lazy eggs

Dear Mom,

Christmas was an especially lazy holiday for us this year.  For the past 8 years while living in Chicago, John and I would pack up the Honda-sleigh with Christmas gifts and the pup and cross the winter wonderland of Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania towards either Pittsburgh (John's hometown) or Rochester.  This year, between moving to New York and just a generally crazy year, we opted to stay in NY sans parents and siblings.  While at first this sounded great, we would sleep in as late as we wanted, veg in our PJs and eat what ever we wanted, when the day actually came after the presents were opened we found ourselves drumming our fingers and wondering what to do.  There is surprisingly little good TV on on Christmas day.  The day did start out pretty strong for us though, we had the traditional Christmas Breakfast Casserole and then opened presents, which got us to about 11am.  Then, due to a miscalculation of preparing dinner the night before, the boredom set in.  Next year we'll be heading back out for the holidays for sure.

breakfast casserole
(This doesn't have to be made on Christmas of course, but it works out quite well for that particular holiday because you have to prep it the night before and let it sit in the fridge over night.  Then in the morning it has to sit on the counter for an hour and then in the oven for an hour, so you can open presents in the two hours while its resting/cooking.)

1 lb. breakfast sausage
12 pieces of white bread, cubed with crusts removed
1-1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese (not pre-shredded)
9 eggs
3 cups 2% milk
1-1/2 tsp. dry mustard
salt and pepper

Spray a 9x17 glass or ceramic casserole.  Brown the breakfast sausage in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Remove sausage to a plate to cool.

In a separate bowl, beat eggs, milk, dry mustard and salt and pepper together.

In a large bowl toss together bread, cheese and cooled sausage.  Pour egg mixture over bread mixture and fold gently until combined.  Pour mixture into prepared casserole, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate over night. 

In the morning, remove the casserole from the refrigerator and let it sit on the kitchen counter for 1 hour.  Preheat the oven to 350, and bake the casserole for 1 hour, until browned on top.