Christmas morning brunch at Jason and Jane’s was delicious! Jane made French toast, potato casserole, and cheese strata. Jason cooked bacon to enjoy with them. I asked Jane to share the recipes as I really liked all of them.
The French toast casserole was an overnight dish that only had to be baked in time for brunch. Jane said that although the original recipe called for cinnamon and sugar to be sprinkled over the top before baking, she had forgotten it and I thought it was still delicious without it. We enjoyed it with maple syrup poured over it. When Jane made the cheese strata, she didn’t use onion or ham but used extra bacon.
Several of our readers have asked me to request that we all do random Acts of Kindness again as I did for my 75th birthday last year. I had asked for 75 and we exceeded 110. I am not requesting a total number this year but just asking that we surpass what we did previously.
I will begin by sharing: when one of my former students had his step-dad, whom I had never met, deliver a Christmas gift to my home on Christmas Eve I discovered that he had shovelled my front steps and sidewalk before he left.
My neighbour Dwayne dropped off a huge loaf of warm homemade sourdough bread that his wife Tammy had made prior to our family dinner on Christmas Eve.
You can email or phone me or drop your Acts of Kindness into the office and I will continue to let you know about all the good we are doing for others (and others are doing for us). Let’s start 2023 off with lots of good deeds.
Overnight French Toast
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ½ cup butter
- 2 cups milk
- 6 eggs
- 2 tsp. vanilla
- 1 – 8 oz. loaf French bread
Topping
- 1 Tbsp. brown sugar
- ¼ tsp. cinnamon
Cut bread into bite sized pieces. Grease a 9×13 baking dish. Stir brown sugar and butter together in a saucepan over medium low heat until butter has melted and sugar is dissolved, about 2 to 4 minutes. Pour the mixture into the greased baking dish and scatter the bread pieces evenly over the top. Whisk the milk, eggs, and vanilla together well. Pour over the bread and press down with a spatula so that it absorbs the liquid. Cover and refrigerate overnight. When ready to bake, remove from fridge and preheat oven to 350. Mix the topping ingredients of brown sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle over the top. Bake about 50 minutes until the top is browned and bubbling. Cover with a piece of aluminum foil if it is browning too quickly. Cut into squares or scoop out with a spoon to serve. Drizzle with maple syrup.
Cheese Strata
- 1 loaf of Brioche bread
- 4 cups shredded old cheddar cheese
- 6 eggs
- 3 cups milk
- ½ tsp. dry mustard
- ½ tsp. each salt and pepper
- 2 cups cooked bacon – cut up
- 2 cups cooked ham, cubed
- Sweet onion
Cut bread into cubes. If using the onion chop it and then sauté it. Combine the milk, eggs, salt, pepper, dry mustard, and mix well together. Grease a 9×13-inch baking dish and layer the ingredients, starting with the bread. Pour the egg mixture over the ingredients in the pan and refrigerate overnight. Preheat oven to 375. Cover with foil and bake for 45 to 60 min. Remove the foil for the last 5 minutes of baking.
HINT: When you have to chop fruit for a recipe, freeze it for an hour before chopping so that it firms up the moisture in the fruit, making it less sticky and easier to cut.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT: The joy of brightening others’ lives makes ours brighter, too.
