I would probably just use the sour cream. There isn't much in the recipe. The sour cream will be incorporated into the sauce mixed w/other flavors and not a separate finishing garnish. Of course that would be my solution because I don't like mayonnaise. The fried onions would be dry and the chopped ones wet. Maybe if you sauteed them to remove some of the water. You might want to mix some breadcrumbs into the top layer for crispness.

At the restaurant, we used to cut up the leftover sourdough baguettes, drizzle them with lots of garlic butter (fresh garlic) and toast them on cookie sheets in the oven. They require monitoring! New prep cooks always burnt a pan or two up because they thought they could do something else while the croutons were toasting! I loved it if there was just a wee bit of burnt edge to them. The favorite nibble for waiters wanting to nosh was one of those wonderful, garlicky croutons dipped into a dish of our thick blue cheese dressing. Yum! I like experimenting with different breads for croutons. Rye bread makes wonderful croutons with a difference, as do wheat breads. Sometimes I like to make a batch of mixed bread croutons, it adds interest to a plain tossed salad.

Thank you so much for your many suggestions. Some, such as the bread pudding, we had thought of but just aren't sure how well they would fit in to the menu as we don't really serve full hot meals, and most of the baked goods are taken out. The selling bags of croutons idea is so simple we should have thought of it. The spice cake lindac mentioned is very intriguing and I'll certainly do a search for it, or something adaptable. The Baked French Toast could easily be a Sunday morning breakfast special, possibly cubing the bread in large cubes and mixing the varieties (except dark rye), instead of slices. In discussing these great responses, we also thought the ham/egg strata muffins could be adapted to be similar to the ones Ann T mentioned by using sliced apples instead of the ham and cheese. The egg in the ham recipe has milk, dry mustard, worcestershire but for the apples we could use milk, vanilla and cinnamon, drizzling caramel sauce over after baking. All our muffins are baked in mini loaf pans, just to be a little different. I can now see that that a non-serrated knife is the most suggested although I would have thought that this would cause the filling to squeeze out the side, but if the knife is sharp, I'm sure it would do a better job than what we have. We do have a couple of knives that would be worth getting sharpened. An electric knife may also do the trick. We offer veggie sandwiches and paninis which sometimes have so many vegetables in it that it is hard to keep together while cutting, especially after the bun is toasted. Our rueben panini is also difficult with the sauerkraut. Then there is also the training of the staff who are at times too timid to give the "one assertive downward stroke through the sandwich" Our little cafe is located in Hope, BC, along the Trans-Canada highway, next to the busiest 24 hour gas station in the area (possibly the province). We get a lot of people come in where the passenger will pick up the food while the driver is gassing up the vehicle. The previous owner lives in Vancouver and admitted to not being interested in food, nor liking people. He also was a very poor businessman, who is a professor in another field. Why he purchased this place and owned it for a year, we have a no idea. He had a young girl running it that had worked here prior to him purchasing it. She opened and closed when she felt like it, so although there was a lot of traffic on the highway, she was seldom open and business was not great. We get many regular travelers of this highway now coming in surprised we are open, thinking that the place had been shut down for quite awhile. Even the local people are sometimes surprised, so we have a lot of marketing to do because once Fall comes we will have to depend on them more than now. We are already seeing more and more familiar faces saying "the last time we had . . ." or "See you on the way back". We have owned businesses for many years, but this is the first food establishment for us. We are making many changes, keeping the old ideas that work and are giving the place a face-lift (think 1960's Dairy Queen building with a few personalities since they moved a number of years ago). We have had many ideas on how to redecorate the dining room, but people are coming in saying how they really like what we did to the place, meanwhile we have done nothing yet. We are surrounded by mountains, with only the highway between us and the Fraser River, so the 180 degree view is great. Well here it is almost midnight again and I started this response this morning, and then lunch hit. All the dishes are done (we picked up a new dishwasher today so hopefully not much longer doing them by hand), the floors are washed (I keep saying we should get a Roomba) so I'm off to home. Once again thanks so much for your input into my questions. Should you ever be in the area, do stop in. We will have a website, we just haven't gotten that far - the list is long. Mande

I don't have any issues with washing poultry, in fact I'd be uncomfortable *not* washing it. Of course I also bleach everything after the bird is in the Nesco. I wipe everything down that's nearby, and it's a good time to do the frig door handles and the like too. After having an aunt who worked in a poultry processing plant tell me what went on there, there's two things I'll never do: 1) Never cook unwashed poultry; and 2) Never buy "parts missing" birds! After the points raised here, I am hesitant to consider a stuffed bird too. Will it kill you? No, probably not. Could you get sick? Well possibly, but I guess it's more the gross factor and bliss ignorance thing. I really don't understand the lure of stuffing the bird though. There's only two possible reasons I can think of: 1) the juices of the bird get in it, and from the above, do you want them? LOL But you can still take juices and mix into the dressing, juices that are cooked and reduced so they're probably more flavorful too; and 2) Saves cleaning a pan used to cook the dressing. However stuffing a bird also takes more time to cook, throws off the cooking of the bird and then the bird cooks more unevenly. I've read and I do believe the loose leg test is a bad way to judge if it's done. Sure, it means the dark meat is done but also probably means the best part, the white meat, is overcooked. And then people complain that white meat is dry! LOL To each their own. Curious thing, I was reading on the cooking forum one of the posters who to me has demonstrated great cooking knowledge has and will cook frozen turkeys. I'm not sure I would, but I don't doubt what she says. The other interesting thing I've been reading is about basting. It does nothing for juiciness or assist cooking. It does make it take longer since you lose oven heat each time you open it and it can help give more color to the bird. But color doesn't always equate to taste. Great for the ooh factor though. I need to get my turkey breast washed and into the Nesco... probably tomorrow!