it very much, doing a little cooking and then being able to relax and talk and not have to deal with all the background chatter of a restaurant, or tracking down a server if it’s busy, and it’s much less expensive to feed them here than it is to go out…

My aesthetic is warm and cozy. I’m not spending hours making the house and table Pinterest ready, just a few minutes to tidy up.

I enjoy hosting. It’s not something I got to do when a younger mother, and it isn’t something I grew up with my parents doing. Family meals, yes, although generally those weren’t held at our house. So many church potlucks in fellowship halls. I didn’t get to be hostess until I was in my thirties. As a young mother, getting the house clean and ready for company while dealing with four small children was a whole battlefield campaign in and of itself. It wasn’t until the kids were older, and able to help, that we began to enjoy the perks of being hospitable. For one thing, if everyone is at a home, you don’t have to worry about tying up a table for a server while you talk for hours. And if someone needs to move around and ease a sore back, that can be managed without disruption. The bathroom is right there, and it’s clean and private.

Did I mention it’s less expensive? We were talking about this after Saturday Supper. The price of food seems to be only going up. Restaurant prices are soaring right alongside food costs, with the added overhead of building and staff. Plus, while I enjoy hosting for the group, I don’t cosset them. I make them the same kinds of farmhouse meals I grew up with. Ok, fine, sometimes I fling out and stretch my culinary skills, but my point is that you don’t have to do that. Today, I’m serving leftovers. Specifically, I’m making chocolate brioche bread pudding, because a few weeks ago after a supper, there was a lot of chocolate brioche rolls left at my house. I’m frugal. I put them in the freezer, knowing this was going to be what I’d do with them. I could do it with most any leftover bread, of course. I could even do a savory, with, say, a leftover garlic bread loaf, some cheese in the mix, and perhaps a sprinkling of herbs as I mixed it up. A savory bread pudding can also be done dairy-free, by using a homemade stock in place of the milk.

Leftover bread, and I didn’t even use all of it up for this meal, the rest went back in the freezer for another time, another recipe.

We have access to farm eggs at a reasonable price, which are lovely eggs and at this point less expensive than the store eggs. I will sometimes buy bacon ends and pieces, and have I talked about the bucket o’ bacon grease? If not, let me know and I’ll tell that story. I can make bread myself, very cheaply, with flour, water, yeast, and a bit of salt - oh, it can be much more complex than that, but that’s the most simple loaf. Milk has gone up, of course, but I have neither the room nor the inclination to keep a goat much less a cow.

I can garden, and am. Someone who isn’t allergic to rabbits could raise a few in a backyard hutch for their manure and meat. I could keep chickens, and attempted last year, but for now it’s better for me to buy the eggs locally. I shop wisely and keep an eye out for sales, rarely spending for brand names, and cook creatively to take advantage of the less expensive ingredients to make the grocery budget go further. There is no wrong way to do this. And there are so many ways to use up leftovers, reducing wasted food and thereby, your grocery bills. This is one of them.

Bread Pudding

preheat oven to 350F

• 8-10 cups of stale bread, cubed

• 6 eggs

• 2 c milk

• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon (this could be a spice blend, whatever you like! I kept it simple as I had the chocolate already in the bread)

• 1 tbsp vanilla

Cube the bread, roughly into 1” cubes, and place into a casserole or other baking dish.

Beat together the eggs, milk, and spices. Pour over the bread, and mix carefully to ensure all bread is coated.

At this point you can cover the pan tightly and refrigerate overnight, if so desired. Add about 15 minutes to the baking time.

Slide the uncovered baking dish into the oven at 350F for 50-60 minutes. It will be done when a tester comes out clean from the center.

You can, if not starting with a sweet bread, add about a third to a half cup of sugar to this to make it sweet if you like. Beat it into the liquids to dissolve it.

Serve warm. If you want to be extra, pour warm caramel sauce over!

This serves six (although we sat five to breakfast this morning) accompanied by sausages.

Bread pudding, warm caramel sauce, and sausages for a very nice breakfast!

Sharing a meal, with good conversation and people you love, is important. I have seen many comments online in various places about hosting, being afraid or uncertain about how to do it. It’s not difficult. I encourage you to try it, keeping it casual and low-key. I think I’ll write more about it next Sunday, as well, about how to manage it without overdoing it and wearing yourself out. There seems to be some mythology about the ideas of the cocktail parties of a past time, which put pressure on the idea of how the hostess should dress, splurge, and exhaust herself. Totally unnecessary! Just think of it as opening your home to friends, and keep it sweet and simple. The company is there to see you, and each other, not to be wowed by the house and table.