Sausage and Egg Casserole

Or, alternatively, Bacon and Egg Casserole. Or Chorizo and Egg Casserole. Or Ham and Egg Casserole. Be adventurous! Be practical! That's really more the case for me. I cook with what I have and rarely, if ever, go to the store just because I need it to make something. The three exceptions to this are eggs, milk, and flour. A girl always needs those.

And cute shoes.

And a cute purse.

Or in my case, a cute diaper clutch that functions as both my diaper bag and purse.

Cute, huh?

But I digress. Back to cooking.

What you'll need:

- Up to 3 T butter (I use between 2 and 3 T)
- 4 c of some sort of bread.  After the holidays I buy unseasoned store-baked bread croutons for $0.25 for a HUGE package. It is about 10 cups, probably. I also have used bread crumbs from homemade bread that needs repurposing, or the toasted heels of bread my husband refuses to eat. You can also used seasoned croutons, but I don't ever buy those, or even make them. Maybe that will be my next experiment...
- 1 c (8 oz) shredded cheese. I use cheddar or cheddar/monterrey jack blend, but this is flexible.
- 2 c milk
- 8 eggs, beaten
- 1/2+ t dry mustard. I'm a big fan of dry mustard, so I throw in a bit more.
- 1 lb breakfast sausage, cooked and crumbled. This is where you can substitute cooked and crumbled bacon or chorizo, or cooked and chopped ham.

What to do:

Cook your meat and set it aside. I've found that the easiest way to do this is to cook the meat the night before and refrigerate it. Or, you can cook twice as much as you need for a different breakfast and then freeze the other half. Then, you just pull it out and your dish is nearly prepared!

Heat oven to 325º. Put butter in baking dish (I use a 9x13 pan, usually) and let it melt in oven as the oven heats up. Once it's melted, remove from oven and tilt to coat the dish. Add croutons (or other bread crumbs) and sprinkle the cheese over the top. Set this aside. Note: using a smaller dish will give you a "thicker" casserole. This is a personal-preference thing. I like it both ways because I'm wild and crazy like that.

Combine the milk, eggs, and dry mustard; mix well. Pour the egg mixture over the cheese and sprinkle with the sausage (or your meat-of-choice). Bake at 325º for 40-50 minutes, or until just set. Let it stand at room temperature for 5-10 minutes to allow the eggs to firm up a bit more.

Bon Appétit!