Homemade Crouton recipe

If you want to know the nutritional value of this, I have no idear.  All I know is I make awesome croutons.  One of the many good ways to use up old bread.  


Recipe:
- 1/4-1/2 cup olive oil, more if you have a lot of bread
- Any stale bread from baguettes to sandwich bread to English Muffins.  (FYI: stale means old, not moldy.  Through the moldy stuff out!)
- Seasoning to your preference. Some ideas:
     • salt
     • pepper
     • garlic
     • Mrs. Dash
     • Italian seasoning
     • oregano
     • parsley
- Parmesan cheese 


Note: For this batch I used salt, pepper, seasoned salt, oregano


1. Preheat oven to 300
2. Mix olive oil and desired spices in large bowl (Note: bowl should be large enough to hold all pieces of bread with room to mix them)
3. Cut up the bread into bite size pieces 

4. Through all the bread in the oil and mix until the bread has absorbed the oil mixture (Note: many websites tell you to spread the oil on the bread, which may be beneficial if you are trying to shave off calories, but good croutons need to be somewhat saturated in oil.)

5. Spread bread pieces on a baking sheet

6. Bake for 20 minutes and then flip croutons
7. Bake 20 minutes longer and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese for 5 more minutes of cook time (Total: 45 minutes, but more or less depending on width of bread)
8. Let cool and enjoy!


These croutons are good for 2 weeks as long as you keep them in a ziploc bag or other airtight container.  

Fresh Snow = Traffic Jams, Not Jamz

Various websites had different predictions in weather for today in the North Jersey / New York area.  Some said chance of snow.  Others said snow/sleet or "freezing rain."  All were 100% certain.  

I normally give myself an hour to get to work so I can pick up some cafe con crema y azucar.  Today I did nothing out of the ordinary.  On the way to work it started to snow.  It was very slippery and I saw one car spin out.  As I drove slowly around the car with my emergency blinkers on I thought for a second get off the freeway and use your GPS to take surface streets to work.  Then I looked at the freeway ahead, saw no one, and proceeded, slowly enough.  0.7 miles from my work the road came to a standstill.  The traffic was so bad that it took me 2 hours to move 0.2 miles.  Let me emphasize that.  It took me 2 hours to move 0.2 miles!  So I left at 7:30am and clocked in at 12:30pm.  

My advice is when it first starts snowing don't continue to drive 90mph+.  It's not safe and chances are you will cause massive traffic jams for everyone trying to get to work.

So in the end, it was a terrible car accident, not the snow, that made me late for work.  Well I guess the snow was the result, or reckless driving.  You decide.  Almost every major roadway in the area had accidents and was congested due to the "snow."  There were no traffic problems coming home and the bubby spoiled be with his delicious salads and homemade Rhode Island style CALAMARI!  I'm a lucky girl.