Italian Bread Crumbs

If I have to hear one more time from my boyfriend about how his mother would have made croutons out of that leftover bread, I'm going to snap.  Everything I do.  Everything I fix.  Everything I make to eat.  And that's what I get ... You're throwing that bread out?!  Hurmph.  My mother would have made croutons out of that leftover bread.  Honestly croutons aren't hard to make.  Just add some spices and stick them in the oven and you have croutons.  You should really make croutons".

So the other day when I had an entire bag of stale buns I relented.

And I made bread crumbs.

What?  Look ... I can't let him think he has that much influence over me.  With all due respect to his mother, today I make croutons, tomorrow I'll be making his lunch.  Forget it.

How to make Italian Breadcrumbs.

Gather your spices.

Get your stale bread ...

If you have buns, cut them  into slices so they dry out quicker.

Lay them around the edge of a cookie sheet.

Doing this, as opposed to laying the bread flat, allows air to circulate beneath it, drying it out better and faster.

Pop the bread in the oven at 250° for 20 - 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix your spices and cheese together in a mason jar.

When your bread is dried out, put it on a cookie cooling rack until ... cooled.

To smash the crumbs you can put them in a plastic bag and smash them with a rolling pin.

This will give you the feeling of being an old fashioned pioneer woman.  You will savour this feeling until the 2nd bag.

And then you will curse a lot.  And your bag will probably develop a hole, scattering bread crumbs across your counter.

It is at this point that you should drag out some sort of Cuisinart type thing.

Pour your bread crumbs into the mason jar with the spices and shake it up.

Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 months.

If you still have leftover bread? Well. You can make croutons.