Day 8 - Egg Strata

Welcome to Day 8 of 25 Days of Recipes!  Let me please take a moment to introduce myself :)  I know you hear from me all the time, but I thought I'd share some personal information about myself.  I'm Brittany, I'm 27 and I've been married for just over 6 years, I have 2 boys...ages 2 and 3.  Have I mentioned, they're a year a day apart?  Yep, we're a busy house around here!  We live in Utah, but I'm from Tennessee...where all the rest of my family still live.  Oh!  I have 9 siblings!! There's my older sister and 15 months later my twin brother and I were born!  10 years and 4 kids later another set of twins joined our family!  Crazy right?!  So how old is the youngest you may ask?  Well...next month she'll be 14!!  Sounds young to you, but in my mind she should still be 6.  Anyways, that's enough about me for now...maybe I'll share more w/ my next recipe.

This was a picture from last year, but I love it!

So, I have a few recipes I need to share for the upcoming Christmas Holiday, so I figured today was as good a time as any to share our Christmas breakfast tradition.  Actually, this was my husband's family's tradition, I adopted it when I married into his fam. Our first Christmas together, away from his family, I had my mother-in-law give me the recipe...that way he had a little taste of home.  It was a big hit, and I've continued it every year we're away from his family.  I make this the night before, then slip it in the oven and bake it, which gives us time to open our stockings, and a few more presents.

Last year I topped it off w/ the dried onions.

What it should look like before pouring the liquid on top.

This year we tried it w/ the corn flakes, very good. We served w/ a side of Frozen Fruit Slush.

Egg Strata

Ingredients

10 slices french bread cubed (no crust)

2 cups boneless steak ham, cubed

3/4 c American processed cheese slices stacked. (about 12 - 16 slices cut up)

6 eggs

4 c half n half

2 T minced onion (I use grated onion)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp dry mustard

**1/4 c. butter

**2 c cornflakes, crushed
**Durkee's dried onion rings

Make the night before.

Layer cubed bread, ham, and cheese in a 9x13 baking dish.

Mix together the next 5 ingredients until blended and pour on top of ham and cheese mix.

**If you choose to: Melt 1/4 c. butter, stir in crushed cornflakes and spread over casserole. (I've never done this before, I'll try it this year. *Turned out great!)

Cover and refrigerate over night.

Bake covered 45 min. at 375. **Remove cover and top with Durkee's dried onion rings. Cook additional 15 minutes uncovered.  Let cool for 10-15 minutes and serve.  Enjoy!

Note: You can either use the cornflakes and put that on the night before, or choose to use the Dried Onions and put that on 15 minutes before done cooking.  Both tastes great!