So far behind I'll never catch up

I haven't posted anything new in weeks.  I guess I just got busy with work, and after playing in my kitchen every weekend I haven't had the energy to sit down to write about it all, so I'll just try to catch up a bit now.

Let's start with tonight and work backwards.  We had a most delicious crock pot meal tonight.  Cheesy Panade with Swiss Chard, Sausage and Beans was a bit hit, at least with the adults in the house, or at least my version was.  I couldn't make the recipe exactly as directed because I couldn't find  swiss chard anywhere - it's February in northern Manitoba - so I used fresh spinach instead.  Chicken sausage?  Um...how about Winkler Mennonite Farmer Sausage instead?  Whatever.  Improvise if you have to.  I had a quarter of a loaf of no knead bread left from the weekend's baking frenzy, which was perfect for this dish.   I prepared the sausage/onion/spinach mixture and toasted the bread cubes last night and threw everything into the slow cooker at noon today, set it to low and let it go until about 4:00 at which time I changed the setting to "keep warm" until suppertime.  Oh man.  What can I say.  It was something like a savory bread pudding with sausage and beans and cheese.  And spinach.  Wow.  It was amazingly good - and what a relief that was, as it made a BIG batch.  The kids didn't really like it and just picked out the sausage and beans, but I don't care.  More for me.  I know what we'll be eating for supper tomorrow.  If the kids don't like it they can eat toast.

It smelled so good I forgot to take a picture until after we ate.

Next.  We have talked about my bread obsession.  Nothing makes me happier than mixing, kneading, baking and then pulling the magic that is bread out of the oven.  One day I decided a sweet bread was in order and it was time to bake Chocolate Swirl Bread.  This bread had so much potential: chocolate, orange, vanilla, sugar, BREAD...but I didn't do such a good job of following the recipe.  I did most of what it said, but when it came to kneading a quarter of a cup of oil into dough that already contained a quarter of a cup of butter, I thought, that's just excessive, and I left it out.  Big mistake.  My bread turned out to be a little on the dry side, which probably was not helped by me overbaking it.  What a crime.  If I make this again, I will do it right.

My picture is upside down.  I am not sure why, but I'm too tired to fix it.

However, not all was lost.  I wrapped it up and stuck in the freezer for a while until I found this wonderful bread pudding recipe.  My dry loaf was perfect for it.  This really was wonderful.  Jack and I had some after it came out of the oven, but no one else seemed interested.  Huh.  I don't know what's wrong with some people.  It's good leftover, but nothing compared to how good it was the day I made it.  Mmm...comforting custard soaked bread on the bottom and delightfully toasted bready goodness on the top.  Don't throw out your stale cinnamon buns from now on.  You'll want them for this.

Aaaaand I just realized I don't have a picture of this.  Oh well.  You'll just have to take my word for it that it looks a lot like the picture from theKitchn. 

Well, I'm still behind, but am out of time for tonight, so you'll just have to wait with bated breath for the next installment.  Until then, go bake something and tell me about it for a change.