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The Internet has a gazillion recipes for these sausage and egg stratas, but I couldn't find this one, which was delicious. These assemble ahead and bake later dishes are a godsend for a busy hostess, which was me, this weekend. This serves 8.
Egg and Sausage Strata
1 lb. bulk sausage, pork or turkey. I used Jimmy Dean. Beware! Some sausage now comes in 12 oz. rolls.
6 slices bread with crusts removed. A white bread with some "body" works best.
2 cups milk. Used whole milk but believe 2% would be fine, too.
6 large eggs
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 T. Dijon (or other) mustard
1 t. salt
1/2 lb grated cheddar cheese (I bought pre-grated on sale)
8 oz. mushrooms sliced and sauteed
1 medium white onion chopped
Spray or great a 9" x 12" rectangular baking dish. Cut trimmed bread into cubes and line the dish.
Cook sausage in a skillet, breaking it up. Drain, if necessary and spread around on top of the bread cubes.
Saute onion and set aside. In the same skillet, saute the mushrooms. Add to the onions and mix. Spread the onion/mushroom mixture over the sausage.
Sprinkle the grated cheese on top of the mushroom/onion mixture.
Beat eggs, milk, Worcestershire sauce, mustard and salt together. Pour over the casserole.
Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.
I served this for Mother's Day brunch with sauteed cherry tomatoes and small, individual pan fried ham steaks.
You can freeze this after assembling and thaw before cooking. You may also freeze after cooking and thaw and add a little milk before heating.
I kept the assembled casserole covered tightly in the fridge for two days and it was fine.
Omit the sausage or substitute a meatless product and you have a fine vegetarian entree.
In French, the dish we know as French toast is called pain perdu or "lost bread." In German, French toast is arme Ritter, or
"poor knight."
Last Wednesday, at Whole Foods, we got totally carried away and bought French bread, Italian bread and German bread. Two people. Crazy. The dinner party guests ate about two slices of the Italian, and we finally finished the loaf. In the meantime, of course, the baguette got rather stale. Last night I used some under the steak to sop of the juices. Toasted it with butter and paprika first. Quite yummy. This morning I used the rest to make French Toast.
I don't really use a recipe. One egg per person, and milk and cream with a pinch of salt and a spoonful of sugar to make it brown nicely. Whisk together. I fry it in two skillets in a mixture of canola and butter. The yin and the yang. We eat it with either REAL maple syrup or with apricot syrup from The Apricot King. Grown in the flavor zone. They have the best apricot jam, just like my Grandma used to make. Their dried apricots (I love apricot bars) are also the best. It is always wonderful to find a small business with a great product line that one can enthusiastically support. And apricot syrup is hard to find. My granddaughter loves it. Hell, we all love it. French Toast, Waffles, Pancakes. Yum!
My Dad always made French Toast for us on Sunday morning. He used Wonder-style bread, which was the only thing my folks ever ate. He liked it nice and soft and ate a few slices of bread with every meal. He claimed he couldn't eat without bread. The only exception was Chinese food which he liked with soda crackers. Go figure. I've noticed that what one usually remembers about the departed loved ones is their endearing eccentricities that outlive them. Once my Dad got carried away and made his French toast out of non-dairy creamer which was a disgusting concoction. When I visited, my parents always bought a pound of butter, as they knew I didn't eat margarine. I always told everyone "that stuff will kill you," and with the trans fats it turned out I was right.
You will never see an "all natural" label on margarine. So this is one area where WE DO NOT ECONOMIZE. Nope. Butter is a pure, natural product. Just don't eat too much.
One can also make croutons out of stale bread. Or bread crumbs. Or feed it to the Scottish Highland cattle, in the unlikely event you have a small herd in your neighborhood like we do. Love those cows.
I hope you eat breakfast, a real breakfast, with loved ones every Sunday morning. We scarfed down two strips of good quality bacon each, and I am embarrassed to report we ate all of the French toast. I can't believe we ate the whole thing.
I put French toast in two of my novels. My books always have at least one party scene, one naked swim, and a lot of craziness. And lots of food and flowers. lMaybe someday a character should make French toast with non-dairy creamer. What do you think?
Live cheaply but well,
The CheeseParer
