My Russian Super Started a Fire in My Building: The Bread Pudding II

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See the previous entry for the explanation of why I've been getting free Russian black bread... My Russian super gave me another loaf while I was doing laundry Friday morning, so I figured I'd try out another recipe.

This one's a savory spinach and artichoke bread pudding.

I'm actually in the middle of making this right now so I can't rightly vouch for it and I may make some edits to this later. But I figured I'd type this up before I get too lazy to.

This one's a LOT more work. A LOT more ingredients. My goal was to SAVE money by living off this free bread, but the cost of ingredients racks up. Fortunately, I ought to be making enough to last me a pretty long stretch, so hopefully it balances out...

I adapted the recipe again.

INGREDIENTS

olive oil
2 packages of frozen, chopped spinach
2 yellow onions, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
italian seasoning
salt
black pepper
3 (8 1/2 oz) cans of quartered artichoke hearts, drained
3 cups fake eggs (equivalent of 6 eggs)
2 cups fat free half-and-half (1 pint)
3 cups low-fat milk
2 tbls fresh lemon juice
RUSSIAN BLACK BREAD!!! (or crusty French bread), one loaf cubed
1 lb brie, rind removed, cut into little cubes
1/2 cup parmesan

DIRECTIONS

Nuke the frozen spinach. Break it up. Squeeze as much water from it as you can. (Use your clean hands.) Set aside.

In a large pan, sauté chopped onions in a bit of olive oil until nicely carmelized. (Took me about 10 minutes.) Add garlic, 2 tsp italian seasoning, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper; stir until garlic is "fragrant", about 30 seconds. Add artichoke hearts and stir well for another 2 minutes or so. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a very large bowl, combine egg substitute, half-and-half, milk, lemon juice, 1 tbl italian seasoning, 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper. Whisk well.

This is where it pays to have a very large bowl...

Add the artichoke mixture, the chopped spinach and the cubed bread into the bowl, along with 1/4 cup parmesan and the pieces of brie. (I had to alternate between a big bowl and a large pasta pot.) Incorporate well.

Cover with plastic wrap. Pop in fridge to let it soak through.

Wash the dishes. Watch what you got from Netflix yesterday. Update your blog. Contemplate the kind of life you're leading and what kind of world your unborn children will inherit.

When you're ready to rock, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F, and grease a large baking dish (or several) with olive oil. Scoop your bread pudding concoction evenly to the pans, sprinkle with remaining parmesan and drizzle with a little olive oil. Bake until firm in the center and golden brown -- "about 1 hour". Serve warm.

Well, this one's a doozy. Took forever for me just to cut up the tough bread. And I didn't actually think to use frozen chopped spinach, so I had to do all that manually. And I'm not even sure my "adaptation" works yet, so reader beware. But nobody really tries to make the recipes off this blog, do they...?