Cathy O'Connor's Breakfast Casserole

Happy Thundersnowmageddon day! A rather large snowstorm hit Kansas City this morning, which basically shut down the entire city. This included the courthouse, which meant a snow day for this girl! I'm still waiting on this thundersnow I've been hearing so much about (yes, apparently that is a thing). I've been spending my morning off drinking coffee and reading Gillian Flynn's "Gone Girl". I'm about 3/4ths of the way through, and plan on finishing it today. Such a good book.

Anyway, today I plan on sharing my mother in law's amazing breakfast casserole recipe. It is something she often makes for holidays (or sometimes random Sunday mornings) and I always find myself eating way more pieces than I should, or even have room in my tummy for. It is delicious. A couple of weeks ago I had a retreat for my RICA class (I am currently in the process of becoming a Catholic) and I needed to bring a breakfast item, since our Saturday session began at 8 a.m. I thought I would try to impress everyone with my mother in law's recipe.

The thing is, I'm starting to learn something about myself. I really shouldn't try to make anything more complicated than a breakfast sandwich or scrambled eggs before 10:00 a.m. Why you ask? Because in the last few months, anything I've tried to make that is more complicated than a breakfast sandwich or scrambled eggs has somehow turned into a minor, or major, fail. One example were those english muffins I attempted to make a few months ago. I would consider that one a minor fail. The major fail was when I attempted to make Joe's Goddaughter/niece/our flower girl some chocolate chip pancakes when we were babysitting her a few months ago. I had found this "healthy chocolate chip pancakes" recipe, which looked so yummy and fluffy, and they were healthy, so Stacy (her mother) would approve! Somehow, mine came out like hard disks. Being the sweet little girl she is, she pretended to like them, and was just "full" after a few bites. I felt so bad.

My egg casserole fail was a minor one, and I partially blame it on the recipe card I borrowed from my sister in law. Before I stuck the casserole in the oven, in my mind I was thinking "I feel like I should cover this". But, from the recipe card, I though I was only supposed to cover it after I baked it for 50 minutes. I realized after I took it out of the oven that that makes no sense, and then looked closer at the recipe card.

It looks like there had at one point been a star next to the "bake at 350 for 1 hour" direction that was supposed to direct me to the "50 minutes covered" direction. It has since been water stained out, and I missed it. I baked it the entire hour uncovered. All I could think is "why on earth would I think I needed to cover it for 50 minutes after it was done baking". What can I say. It was before 10 a.m.

If anything, it gave me an opportunity to use my new oven mitt.

While it was overcooked, it was edible, so I still brought it. And to my pleasant surprise, all the "almost Catholics" and "helping us to become Catholics" said they loved it!

Here is the recipe. The correct recipe. With no water stains :)

Cathy O'Connor's Breakfast Casserole

10 extra large eggs
2 cups milk
2 Tbs. grey poupon
2 Tbs. chives
1 stick butter (melted)
2 cups shredded cheddar/jack cheese
1 loaf soft french bread (EarthGrains if available)
1 block cream cheese
Optional: cubed ham or sausage

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 9x13 casserole dish with Pam. Tear bread into chunks and put in dish. Pour melted butter over bread. Sprinkle cheese on top.

In a blender, blend the eggs, milk, grey poupon, and chives. Pour this mixture over everything. Cut cream cheese into chunks and put all along the top of the casserole.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 50 minutes. Remove the cover and bake for an additional 10 minutes.

In the end, it should look like this expect less brown...

Enjoy!