The holiday season is one of my favorite times of the year, and I cannot tell y’all how excited I am about these coming weeks. Let’s be honest: I love the holidays because of the people around me, the celebrations and the food. And the food my family makes? Well, it’s pretty fantastic.
My mother has made the same breakfast casserole for our family every Christmas morning for as long as I can remember. It is delicious, and it’s something that only makes an appearance on Christmas Day.
So when Doniree connected me with Willamette Egg Farms, asking bloggers to write about their favorite holiday egg recipes and traditions, I was in. Because not only does my family enjoy eggs in all capacities, but we have this fabulous tradition of the Christmas Breakfast Casserole.
In addition to me sharing my favorite holiday egg recipe, Willamette Egg Farms wants y’all to get involved and share yours, too! You can participate in the Willamette Egg Farms’ EGG-cellent Holiday Traditions contest by creating your favorite EGG-cellent Holiday dish and sharing a photo of that dish on their Facebook wall. From their contest rules:
Show us how you’re using eggs this holiday season! Share an original photo of your favorite holiday recipe or tradition featuring eggs on our Facebook wall. The photo with the most Facebook likes will take home a $100 Visa gift card to help cover holiday groceries, so share your photo with friends to boost votes!
You can check out the official details, as well as the timeline, here. Pretty cool, huh?
So. Back to the Christmas Breakfast Casserole. … Since my mother is the one who makes this delectable breakfast meal yearly, I have never made this casserole, nor do I have the recipe. I was left to my kitchen magician skills, which are surprisingly quite good, and I whipped up the following recipe.
Here are the ingredients you will need for my version of my mother’s wonderful Christmas casserole:
Erin’s Christmas Breakfast Casserole
- 7 eggs
- 1/4 lb. bacon
- 1/2 cup onion, chopped
- 1 garlic clove, finely minced
- 1/4 cup vegetable broth
- 2 cups fresh bread, chopped into bite-size pieces (I happened to have some fresh honey wheat rolls at home. Carb addiction/running problem FTW!)
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1/4 teaspoon Tony’s Cajun Seasoning
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 cup cheddar cheese
First and foremost, preheat the oven to 350.
While the oven is doing its thing, spray your baking dish with nonstick spray. Set it aside.
And then, you’re going to fry up the bacon. … Don’t be like me and leave it in the pan to long, burning some of the edges. (But, y’all, burned bacon is better than no bacon. Right?)
Then you’ll drain the pan of the grease. Leave a teaspoon or less in the pan. Then take the chopped onion, toss it in the pan, and sautee the onion until it’s soft. It’ll pick up the leftover bits of the bacon from the pan, and once the onion has softened, pour in the little bit of vegetable broth, scraping the bottom of the pan to deglaze it, as well as impart more bacon-y goodness into the onions. (You could use another broth here, but we only had veggie on hand.)
Once the broth has evaporated, pull the pan off the heat and set aside.
Next, you’ll break the seven eggs in a bowl and whisk together with a whisk… or a fork, if you’re me. Add the Tony’s and black pepper to the eggs immediately, stirring the spices in until they are well incorporated. (See the photo on the right.)
Then measure out the cheese, pour it into the eggs and stir until combined.
And then, chop up the cooled bacon. Toss it into the eggs. Spoon the cooked onions into the eggs. (Note: They should have cooled off by now, and they should not cook the eggs when you put them in. If you’re worried about this, scoop the onions from the pan into a small bowl and toss it in the freezer.)
Stir all these ingredients until they are well combined.
From here, you’re going to chop up the bread. You could tear it up with your hands, as well.
Then you’ll scoop half of the bread into the baking dish, pour half of the egg mixture on top of it. Then you’ll top that with the rest of the bread, then finally pour the rest of the egg mixture on top of that.
It should look a little something like this:
If you’re feeling particularly adventurous, sprinkle some more of that cheese on top.
And then you will bake this for 35 minutes or until the top of casserole is bubbly and browned.
Then you’ll pull it out of the oven, let it cool for 5 minutes, and then dig in!
And trust me, y’all, this stuff is good.
…
Do y’all have a favorite holiday recipe?
What is it?
And what kind of new traditions are you planning on making this year, food-wise?
The Fine Print: This is a sponsored post. Willamette Egg Farms provided me with a gift card to cover the groceries for the making of this dish. However, all opinions are my own.
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