January 17, 2012

sisters and breakfast casserole

This past weekend was filled with family! All of my sisters were at my house. H. from Florida, E. from New York and K. that resides locally. There wasn't nearly enough time to visit with my sister H. from Florida though. She's the one I rarely get to see. H. brought her little 2 year old daughter A. with her. She's a doll baby! So cute and sweet. Her voice is so tiny...her hair is down right Goldilocks!


She adds the word "honey" to the end of her sentences. For instance, 
"Can I have a cookie honey?" 
"Let's go play honey." 
It is the cutest thing ever. She is imitating what her grandparents and mom and dad say to her..probably at the end of every one of their sentences...
"come on honey" 
"eat your broccoli honey" 
"brush your teeth honey". 
In the 2 short days I had with her, she still hadn't warmed up to me 100%. She won't hug me...I hug her, but no hug in return. She is soooo shy. I ask her questions, she looks at me, but won't answer me. 
She does talk, and talk well she does. She talks to her mommy all the time and sometimes she says a few things to us, her aunts. She has taken very well to my boys, especially my youngest. 

Well, fortunately, the visiting isn't quite over just yet. H. has gone to spend a couple days with our parents who live a couple hours away from here. She and her daughter will be back here tomorrow evening and then stay on for one more day. I am so grateful for the extra time to spend with her.

H. dazzled us with her great cooking skills while she was here..including breakfast on Monday morning. She easily whipped up a fantastic breakfast casserole with whatever I had on hand in the refrigerator. It was a complete surprise to me as I had slept in until 8:30 am. When I came downstairs that morning, I was pleasantly greeted with the aroma of savory cooking coming from the kitchen. 

 

Not to mention the smell of Starbucks Pikes Place Blend steeping in the French coffee press. Okay, I can get used to this! I never have anyone cooking for me or making my coffee. Pure heaven I tell ya! H. was in charge of the breakfast casserole, but E. was trying to take some credit too! They were competing about who decided on which great ingredients had made it's way into the casserole. Well, one thing is for sure, E. got all the credit for the French press coffee, as H. hasn't a clue how to operate one.

I want to share with you the recipe for H's breakfast casserole. The beautiful thing about it is, you can add whatever you have in your fridge too. Be creative and use up your leftovers.

H's Breakfast Casserole

Using a 9 x 11 baking dish, break four pieces of bread, into chunks, onto the bottom of baking dish.
Beat 8 farm fresh eggs.
Pour eggs over bread.
Over top of the bread, sprinkle the following:
crumbled pieces of bacon
chopped red pepper
chopped onion
chopped tomato
torn pieces of fresh spinach leaves
shredded cheddar cheese

Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes
or until egg is set.

Enjoy!