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Hello and welcome to Grocery List! My name is Amanda – if I know you and love you, I’ve probably cooked for you. I’ve worn a lot of hats in the kitchen, ranging from barista and baker to private chef to cooking educator, but my favorite role has always been that of a home cook. I wanted to start this newsletter to have a place to talk about what I’m cooking and thinking about in the kitchen. For me, the kitchen can be a place of creativity, of moving meditation, of sacred alone time or joyful community. I aspire to bring a bit of all of this to Grocery List, and hope it inspires you to get cooking! Thanks for being here. 

On today’s Grocery List: Bread

Like a lot of people, I got deep into sourdough this year. The sourdough craze is especially appealing to millennials of a certain age: it’s a pet as much as it is a kitchen project. I created my starter in April 2020 (with the rest of the country) and named her Ramona (couldn’t explain to you why - a starter’s name simply emerges to a baker). As an enthusiastic newbie baker, I was baking double loaves of bread several times a week - my very supportive boyfriend went to the wholesale grocery a few blocks away and CARRIED home a 25 pound bag of flour for me.

As I practiced, I gave away plenty of loaves to friends in the neighborhood: a masked and socially distanced doorway drop-off was the height of social interaction in those early days. Even so, I was making way more bread than my social circle and household could keep up with; so began a series of kitchen experiments designed to use up stale bread. Even if you don’t have any trouble finishing a loaf of bread before it goes stale, let these be a starting point for that errant loaf of sourdough in your house: 

Panzanella 

I had never tried this Italian bread salad before I entered the realm of baking my own bread; to be honest, it sounded a little counter-intuitive to me. Break your assumption of what a “salad” can be by coming up with your own combinations and flavor profiles. Here are a few suggestions that can be adapted based on the season. 

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

2. Tear or cut your bread into bite sized pieces. Tearing your bread will result in more craggy edges which is nice, but if your bread is too stale to rip with your hands, cutting into cubes will also work. 

3. Toss the bread with a generous amount of olive oil, salt, and pepper. 

4. Toast for approximately 15-20 minutes.

5. These bread chunks will be the base of your salad! Bonus: if you stop here, you’ve just made delicious croutons. 

6. From here, the add-ins and ratios are your choice. Chop everything to roughly the same size as your bread cubes. What are your favorite salad ingredients? What’s in season? Choose at least one from each category: 

   Juicy: tomatoes, nectarines, peaches, strawberries, cucumber

   Savory: feta, mozzarella, goat cheese, grilled halloumi

   Alliaceous (a word I just learned for this list): red onion, scallion, shallot

   Crunchy: slivered almonds, pine nuts, fried garlic or onion, roasted chickpeas

   Herbaceous: basil, mint, dill, arugula

   Briny (optional): capers, olives

7. Toss everything in a bowl so the ingredients can start to get to know each other. Season generously with salt and pepper and dress with olive oil and red wine vinegar. I seldom make vinaigrettes and prefer to dress directly in the salad bowl. Add a bit of oil and vinegar and then taste. Is it too sour? Add more olive oil. Does it need a bit more pep? More vinegar. Rinse and repeat. Dressing a salad is an art I learned from my Mom (whose friends regularly ask her to dress the salad when she comes over to their house for dinner) and it will have to be the subject of its own newsletter. The only way to get good at it is to keep making salads and tasting as you go! 

8. Let the salad sit for 20-30 minutes before you serve, up to 2 hours or so, at room temperature. This lets the bread soak up the delicious dressing. 

9. Bask in the glory of eating bread for dinner but getting to call it a salad. Isn’t life beautiful?

panzanella with tomato, mozzarella, basil, peaches, & red onion

Breadcrumbs (and how to use them)

As someone whose primary experience with breadcrumbs comes from the blue Progresso tube, I’ve never gotten too excited about them. But when faced with an excess of bread, bread crumbs are a great way to preserve your hard work (or make any loaf of bread last longer). Here’s how: 

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. 

2. Chop or tear your bread into small pieces and spread out on a baking sheet. 

3. Cook until not browned but very dry - about 20 minutes. Let the croutons cool. 

4. Blitz in a food processor until sandy, or to desired texture. 

5. Store in a cool, dry place - the breadcrumbs will be good for at least 6 months. 

Cool, now you have bread crumbs. Throw them into meatballs! Crust a piece of chicken or fish! Fill a crab cake! Toast them in a skillet with a bit of olive oil, garlic, and lemon zest and toss with roasted vegetables or brothy beans! Top shakshuka with their crunchy goodness! Anywhere you want a bit of texture, bread crumbs are there for you.

Reviving your loaf

This is a big one: nothing makes me sadder than hearing someone has thrown away the end of a loaf of bread because it was too stale. In reality, even if bread is a week old, it’s pretty easy to bring back to life! Here’s how: 

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Turn the sink on and gently get the entire surface of the bread wet. Yes - literally put running water on the bread, including the cut side. Trust me here. 

3. If the bread is extra stale, wrap in aluminum foil. Otherwise, put directly on the oven rack.

4. Bake for approximately 10-15 minutes. You’ll notice your house is starting to smell like freshly baked bread! 

5. When the bread has fully dried out, remove from the oven. Squish it between your hands and feel the crust’s gentle and crackly give. Your loaf has been revived. 

6. Enjoy as you normally would - I suggest a dollop of ricotta and jam. Yum.

Also on my list

Reading: Crying in H Mart. Memoir from Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner all about identity, food, and family. Made me cry and call my mom in the first chapter. 

Listening: Poog. A podcast from comedians Kate Berlant and Jacqueline Novak about wellness, being a woman, and the many anxieties therein. Hilarious and darkly relatable.

Following: @abskeefe on instagram for bucolic upstate New York bliss and food inspo. She has a shop I’m dying to check out as well! 

Drinking: Inna shrub. Tart and sweet shrubs to mix with seltzer for an after-work drink that feels fun but isn’t boozy. Incidentally, also great with booze. I buy locally at Foggy Notion.

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Thanks so much for reading! Forward this newsletter to a friend you think would enjoy, and let me know what you want featured on the Grocery List for next month:). You can follow me on instagram at @amandita324 or catch me at amanda.salguero@gmail.com.