When Life Gives You Eggs, Make Cheesy Egg Bake

As regular readers of this blog know, my parents-in-law are currently visiting sunny Hawaii.  Prior to their departure, they donated several perishable items to our household, including eighteen eggs.  I, of course, could only think of one thing as soon as I saw them - time to make some of these Wil Research Cooks recipes that require 18 eggs!

Monday brought ice, then snow, then sleet to our area.  Luckily I was forward-thinking enough to plan out making Carol's Cheesy Egg Bake (p. 49), which is a breakfast food that cooks for 90 minutes.  Ninety minutes.  Normally everyone in my family wakes up at about the same time as me, and not one of them will wait 90 minutes for breakfast!

Therefore, when my husband's work and my kids' schools announced closures and delays on Sunday night for the following morning, I saw my opportunity.  I woke up at the regular hour of 5:30am, leaving everyone else sleeping.  My work was suspiciously not delayed or cancelled.  Perplexed, I decided shoveling the driveway would probably take an hour anyway, so I started preparing the Egg Bake.

It was very simple to make - layer frozen hash browns in the bottom of the pan, top with sausage or ham (I used ham because I could buy it pre-cubed), then pour an egg/milk mixture over top and bake.  I halved the recipe (not because I didn't have enough eggs, let me stress that I definitely did).  To halve the recipe, I used some tips from the internet, which indicated this is best done in an 8x8 baking dish.  Aside from having to break some hash browns in half, this went exceedingly well.

I put the dish into the oven and headed outside with my son to shovel the drive.  It took us over an hour, at the end of which the snow/sleet had begun again and was blowing sideways into our faces.  Also, I couldn't help but notice a layer of ice on the driveway everywhere I shoveled.  Undeterred, I headed inside to find that the Cheesy Egg Bake was finished.  I sprinkled it liberally with cheddar cheese and sat down with my portion just in time for my husband and daughter to wake up and get pieces for themselves.  It was delicious, particularly after the strenuous exercise I had just participated in!  Here is a picture:

Then I proceeded to head off to work, which both my husband and my son told me was a bad idea, that I'd never make it, etc, etc.  I know you're all pulling for me to make it now... but... my car ended up sideways in my driveway within seconds, so I gave up and headed back inside to work from home.  Luckily, I had a Cheesy Egg Bake to warm me up and soothe my ego. 

For fans of sports cars stuck in large amounts of snow (well, I enjoy it), here is a picture of my son later in the day, sliding down the driveway on a shovel behind my sideways car:

March Cookie Madness begins Monday!  Have you filled out your bracket?