Cooking for Church

I recently volunteered to bake for a men's retreat that my husband is attending at our church this weekend. I went into the church vestibule last week to survey the list of items needed for donation, most of the items were taken. I signed up to bring four bags of croutons and an egg casserole.
I could not bring myself to purchase four overpriced bags of slightly seasoned petrified bread. I went home and baked two large loaves of french bread and made pan-fried herbed croutons.
I make croutons for our family salads, but I have never made croutons for 30 people. I was nervous about pan frying them, I usually bake them. Also, I always make cheese croutons, never herbed. I put aside my doubts and started cooking.


These taste even better than they look. I staled the bread slightly in the oven before frying it. I tossed the bread in butter, onion powder, garlic powder, parsley, thyme, pepper and rosemary. They are crunchy on the outside but still a little chewy No petrified bread rocks will be produced in my kitchen!
By the way, the bowl pictured is a fraction of what I made.
Then there was the egg casserole. I decided to make a frittata. Sauteed onions cooked with diced potatoes, asparagus, cherry tomatoes, and freshly grated parmigiano reggiano.

I was very upset about the look of my finished frittata. The center had collapsed from my testing for done-ness.









I had to slice the frittata for serving tomorrow, so it didn't really matter. Despite it's imperfection it really was a beautiful frittata.












My frittata smelt so good, I just kept making them until my veggies were all gone. I ended up with one for the church and three for my freezer.