Breakfast Casserole

Happy Easter!

This year, I learned a few things:

1.  There is no greater joy than having family and friends in your home.

2.  If one of those family or friends catch you photographing the food on the table (because you forgot to do it earlier), be prepared to tell them all about your food blogging adventures.

3.  No matter how hard you try, there simply is no way to make egg and sausage casserole look good in a photograph!
(It's a good thing it tastes like the breakfast of heaven on a plate, because it's not very photogenic :))

My love affair with this dish began several months ago when a colleague brought a breakfast dish to an early-morning faculty meeting.  It was one of those meetings where nobody wanted to be there, but it was required in order to finish a job.  To ease our suffering, one of my fellow teachers volunteered to bring a breakfast casserole.

It was warm, and meaty, and cheesy, bready, and flavorful, and oh-so-good.  This dish opened my eyes to a whole new world of breakfast delight.

Of course, I asked my colleague how she made it, to which she replied with a semi-complete list of ingredients.  "Oh, there's eggs, sausage, ground mustard, crescent rolls..."

Ugh, what a tease.

But it's all good, because I love a good scavenger hunt.  Taking this list, I went to allrecipes.com and found this recipe after doing a search of ingredients.  It was close, but it didn't have the crust that I coveted.  So I decided to omit the bread cubes from the allrecipes.com version, and line the dish with the crescent roll dough instead. 

It worked!

Now, anytime I have an opportunity to host a breakfast/brunch event (or bring a dish to a similar event) this breakfast casserole has become my go-to contribution.

Source:  My colleague + allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

1 lb. pork sausage--I prefer to use the Bob Evans brand, it's well worth the money!
6 eggs
2 c. milk
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground mustard
1 c. shredded cheddar cheese
2 cans of crescent rolls (refrigerated dough)

 Directions:

In a skillet over medium heat, brown the sausage. Remove from heat, drain, and crumble. Set aside.

 In a medium bowl, beat the eggs. Add milk, salt, ground mustard, and cheese and mix well. Set aside.

In a 9"x13" baking dish, unroll the crescent roll dough. Line the bottom and sides of the dish. You may need to stretch and pinch the dough to get it to cooperate fully.


Add sausage to the baking dish and distribute evenly. Then, pour the egg mixture over the sausage. Refrigerate overnight (or for at least 8 hours)


When ready to bake, set the oven to 350 degrees and bake for 40 minutes (or till desired doneness) . Enjoy!

Verdict: 
It's a hit!  My guests gobbled it up, and I had requests to take some home.  Plus, it keeps well for a couple of days in the fridge.

Fake-Baked Ziti

For Valentine's Day, I wanted to make something rich for The Mr.  He loves pasta-- add cheese and sausage, and I've got a happy husband.  So, I went skimming through my Allrecipes.com recipe box and found the perfect one.  Baked Ziti!  Yum!

Made the list.
Clipped the coupons.
Went to the store.
Got a migraine.

::::insert sad sound effect from The Price is Right:::::

While at the store (and ready to throttle a couple of kids screaming for no damn reason whatsoever) I couldn't find ziti pasta.  Anywhere.  I must have looked a little helpless standing in the pasta aisle for 5 minutes, pacing the shelves in search of a pasta that now I'm SURE doesn't even exist! By the time I got home, my stomach was beginning to feel nauseous (as a result of the headache) and all I wanted to do was lie down.

So I did.  And The Mr. bought take-out for the two of us.

Fast forward to this evening-- We enjoyed our Valentine's Dinner one day late (and one major ingredient off) but it was a wonderful dinner nonetheless.  So what if I used rigatoni?  Fake-Baked Ziti was a hit!

Now... if all those dishes would wash themselves... THAT would be a great Valentine's Day gift! :)


Ingredients:

1 (16 ounce) package ziti pasta (But you already know I used rigatoni for this one)

1 pound mild Italian sausage

2 (24 ounce) jars marinara sauce

1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil, divided

12 ounces ricotta cheese

1 1/2  teaspoons Italian seasoning, divided

1 dash salt and pepper

1 pound mozzarella cheese, shredded

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.



2.  Cook sausage in a skillet over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain, crumble and set aside.

3.  In a large saucepan, heat marinara with 1 teaspoon basil until bubbling. In a medium bowl, mix together ricotta, 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning, salt and pepper.


4.  Spread bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish with sauce. Begin adding layers

• 1/2 of the ziti (or rigatoni, in my case),
• 1/2 the sausage,
• 1/2 of the ricotta mixture,
• 1/2 the mozzarella.
• Spoon half of the sauce over top. Repeat layers.

Note:  Since the rigatoni ended up to be rather large, I used the largest baking dish I had... which was a 10" x 14"Pyrex dish. 

5.  Sprinkle top with remaining 1/2 teaspoons basil and Italian seasoning.

6.  Bake in preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes.

Verdict: Keeper!

And next time, I hope to use real ziti pasta!  :)

Also, I may get adventurous and add some onion and garlic to the sausage mixture, just to kick up the flavor factor.  But as it is, this is a yummy addition to the recipe box

Jambalaya

Some friends of ours live in St. Louis.  Every year, a group of us from Cincinnati make the trek to visit them for the second-largest Mardi Gras Parade in the nation.  Being a teacher, it's hard to make arrangements to call off of work in the middle of the school year; so more often than not, we can't attend.  But this year, it just so happens that I have a 4-day weekend built into the school calendar the same weekend as the annual Mardi Gras festivities.  

And whenever I think of Mardi Gras, I think of jambalaya. 

Let me be clear about something-- I am an absolute WIMP when it comes to spice! So when I found a recipe that only used 1/8 tsp. of cayenne pepper, I figured this would be a safe start. 

And it is.  The combination of meats, rice, and veggies in this dish are delicious.  It's a lot of prep work, which is why I classify it under "Sunday Meals" (when else do you have the time to do all that chopping??) But in the end you have a one-pot meal that will feed you for a couple of meals that tastes great.  What more could a girl ask for?

Modified from allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

2 T. olive oil

1/2 onion, chopped

1/2 green bell pepper, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced (I used the prepared minced garlic I keep in the fridge)

2 carrots, sliced

1 stalk celery, sliced

3-4 chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces

1 lb. smoked sausage, sliced

1 can of diced tomatoes

32-oz. carton of chicken broth (Next time, I will cut this in half. The end result was too wet.)

2 c. long grain, uncooked white rice

1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper

1/8 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

1/2 lb. uncooked shrimp

Directions:

In a large pot (I used my cast-iron Dutch oven), heat oil over medium-high heat.  Add green pepper, onion, carrots, celery and garlic and saute till onions are soft.

Add chicken to mixture and brown. 

Add broth and bring to a boil.

Once boiling, add rice, cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook for 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes, stir, and add shrimp.  Cover and cook for 10 more minutes.

Verdict:

Definitely a keeper... but I need to cut the broth down to 2 cups.  Also, I may try to add more seasoning (either more cayenne, or some Cajun blend seasoning).