Back to basics: Bread crumbs.
There is no need to purchase canisters of breadcrumbs for any recipe, ever. They are easy to make, even at the last minute. At this very moment, there is a bag of old bread in our freezer door. My Mister knows that all the old bread goes in there. All the ends of the loaves that he just won’t eat, breakfast toast that didn’t get touched and the like, it all goes into the old bread bag in the freezer.
“What on earth are you keeping that mess for” you ask? It’s my bread crumb bag!
Come Thanksgiving time, when my baby sister stands watch over me once again, making sure that I reproduce exactly my Grandmother’s stuffing recipe without deviation, I can faithfully pull out my collected bag of old stale bread that ordinarily would be hard enough to drive nails into the kitchen wall. But for my purposes, it has reached perfection.
With my handy blender, I grind up those stale slices of bread heaven and end up with a wonderful potpourri of bread crumbs, enough to finish all the Thanksgiving recipes on my list.
If you did not plan far enough ahead to start your own stale bread bag, there is still time to make your own bread crumbs for whatever need may arise.
Start with two loaves of your favorite bread.
Either cut into slices or ask your grocery baker to cut into sandwich loaf. Spread both loaves on a cookie sheet and put into your oven for 24 hours minimum. The ambient heat of your kitchen space will dry out the slices to stale and stiff. Break up the slices into a storage container and voila, you have bread crumbs. If you know you want a particular spice (for example, sage for stuffing/dressing, you know you are going to add dried sage leaves chopped into the bread crumbs) so go ahead and add while crushing the stale bread so as to work the spice thoroughly through the mix.
Bread crumbs are one of those things that we can make ourselves, with our own leftovers. We should never be paying three dollars (or more!) a canister for the priviledge of someone else grinding up a loaf of stale bread. Do yourself a favor and get into the habit of making your own breadcrumbs. Save those end pieces of the loaves that no one ever wants to eat. Those are perfect for your Thanksgiving stuffing recipe! Trust me on this (thus sayeth the Queen of Thanksgiving Day Stuffing, or so says my little sister).
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