Crouts

Quick and easy, crunchy and delicious. You are going to want to make these.

Here's what I use:

butter
brown sugar
white sugar
cinnamon
nutmeg
salt
cayenne

hoagie buns (any sturdy white bread will work. french baguette would probably be better, but ours are usually frozen and I never plan far enough ahead to thaw them out in time.)

I mix in white sugar with the brown to keep it a little more free-flowing, but other than that, there's no particular "way" to do it- just mix up the dry ingredients in a bowl and ask yourself this-
"How's it taste?". Maybe you like a lot of nutmeg. Or none at all. Perhaps you'd like a little ginger, or cloves? Go right ahead! I personally go heavy on the cinnamon, light on the cayenne, and very light on the nutmeg. Don't skip out on using the salt, though. If you're watching your sodium intake, just use a little less, but it really goes well in this. If you're using a coarse-grain salt, I'd recommend grinding it up a little in your thai granite mortar and pestle. (You do have one of those, don't you?) Once you get the mix just the way you want it, cube up that bread and coat it well in the butter you melted earlier. (A plastic squeeze bottle makes a great applicator, by the way.) Then simply toss in as much of the dry mix as you like (I like a lot) and bake in the oven on 300-350 degrees until they're all nice and crunchy. Keep an eye on them, though; all- that sugar can easily burn.

That's pretty much all there is to it! You won't believe how good they are. Sheesh, just writing about them right now makes me want to make some.


A little addon to the B.S. post-

I've heard that apple slices added to the soup as you cook it go very well with it. Haven't tried it as of yet, but it's on my to-do list.



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