Garlic Soup - using stale leftover bread

Anna told me today that her post-Thanksgiving challenge is to not let any leftovers go to waste. Here is a nice way to use leftover bread.

Andres made this soup for me for the first time one wintry day when Andrea was in town. I was starting to get a cold, but this soup boosted me up right away.

Garlic Soup

Stale bread (should add up to about 4 cups cubed; if less, scale recipe accordingly)
4-5 teaspoons olive oil
Beef broth
1 head garlic, peeled and cloves smashed, as though someone hit it with a hammer
1 bay leaf
Salt
Pepper

Place a few teaspoons of olive oil and 2 smashed garlic cloves in the bottom of your soup pot, and place over medium heat. While the oil is heating, cut the bread into 1-inch cubes. Fry the bread in the olive oil until it is evenly browned. Add enough chicken broth to create a soup of the desired consistency, adding more if needed as the bread soaks up broth. Add bay leaf. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for 30 minutes or so.



This soup is slightly reminiscent of French onion soup, and I think it would be awesome to experiment adding onions -- if anyone tries it, let me know how you approached it!

My darling clementine

Crates of clementines are back in stores! I love them so much. Mostly I peel 'em and eat 'em, but I do have an amazing clementine baking tip. Observe:

Place 3-4 clementines in a pot of cold water. Bring to a simmer and let them go at a slow simmer for a while -- say 2 hours or so. Your house will smell wonderful. Drain and let cool.

When they are cool enough to handle, chop them up -- skins and all -- removing any seeds or bad spots. This will turn into a mash of pulp and juice and soft skin.

You can use this mash the same way you might use applesauce to replace oil in baking recipes. Here is one specific recipe that I adore:

In a small bowl or mug, mix 2-3 Tablespoons of No Pudge! Brownie Mix with enough clementine mash to just moisten the mix. Stir until glossy. Pour batter into an individual ramekin. Place a single Hershey's kiss, or another piece of good chocolate, into the center of the ramekin. Bake at 325 until set.

The result: a clementiney and chocolately molten brownie cake.

Another winner is this clementine torte from JoyofBaking.com. It uses ground almonds instead of flour. I use Almond Meal from Trader Joe's.