Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Sausage, Egg, and Cheese Sandwich Casserole

It's brunch week here at Corcoran Street Kitchen and I am giving you my foolproof recipes for making a simple brunch for a crowd. You might think I am crazy, but I love to have people over for brunch. I am a morning person, so when I have a dinner party, I'm totally bushed and ready to go to bed by 10 and I've still got a house full of friends. Brunch is a snap because I get things ready the night before and then pop it in the oven in the morning while I am making my coffee. This egg dish is fantastic because you can assemble everything the night before and the next morning all you need to do is crack a bunch of eggs, pour them over, and bake. No sweat. The milk and bread add a fluffy, airy texture to the eggs that makes them seem almost souffle-like in their lightness. No one needs to know that this was actually very simple. As a staunch anti-crowd person, the rally was really not my cup of tea. I headed home after about 10 minutes of rallying because I knew that this delicious egg dish was waiting for me. We watched the rally on TV while drinking mimosas and bloody marys and patting ourselves on the backs for being so smart.
Sausage, Egg, and Cheese Sandwich Casserole
Ingredients:
16 eggs
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 small bunch scallions
1 package sausage (I used sage flavored)
1 stale french baguette (or other bread)
1 bag shredded cheese (I used cheddar, but you can used whatever you like)

1. Brown the sausage in a frying pan until it is cooked through.
Remove from the heat and set aside. I do this the night before and leave it, cooked, in the fridge overnight.
2. Chop the scallions finely and set aside.
3. Cube the bread. It is better when the bread is hard and stale, but if you have fresh bread, just toast it in the oven for a few minutes before slicing into bite-sized cubes and laying them in your casserole dish.
4. Whisk eggs and milk together in a large bowl.
5. Mix the sausage, scallions, and 2/3 the bag of cheese evenly into the bread. Then pour the eggy milk over. Make sure that everything is spread out evenly and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for an hour until the eggs are set, the cheese is melted, and everything is puffed up and beautiful.
Serve it up to your happy brunchers.

3 comments:

  1. As is customary of casseroles, this dish looks approximately 1/25th as delicious as it really is. I am not usually a fully-cooked yolk person. I find omelettes disappointing and scrambled eggs bland, when not accompanied by hot sauce, salsa, or ketchup. But this casserole was really exceptional. I would order this from a menu, maybe even instead of blueberry pancakes.

    I would not order this instead of those sweet potato muffins, which were the belle of the ball. But this sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich casserole is definitely on Homecoming Court.

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  2. This casserole was delicious! And I agree with Kelaine that the sweet potato muffins were divine!

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