December 20 -- Christmas Breakfast

Even though Christmas is a few days away, I thought this might be a good time to share our Christmas breakfast traditions with you. If you decide to try this recipe, you will want to be shopping for ingredients soon. So here are my thoughts on

CHRISTMAS BREAKFAST
 

For Christmas breakfast when the kids were growing up, I always liked to have something easy but hearty. I knew they would be having a lot of sweets and excitement that day, not to mention a lack of sleep. So it made sense to me to be sure that breakfast included some good food, especially protein and fruit. I would plan some sort of egg dish -- usually one that could be made the night before and refrigerated, then baked in the morning. Along with this, we would have muffins or coffeecake, and either leftover ambrosia, fruit salad, or the oranges from the stockings. Here is my favorite egg dish.

EGG BRUNCH BAKE
2 cups seasoned croutons
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
4 eggs
2 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground mustard
1/8 teaspoon onion powder
Pepper to taste
4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

Place the croutons and cheese in a lightly greased 9-inch square pan. combine milk, salt, mustard, onion powder and pepper. Pour this over the croutons and cheese in the pan. Sprinkle bacon on top. Cover and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, bake at 350°, uncovered, for l hour. Recipe may be doubled for a 13X9-inch pan.

Yield: 4 servings

This is my standby breakfast recipe when we have overnight guests. I also served it at 2 pre-wedding brunches to the wedding party. So easy, but delicious!