Don't waste that bread!!

I hate wasting food. It's unnecessary, speaks of poor planning and galls my budget-conscious self. Additionally, I small part of me dies when I treat myself to a loaf of herb asiago cheesebread from The Fresh Market and I can only eat half of it before the rest goes dry and hard. It's not careless waste really, it's I'm-only-one-person-trying-not-to-over-indulge waste, but still! It's cheesebread!! It deserves better than to be cast aside, unsavored and unappreciated.

My younger sister and room mate, Crazy Cora, found me in the kitchen the other day mourning this very situation. A few nights earlier, we had shared several glasses of chianti and gotten sufficiently fussed over how the glorious stone-baked loaf crunched and how tearing off pieces and dipping them in a bowl of olive oil, salt and pepper was proof that God loves us. (what can I say? we're Italian Catholics, we know how it's done) But two days later, I was standing next to the trash can with the other half of the loaf in my hands, trying not to think about what a crying shame it was to toss it.

Fortunately, Crazy C is a smart cookie with cool toys.

When she moved in, our Mom got her a Cuisinart Hand Blender with all the cool little attachments like the immersion blender, whisk and chopper as a house warming gift. At Crazy C's brilliant suggestion, we cut the bread into chunks and popped them into the chopper bowl and BAM, we had bread crumbs! Herb asiago cheesebread bread crumbs! We toasted them in the oven for a bit, stuck them in a mason jar (of course) and popped them in the freezer to await their destiny as a companion to a lovely piece of tilapia. Happy sigh. I love my sister.

What creative ways do you save food about to go bad?