Not necessarily a food blog

First off all of you know that this is not necessarily a food blog, although we do like food and have been known to talk about it, Cindy and I have been known to sometimes review restaurants that we love, and sometimes even have a Mixed Review on those that only half of us like.

Cindy and Jimmy's sometimes mixed reviews

On my last post Guinea pigs...maybe? I mentioned an egg casserole that Cindy's Uncle Larry thought was fabulous even though his wife had never even made it yet. But to her credit she did possess the recipe.

I have been completely overwhelmed with requests for this recipe since that post, and to not disappoint the both of you who asked, here is my interpretation of Cindy's newly acquired recipe from how I took it, and also the actual recipe in Cindy's words as read from her Aunt Midges newly acquired recipe card.

And since Cindy has never made it yet I have no problem sharing the same recipe that Midge had never made before she cooked it for us. Because I am here to tell you that it was really good, and the recipe looks really simple even for a food taster/not food cooker like myself.

After I had to get down onto my knees and beg for Cindy to share her new recipe before she had tried it out for herself. I was sure that she would gladly give it to me, but at first she said No, there is no way I'm sharing this recipe so soon, but when I said Valerie asked about it and then Patti also wanted to know if we would share, Cindy said "Why didn't you say that in the first place!" And told me where she had the recipe secretly hidden right there in plain view. I hate to admit that I had looked for the recipe earlier when she was gone to town, but I never thought to look right there in plain sight.

Here is my take on what to do with this recipe:

Hearty Breakfast Egg Bake according to Jimmy:

First thing you do is to gather up the fixins, the day before you want to serve this dish.

You will need about a pound and a half of bulk sausage or ground turkey,  3 cups of thawed out frozen hash browns, 2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese, 8 eggs, a can of cream of mushroom soup, and about 3/4 cup of canned milk.

Be careful to not overcook the meat

Now you take the meat and throw it in a skillet, cook it up till it looks good to you and I'd drain off any grease. Now you put the cooked meat in a baking dish. I'm not much on hash browns but they are really good here, so this is where you layer the hash browns and cheese on top of the meat.

Take everything else and whisk it all together, you can get creative here with extra ingredients if you want, but I have been told to follow recipes the first time and adjust the next time, but I like green chilies so I'm tempted to add some into the mixture. Now you pour this mixture into the baking dish and place it into the refrigerator and leave it right there until morning.

The next morning or afternoon you take the dish out of the fridge and set it on the counter for at least half an hour before cooking it. Don't be tempted to cook this dish cold! Cindy has suggested something about an explosion of cold egg if you do this, I don't know if she is kidding or not but I don't think it's worth getting egg on your face to find out, and you have waited since yesterday anyways so you should be able to make it another thirty minutes. Just set it on the counter and walk away.

After the proper wait time you now uncover the dish and place it into the oven. Cook it at 350 for a little less than an hour, or until it looks good, you can check it with knife and when the blade comes out clean and not slimy or wet when you poke it into the dish, this means it's done.

Now let it cool on top of the stove or on the counter for at least ten minutes before cutting it, it should be ready after you place it on the table and gather everyone around, you know just getting everyone sat down at the table will take more than ten minutes.

This is supposed to serve 8, but you know as well as I do this all depends on the portion sizes, and how many helpings everyone takes.

Now for those of you who want the proper version that Cindy provided, this is what Cindy's recipe looks like.

Egg Casserole ready to eat.

Hearty Breakfast Egg Bake

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pound - Bulk pork sausage / or Ground Turkey

3 cups - frozen shredded Hash brown potatoes (thawed)

2 cups - Shredded cheddar cheese

8 - Eggs

1 can - Cream of mushroom soup (10 3/4 oz)

3/4 cup - Evaporated milk

Directions

Cook Sausage or Ground Turkey, and transfer to a greased 13" x 9" x 2" baking dish.

Sprinkle the meat with the hash browns and cheese.

Whisk the remaining ingredients together and pour over the top.

Cover and refrigerate overnight.

The next day when you are ready to begin the baking process:

Remove from refrigerator 30 minutes before baking.

Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes. It is done when a knife inserted comes out clean.

Let stand 10 minutes before cutting.

Yield: 8 servings.

Now for the best part, serve it up and enjoy!

Cindy also was the one who suggested adding green chilies, onions, or other similar ingredients to taste as an option.

I hope you enjoy the recipe and if I were you I'd most likely use Cindy's recipe over mine, because as I said earlier I'm more of a food taster than a food cooker.