<p>What’s on your menu? At the moment, I’m searching for a make ahead french toast casserole, maybe with some blueberries since I have a freezer full. I just came across a Paula Deen Donut Bread Pudding recipe made with sweetened condensed milk, fruit cocktail, a pound of confectioners’ sugar and, of course, donuts. Yikes! :eek:</p>
<p>I no longer do an xmas brunch, for various family reasons, I now have everyone in the evening. For more than 20 years, however, I served</p>
<p>Fruit salad
Egg casserole (vegan version and regular version)
Baked french toast
Assorted breads (orange nut, raisin, and lemon poppyseed)
bagels and cream cheese
OJ
Coffee and tea. </p>
<p>I still have my master grocery list. I am still perfecting my evening buffet and don’t feel nearly as confident that I have everything I need.</p>
<p>There are only 5 of us together in the morning, so we always make a casserole on Christmas so that we can eat together instead of the short-order cook (that would be…uh…me) starting while the rest of the family is finishing. Because we need to accomodate 2 vegetarians and a gluten-free(r), we are making one with hash browns on the bottom, sauteed onions and mushrooms, eggs and of course cheese. We will also serve bacon and fruit on the side. </p>
<p>I’ll be eating a lot of “junk” over the next week, but that donut recipe is not the way I want to begin my day. WAY too much sugar for me.</p>
<p>We do a variety of homemade muffins, coffee cake, and cinnamon rolls, plus scrambled eggs (or some sort of egg casserole), bacon, coffee, juice, and either mimosas or a cranberry/champagne mimosa variation. We have one group for breakfast and then another for dinner so it is a busy day.</p>
<p>Oh, dear. I would be completely wiped out. Bless you. You must be a wonderful hostess.</p>
<p>Wow, tx5athome. I am all about make ahead for Christmas day. I do some kind of casserole that needs to be refrigerated overnight, fruit and mimosas for breakfast (just family) and Beef Wellingtons that are labor intensive but made in advance and go straight from the freezer to the oven for dinner. Roast a few veggies and potatoes, add a quickie salad, and I can spend all day on the couch reading my new books.</p>
<p>rom828 can I get your recipe. My daughter is gluten free and I have always made a recipe that I got from Jimmy Dean but cant’ find it this year. It was eggs, hashbrowns, sausage, cheese and I think red peppers and milk. Looked on the Jimmy Dean website and could not find it.</p>
<p>I like the strata out of cooks illustrated.
[url=<a href=“http://recipes.cooksillustrated.com/breakfast-brunch-recipes/french/cheese/breakfast-strata-with-spinach-and-gruy”>http://recipes.cooksillustrated.com/breakfast-brunch-recipes/french/cheese/breakfast-strata-with-spinach-and-gruy</a></p>
<p>enmmom - when I find it, I’ll send it to you. Should be by tomorrow.</p>
<p>We are doing brunch here, as per usual. Same main dish for the last hundred or so years 
- by popular demand.</p>
<p>It would NOT be on anyone’s heart-healthy list, but it is only once a year.</p>
<p>Sausage Coffee Cake<a href=“easy/make-ahead/freezable/we%20do%20a%20double%20batch%20in%20a%209x13%20baking%20dish”>/u</a></p>
<p>1 lb. bulk sausage
1/2 cup chopped onion
3/4 cup grated cheddar
1 egg, beaten
1/4 t. tabasco
salt to taste
2 cups Bisquik
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup lite mayo (lol on the lite)</p>
<p>Brown sausage and onion. Drain. Add next 4 ingredients. Make batter of Bisquik, milk and mayo. Spread half of batter in 9x9x2" greased pan. Pour in sausage mixture. Dollop rest of batter on top.</p>
<p>Bake at 400 for 25-30 minutes.
Cool 5 minutes before cutting into 3" squares.</p>
<p>We usually have fruit/fruit salad as side dish. Sometimes H scrambles eggs.</p>
<p>Adult beverages: Bloody Mary, Mimosa, Screwdriver</p>
<p>I do a French toast breakfast casserole with torn up french bread, eggs, brown sugar, cream cheese and maple syrup. It is verry rich but we only have it once a year. I serve fruit on the side but blueberries could certainly be added in.</p>
<p>I made this last year and posted it. It is definitely worth the effort.</p>
<p>[Raspberry</a> Blintz Casserole Recipe](<a href=“http://www.bhg.com/recipe/eggs/raspberry-blintz-casserole/]Raspberry”>Breakfast and Brunch Recipes)</p>
<p>We used to love buying “braided bread” from band fundraisers. It comes frozen, and you let it defrost/rise during the night. The bake and ice in the morgning. </p>
<p>(Disclaimer - this does not work well if your busy musician left the frozen braid in the backpack too long… they don’t rise quite right if they had a partial thaw along the way.)</p>
<p>When we were in Germany we would make a nut-filled coffee cake: [url=<a href=“Nusskranz von sister2| Chefkoch”>Nusskranz von sister2| Chefkoch]Rezept</a> mit Bild: Nusskranz | Kuchen Rezepte<a href=“The%20recipe%20is%20in%20German,%20but%20you%20can%20look%20at%20the%20picture.”>/url</a> My kids don’t like nuts, so usually what we have is waffles made by Dad and fresh fruit.</p>
<p>My entry in the egg casserole category:</p>
<p>Brunch Egg Casserole</p>
<p>6 slices white bread, crust removed
1 pound ground sausage
4 cups shredded cheddar cheese
6 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoons dry mustard
2 cups half and half
Butter</p>
<p>Lightly butter each slice of bread. Place bread in a 9x13 buttered glass baking dish.</p>
<p>Brown sausage. Drain and pat with paper towels. Sprinkle sausage over bread. Sprinkle cheese over sausage.</p>
<p>Beat eggs. Add salt, dry mustard and half and half. Beat again. Pour egg mixture over bread, sausage and cheese.</p>
<p>At this point, the dish can be covered with foil and refrigerated overnight or frozen until ready to use. Remove from freezer and thaw overnight in refrigerator.</p>
<p>Remove foil. Bake 45 minutes at 350 or until casserole is bubbly and lightly browned on top. This dish reheats easily.</p>
<p>There are lots of variations on this. For instance, in a Texas Brunch Casserole, you add chopped onion when you brown sausage and 4 ounces of drained chopped green chilies. Then sprinkle with Monterrey Jack cheese. Proceed with rest of recipe. For a 24-hour sandwich, prepare 12 slices of bread, putting six on the bottom as above. Then cover with 3 cups shredded ham and 4 cups shredded Cheddar cheese. Top with remaining bread. Combine eggs, mustard and salt with 3 cups half and half. Pour over layers. Bake as above.</p>
<p>enmmom - See YDS’s recipe above? that is the one we modified. Replace the bread with hash browns, the ones in the (green) bag in the refrigerated section. We’ve used the plain and the southwest and both are good. We then replace the sausage (I know that most use gluten as a filler) with sauteed mushrooms and onions.</p>
<p>We’ve made ahead and we’ve made it in the morning - works fine both ways.</p>
<p>Dang. I can’t come to any of ya’lls houses for Christmas morning. I have rule that breakfast has to be under 1000 calories, even on national holidays.</p>
<p>I’ll probably do bacon and eggs.</p>
<p>We eat a big meal at midnight on Christmas eve, so no one’s particularly hungry at breakfast time. But I have made homemade cinnamon rolls for New Year’s Day (to munch on while watching parades on TV). Variations of the egg/cheese casserole are pretty much regulation fare at church breakfasts around here! Yummy!</p>
<p>You could have, maybe, a 1" square, interesteddad :).</p>
<p>I never eat it. I don’t like eggs, cheese or half and half. But everyone else loves it, and a little goes a long way. That 1" square might be plenty, idad.</p>