winter is coming...

... our Caesar salad has more and more "works" in it. It feels like it's morphing into an Salade Olivier.

I'm a winter cook. I like cooked salads, soups, stews and whatever can be cooked in the terra cotta pot in the oven. And I start craving home baked cookies. Does your menu change with seasons? Is there a name for this phenomena?

When we make soups, we use croutons as a garnish. So, we decided to make our own. Now, every time we plan on using the oven - we make a batch of croutons.

How to make croutons:
go to the food store that has a fresh bakery. Find "Yesterday's bread" sale shelf. Look for baguette or sliced bruschetta bread or actually any bread that you like (garlic bread should be nice). Usually, it's about .50-1.50$/bag, which is much cheaper than buying readymade croutons! Slice the bread into cubes (it's also is much easier to cut not-so-fresh bread), put on the baking sheet, [season to taste -optional], bake for 10-15 min at 300-350F, turning once.

The other recipe from the childhood is - Cheesy toast. Crunchy on the outside, soft in the middle. Oh so great with a cup of soup! Slice the bread, spread some butter on one side, put hard cheese on top, arrange on the baking sheet, bake until the cheese is melted - about 5-10 min. You probably can make it in the toaster oven too.

Stay warm.