Bagel Pudding with Asparagus and Mushrooms

Two posts! I'm officially joining the ranks of food bloggers everywhere. Anyway I made this a couple of weeks ago back when I was saying I should take pictures for my blog that I've never posted in. But now look - it came in handy.

This recipe was based around the idea that I should use up as many ingredients I had in my kitchen as possible. I had some eggs that I wasn't sure how old they were, asparagus that really didn't look that good when I bought it at the farmer's market - very thin [it was the last bunch for a reason but the guy gave it to me for half the normal price], a carton of cream for coffee which I hadn't used since I hadn't been making coffee, and bagels that were past their prime. The only non-suspicious item involved were the mushrooms. I have a paper bag on my kitchen counter. Every so often I buy 1/2 lb of porcini or shiitake mushrooms at the farmer's market for $4. Then I just let them sit in the bag and dry out. Then when I buy more, I either add to the bag or start a new one. With the result that I have a nice mix of mushrooms to choose from whenever the mood hits me. As an added bonus, I had a couple of morels left from Mother's Day which went in as well.

So considering the stale bread, I decided to make a bread pudding for the first time in my life. I ended up using the first savory bread pudding recipe that popped up from the Food Network's search page - I think it was by Emeril. I did end up changing it around because I didn't have any milk, and I wasn't going for his spicier version. So really I only used it for proportions on how to make the custard, but useful knowledge nonetheless.

The finished product was pretty good, but there were some problems. One I had no idea how much salt to use in the custard so I had to salt and pepper it pretty heavily when I was eating it. And two I only had egg bagels which were good, but it would've looked and tasted more interesting with different types (maybe egg and pumpernickel for next time). I probably should've peeled the asparagus as well, but it was so thin - I wasn't up to it. This reheated well, and lasted about a week.

4 cups bagels cubed into 1-inch pieces

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Originally uploaded by sabrial2002.

2 cups heavy cream
1 cup soy milk
6 eggs
asparagus and mushrooms (sorry I have no idea how much I used)
1/4 c ? grated parmesan (if I'd had fresh I would've measured it, instead I only had Mark's Kraft parmesan which I had appropriated.)
S&P

Preheat oven to 375. Butter a casserole dish. Mix together eggs, dairy, cheese and S&P. Toss in bagels and vegetables. Pour into dish. Bake until custard is set ~35 minutes.