V&A and leftover bread deliciousness

Yes, that sounds random. But I have two things I want to talk about and I don't really feel like making two separate posts. Deal.

Firstly, I accomplished one thing on my list! This afternoon I took a trip (well not much of a trip considering it's 3 tube stops or a 30 minute walk from my flat) to the V&A museum.

<----proof #1: really cool glass sculpture mobile thing in the main hall












<------proof #2: me standing in front of the really cool glass sculpture mobile thing on the balcony of an upper level. I'm just really awesome at self portraits...now if only I was a bit more photogenic...I kind of look like I'm in pain...


So the V&A was good! I went around to the different architecture exhibits, as well as a really cool glass exhibit on the top floor. It's pretty awesome reading the how-to on glassblowing and thinking to myself "hey, I actually know how to do that!" (Sidenote: I went to a totally awesome summer camp called Buck's Rock where I learned different arts, one of which was glass blowing! Pretty cool, huh?)

The one exhibit I'd like to go back for is the Grace Kelly one, but it was super crowded today since I went later in the afternoon. I really didn't feel like dealing with the crowds, so I think I'll wait until the tourists are gone and head back over in a few weeks. Every time I think of this exhibit Mika's song "Grace Kelly" starts playing in my head.

So what were you saying about croutons and what does that have to do with a museum?

Absolutely nothing.

So I love bread. It's just so wonderful and bready. One of the things I never understood when people started diets was the whole "I'm cutting out bread!" thing. I don't plan on ever cutting out bread. I believe in moderation, but not cold turkey (unless it's actual turkey. Cold turkey isn't so bad...like on a sandwich. With some really good bread). So I bought a tasty ciabatta loaf on Saturday at Borough market and by today the last of it was quite stale. I used part of it for my breakfast (when you toast bread it doesn't really matter if it was stale...imagine that!), and the very last bit I cut into small cubes, tossed in some olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper and threw on the pan with my breakfast bread (I use my oven most times because my toaster is lame). I baked the pieces for probably 5-7 minutes (until golden and crispy) at about 200C (so somewhere around 400F) and voila! Homemade croutons!

<-----crouton goodness

I could probably make them smaller next time since each one seemed to be a mouthful, but the bread was pretty friggin' stale and it looked like my knife was going to snap and not only is that a sign your bread's pretty stale but it's also a sign that your cutlery is complete crap. Sometimes I dream about my good kitchen knives waiting for me in boxes at home. For serious.