oh my.
Why hasn't strata entered my world (and mouth) sooner?
I cannot tell you. However, I can tell you that it will never leave again.
A FABULOUS way to use up bread. And eggs.
A FABULOUS way to entertain guests...that leaves you FREE from the kitchen.
A FABULOUS way for a two week postpartum Mama to actually get food on the table, since dinnertime is inevitably the time littlest babe wants to nurse. And edible food, no less.
And Strata ought to be synonymous with Simple. I'll take that up with Roget next opportunity I get.
Here is the recipe, plain and simple.
You'll need:
1 pound sausage
1/2 pound bacon
which you can brown. Right now.
While that is cooking, grab your bread and start cubing. I used unsliced bread-so I can't verify the amount of bread. If you were using sliced, I would say....it would be about 10 slices. cubed.
Of course, the cheese is one of the best parts~so don't be stingy. I used 1 1/2 cups. And SHARP cheese is a must. All others might just make this second rate.
Add the bread and cheese to a large mixing bowl, and when the sausage and bacon is fully cooked, you can add the meat mixture to the bowl too. Make sure the bacon gets crumbled, so everyone gets a taste!
Next pour three cups milk over everything. There is nothing worse than milk-soggy bread so this part sort of grossed me out. Momentarily.
Then, wisk 8 eggs and 1 1/2 teaspoons of mustard together and pour THAT slimy concoction over the soggy mixing bowl. Stir together.
Then admire~ it doesn't look that gross after all.
Cover and stick in the fridge for 8 hours, or overnight. Forget about it. Do something for YOU. Enjoy yourself-because you don't have to give another thought to dinner (or breakfast) (or brunch) for another 8 hours or more.
Give nice big sigh of relief.
Go nurse wailing, half-starved child. (oh wait. That's me.)
Take Strata from fridge 30 minutes before putting in oven. Preheat oven to 350 and then bake for 60-65 minutes.
Just wait until you open that oven door when it is all done. It is beautifully fluffy and golden, and just...a work of art. It tastes as good as it looks, too. Trust me. Better yet: don't. Go see for yourself.
3 comments:
Hi Rebecca,
This looks really yummy!!!! I'm going to try this! I loved your comment about soggy milk bread as this has always put me off trying recipes like this. But if you have the same issue with bread and you think it's yummo, I'll give it a try! (My folks are Dutch and my DH is Dutch so perhaps it's a Dutch thing??? Or maybe it's just a fussy me thing! LOL!)
Can I ask a couple of questions as I live in NZ and just want to make sure I use the right sausage. Do you use proper single sausages and squeeze them out of their skins before cooking, or do you buy a pound of the sausage meat as is?
Does that make sense? Where I live we have 1 pound packets of sausage meat (but it's not really flavoured at all) or you can buy tastier sausages but they are proper sausages. Hopefully I haven't confused you!
Thanks!
And also, congrats on your wee Adele. What a beauty!
Cheers, Wilm in NZ
PS Is your lovely DH keeping his beard at least trimmed for you? :-)
ha! No, alas...my hubby has turned into a backwoodsman. Apparently, he believes himself to be Samson or something.
About your questions regarding sausage. I *think* I know what you are asking. I buy the one pound Jimmy Dean sausage meat...here is a link to a photo.
http://www.jimmydean.com/sitecontent/sausage/2007/09/28/fresh-sausage-maple.aspx
It isn't precooked and squishes out of a manmade plasticy tube rather than a tube made of intestines (or whatever that REALLY is...)
I would imagine what you called "proper sausages" would be the latter, right?
Here is the best answer I can give you. USE THE TASTIER sausage! If you normally use proper sausage, USE IT! If it isn't ground and comes in the form of links-just slice them up. It you squeeze it out and cook it until it is ground into bits-do it that way. If you use mediocre sausage, the strata will likely be mediocre.
And it can't be mediocre. Because I want you to be as pleasantly surprised by the LACK of sogginess as I was! ;-)
Hi Rebecca
Thanks for that. I'll have to purchase some tasty sausages and give it a go. Will let you know how it goes (especially in the sogginess department!!!!).
Heehee - I did mean linked sausages, but I wasn't going to venture into describing what that covering is made of :-) Some things are best left to the imagination, right?
And as for your DH Samson - at least he loves his lady too :-)
Cheers, wilm in NZ
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