Bread Bowls for Cheesy Veggie Soup

Today I experimented and made a few bread bowls to use with the leftover cheesy veggie soup with diced ham I made yesterday. I got the idea for bread bowls from my daughter in law. She said that last year for the Chili Bowl race on PPV that they made bread bowls for their chili. I had an 'ah ha' moment.

When my sister and I went to the Taste of Home cooking school they were using Rhodes frozen bread and buns for several of their recipes. So I thought, why not use the frozen loaf bread and just cut in half before baking.

Here is how I made my bread bowls.

Makes 4 bread bowls

I thawed 2 loaves of Rhodes frozen white bread by placing them on a slightly oiled cookie sheet. I was able to cut each loaf in half once they were slightly thawed. Once the 4 pieces were completely thawed I used my hands to make the dough round. Then I placed 2 pieces on an oiled cookie sheet allowing enough room for the dough to rise. Place the cookie sheets in a warm area for 4 hours to completely rise. After 4 hours bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Allow to cool before next step.To carve out the bowl I used a serrated knife to cut out the top much like how you do when carving a pumpkin for Halloween. Make sure you use a serrated knife as a regular knife doesn't cut through the crust as nicely as the serrated knife. This is what it looks like if you use a regular knife and not a serrated knife.Once the top is cut off pull out some of the bread to make a hollow area in the bread forming a bowl. Do not throw away the top crust and bread pieces, I used them in the soup instead of crackers.

Fill bread bowl with chili, stew, or thick soup. Enjoy.

Baked Custard with Sliced Pears

I found this recipe on the Carnation Milk website. They call the recipe Pear Oven Pancake. Don't ask me why they called it that but I have renamed it Baked Custard with Pear Slices.Baked Custard with Pear Slices
2 T butter melted
1/2 C flour
1/4 C + 2 T sugar
1/4 t salt
1 can (12 oz) Carnation Evaporated Milk
3 large eggs
2 ripe pears, peeled, cored, and sliced thinly
1/2 t cinnamon

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Put butter in a deep dish pie dish and place in microwave for 1 minute to melt the butter. Swirl butter to coat the entire bottom.

Combine flour, 1/4 C sugar, and salt in medium size bowl. In another bowl whisk evaporated milk and eggs. Add milk/eggs mixture to flour mixture and whisk for 30 seconds. Pour batter into the butter coated pie dish. Arrange pears in a pinwheel slightly pushing pears into batter.

Sprinkle with cinnamon and remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar.

Bake at 450 degrees for 15-20 minutes. My oven required the entire 20 minutes.

Serve warm and refrigerate any uneaten custard.Added 10-8-09

This is soooooo good. It was very good warm but we both preferred it cold. I plan on baking another batch but I am going to use apples on one half and pears on the other. Maybe I'll try some nutmeg or pumpkin pie spice on the apple side.

Added 10-10-09

A friend sent me this email about Carnation Milk. I have no idea if it is true or not but it is cute.

Carnation milk -- 65 YEARS AGO ... This is PRICELESS

A little old lady from Wisconsin had worked in and around her family dairy farms since she was old enough to walk, with hours of hard work and little compensation.

When canned Carnation Milk became available in grocery stores in approximately the 1940s, she read an advertisement offering $5,000 for the best slogan. The producers wanted a rhyme beginning with 'Carnation Milk is best of all.'

She thought to herself, I know all about milk and dairy farms. I can do this!

She sent in her entry, and several weeks later, a black limo pulled up in front of her house. A man got out and said, 'Carnation LOVED your entry so much, we are here to award you $2, 000 even though we will not be able to use it!'