People have been awesome bringing us food lately. Chicken pot pie, spinach burritos, Italian chicken thighs... I love it when people cook for me. Emily and her man brought us hot chocolate and bagels one morning when they came to visit. Bless them. Sadly, Kaz and I couldn't polish them all off before they went "bad." The even sadder part? The two that were left... Cinnamon Crunch from Panera. If you've never had one, I'm sorry. They're divine and my favorite bagel ever.

Then... I had a brain wave. I couldn't believe it considering I was in the first week of I'm-a-new-mom-and-currently-losing-my-brain-cells, but apparently great ideas are still hanging out in there. Bread pudding is supposed to be made with stale bread. Why not stale bagels? Oh my goodness. I'm kind of into using bagels for every bread pudding now. They're so sturdy and hold up to the soaking while still being soooo velvety. A great find. So this week when you have a house full of relatives and don't know what to do with the leftover bagels from breakfast, make this. Money in the bank.

Cinnamon Bagel Bread Pudding

• two stale cinnamon crunch bagels (or any other kind I guess)
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream (half and half or whole milk would work, too)
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 3 tbsp. brown sugar (light or dark will work great)
• 1 tbsp. rum (yesssssss)
• a good pinch of salt

This is soooo easy. You basically cut up bread, soak it in all the stuff overnight, and bake it up. So here goes.

Cut up the bagels into big cubes. Put those cubes in a loaf pan. You can also double this recipe and put it in a wide baking dish.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the rest of the ingredients. Feel free to play around with the flavors. Big fan of cinnamon? Add more. Bigger fan of rum? By all means. Add cocoa powder or raisins or chopped pecans. That's what makes bread pudding so great; the possibilities are endless. Now pour that mixture over the bread and press down.

Cover with plastic wrap and maybe even weigh it down with something... a plastic bag with uncooked rice for example. You want all of that bread to be submerged in the custard mixture. Let that hang out in the fridge for at least eight hours and ideally for a day. Now take off the plastic, and bake it at 375 degrees for 35-45 minutes. The top will be crisp and golden, and the edges will be bubbling a little. Let it sit for a bit to slightly cool and set up. Then serve it up with ice cream, whipped cream, or a shot of rum. Wait, what?