Sunday Brunch Menu for March 6th

Yesterday when I was pondering what to have for lunch today, I took into account that I had 3/4 of a large loaf of French bread to use up along with some eggs.  I thought about making French Toast but I hate all that mess after I come home from church so I searched my recipes and I found this recipe for French Toast Casserole. 

French Toast Casserole

1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup butter
2 tablespoons corn syrup
5 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 loaf French bread, cubed

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, mix and melt the brown sugar, butter and corn syrup.   Spray a baking dish with non-stick vegetable oil and pour in the the butter mixture. 

Mix eggs, milk and vanilla.  Arrange bread cubes in baking dish.  Pour egg mixture over bread; don't miss any area and use all the mixture.  Any extra will be soaked up by the bread.

Cover the dish and refrigerate over night.  The next morning, simply uncover and slip into a preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes, then serve.

Here is what I did to this recipe.  I used a 9 x 13 inch pan.  I also added 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon to the brown sugar mixture.  I added 1 more egg and increased the milk to 1 3/4 cups to accommodate a larger pan.  Adding some frozen blueberries would be another great idea. 

This does not come out goopy and slices perfectly.   I served 5 people for brunch today and they had seconds and we ended up having leftovers for about 1 person.

It was very, very good.  I cut the pieces in squares and when I served them I flipped the pieces over so the brown sugar mixture was on top.  This recipe is a cross between French Toast and a Cinnamon Roll. 

While the casserole was in the oven I made some hash browns by grating 3 large potatoes and I poured the shreds of potato into a pan with some butter in it.  I put the cover on the frying pan to let the potatoes brown on the bottom and steam on the top to cook.  After a few minutes I flipped them over to brown the other side.  I also served Little Smokie sausages (heated in the microwave) and a  fruit salad made up of three cans of fruit - mandarin oranges, sliced pears and fruit cocktail.

We also had orange juice to drink.  I drained the fruit and used the juices to replace some of the water when I was mixing the orange juice. 

I will be making the casserole again for Easter morning and definitely for Christmas or for anytime we want it.  I am going to keep a bag in my freezer and put in stale bread for this casserole alone.  It was a real treat.