Here is a recipe I clipped from the Raleigh NC News & Observer newspaper. Since it's just the two of us I make half the recipe and still have leftovers. It is very rich, but delicious. The original quantities are in parentheses. It says it serves 6 but more like 8 in the original. I do leave out the salt, but doubled up on the pepper. Rabbi Reuben Casserole 2005 N&O Newspaper Half Recipe - Full recipe in (parentheses): Cut off crusts, cut into cubes, lay out 3 hours to dry: 3 (6) slices Pumpernickel Bread Whisk together: 1 (2) egg 1 tsp (2 tsp) sharp coarse-grained mustard, like deli-style 2 tsp (4 tsp) butter, softened 1C (2C) milk Add and stir well: 1/4 (1/2) of a medium onion, chopped 1/4 C (1/2 C) sauerkraut, squeezed dry (do not use canned) 1/4 tsp (1/2 tsp) salt (I do not add this extra salt since other ingredients are already salty) 1/4 tsp (1/4 tsp) freshly ground pepper (or more) Optionally - add to mixture: 1 to 3 cubed, partially cooked, peeled white potatoes Lay half the mixture in bottom of shortening-greased casserole dish, put cubed or slices on top: 1/4 lb. (1/2 lb.) cooked, cubed corned beef (or, better if sliced fresh from deli) Cover with the remaining mixture. Dot with cubed bread that you push down into the mixture. (Optionally: Mix all together and put in casserole dish.) Cover and chill 2 hours, or up to overnight (not more than 12 hours). Bake, covered loosely with foil, at 350F for 30 minutes. Remove foil and top with: 2 (4) slices Swiss cheese Bake another 15 to 20 minutes until puffed and golden. Cool 10 minutes and serve hot. This is also terrific leftover, divided into portions, and reheated in the microwave. It does not freeze well. Nancy

After reading these horribly high prices for flour I went out this morning and purchased 50-pounds of wheat to add to my already sizable stash. Kansas wheat is not looking all that good, especially in the western part of the state where they have been in a drought. With rising fuel prices, we can only look forward to higher prices for wheat and flour - and everything they are used in. FYI - Wheat has a nearly indefinite shelf-life while commercial bleached and unbleached flour will keep 6-12 months at room temperature (double that if frozen). I use wheat for making wheat sprouts, wheatgrass, cooked wheat berries, farina, flakes, "wheat meat", bulgar and cracked wheat - and oh, yes, flour. I ran across a book recently - "No Wheat Grinder Wheat Recipes" by Cindi Van Bibber. A great little collection of recipes you can use whole wheat berries in even if you don't have a grain mill. Cooked wheat berries are mixed in the blender to use in recipes like: No Flour Muffins, Cornbread, Brownies, Meatloaf, Biscuits, Meatballs, and hubby's favorite - Peanut Butter Cookies. A great little book for anyone wanting to use whole wheat but who doesn't have a grain mill. I've included the link below for anyone interested. I like to "cook" a large batch of wheat in my Thermal Cooker and then bag it in 2-cup amounts and keep it in the freezer. Lots of uses for cooked wheat, as well as all the recipes in the little cookbook. -Grainlady Here is a link that might be useful: Cindi's Lifestyle Treasures

Wow! Congrats, KD!! I love it when that kind of stuff happens. :) I did the opposite. Everyone keeps telling me I can substitute the discard for the same amount of water and flour in any old recipe, but whole wheat really is different. I used a recipe for white as a basic guide for the dough ball, but I think it wasn't wet enough. It was well risen, though, so I made rolls. They came out with a hard crust (I was aiming for crunchy) like good old fashioned bolillos. (Isn't it weird that all the old time tough crusts like bagels, pita and bolillos have gone by the wayside just as people's teeth have gotten so much better?) The inside is nice and tender, but I think they would have been better larger, with more soft crumb per hard crust. OTOH, I only know for sure because one fell on the floor as I was taking it out of the oven, so, of course, I had to eat it right away. :)

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