DEAR DAME EVELYN , I live with several roommates in a big flat near a pretty good new bakery – all right, a great new bakery. So far, so good. All we have to do, basically, is step out the door and take 50 steps, and we're there. The trouble is that we're all stepping out the door and bringing home loaves of bread all the time, and now the kitchen is cluttered with crusts and half loaves and stuff like that. And nobody throws anything away! Except one guy, who's sort of angry and a neat freak and last Saturday collected all the crusts and partly eaten loaves and threw them in the trash. Now we're in crisis. It doesn't seem right to throw bread away, but we have way too much of it, and nobody is willing to stop going to the bakery. Is there a way out, or do we all have to get studios far, far away from the nearest good bakery?

Crusty

My dear, Aren't you just a ray of sunshine! You are living in, or near, yeast paradise with a group of your fellow yeast lovers, and yet you have managed to stumble upon a snake. Age is of course hard on all of us, but bread is particularly susceptible. After a pillowy day or two, it's straight down the side of the mountain. So: a kitchen full of crust is the crisis. I must say I am horrified at the thought of bread's being thrown away. At worst it should have been composted. But there are far better alternatives than that. Every now and again Dame Evelyn collects her crusts, fits the shredding dish into her (aged) Cuisinart, and makes bread crumbs. These are very useful for sole meunière, among other dishes, and they keep quite a long time, especially if refrigerated. Or – here's a thought – have a panzanella party. Panzanella is the Italian stale-bread salad, in which juicy tomatoes (and vinegar) overcome age – an elixir of youth for bread, you might say. Easy to make, frugal, delicious. That's a grand salami in Dame Evelyn's book.

Youthfully,

E. G.-S.