Homemade Croutons and More Strawberry Jam

Homemade croutons, strawberry jam and tea syrup.

That’s what my morning the other morning involved.

Homemade croutons are yummy. Thanks to Kara, I make them instead of buying them now. We don’t use croutons by the truckload or anything, so I really don’t have to make them very often. Plus, they’re super easy. There is a basic recipe here.

A year ago this past Christmas my sister had us for supper and Kara and her family came too. She brought a salad with homemade croutons. Delish! We left store-bought croutons on the shelf and haven’t looked back. My brother is a salad fan and when he found out how easy and yummy homemade croutons are, he started making them too.

I like to watch for french bread or garlic bread that has been manager-specialed at Dillons and then use it for croutons. Super easy, cheaper and better than the ready-made-off-the-shelf. Score!!

First find your price reduced bread:

You could make your own bread too, but I haven’t gotten that fancy yet. Or just use whatever bread you have that is getting dried out. I am not one of these people who can come up with a recipe or just toss in a little of this or a little of that. That being said, I do like me a good recipe that can be improvised or substituted with whatever you have or want to change. Like these fruit cup recipes here and here.

Next, chop your bread into pieces. Big or little. Whatever size you prefer croutons.

Then drizzle with olive oil. I used about 3 Tablespoons. You can mix in your seasonings now too, or sprinkle them on in the next step.

Line a cookie sheet with foil and transfer croutons to pan. Sprinkle with whatever seasonings you desire. I added some finely ground sea salt and some course ground pepper. When it is garlic bread that I find marked down, I don’t really add much for seasoning. I like the croutons fairly mild.

Time to slide them in the oven! I baked them at 375 degrees for close to 20 minutes. You want them toasty and I like them slightly browned. Frying straw hat meat for lunch while your croutons bake, is totally optional!

CROUTONS!! Easy-peasy!

I made some strawberry jam earlier with a new recipe. It turned out really yummy, but I decided to go ahead and do my other recipe too. So, I chopped stawberries, added Sure-Jell, cooked, added sugar, cooked again, filled jars, done!

You can got to my sister’s blog for the recipe. A very special aunt of our’s used to make it.

Tea syrup! That’s all I do. Make tea syrup. Tea syrup here and tea syrup there, here some tea, there some tea, everywhere some iced tea, Mrs. Farmer making tea, e-i-e-i-o! Well, not really. It just feels like it some days. My farmer and my farmer’s kids like iced tea. Especially in the hot, ole summertime. Really, it’s easy-peasy too. I just like to make it sound bad, because I get tired of “needing to make tea syrup”. But it blesses my man. 🙂 I do love the look of jars. Jars with tea syrup. Jars with iced tea. Jars of green beans. Jars of strawberry jam. So homey looking.

I have noticed that all those daily little things tend to tire me. Ice cube trays that need emptied and filled. Laundry that needs washed, dried and folded. Tea syrup that needs steeped and sugared. Meals that need mixed, made up or microwaved.

And yet all those simple things are some of the things I’m so thankful for! Clean fresh clothes and sheets. Ice cold drinks. Food to fill tummies. So maybe all those daily things should refresh me instead of tire me. And I should rejoice in them instead of letting them bog me down. I’ll remember for a while…

Romans 7:21-23

 It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.

 

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