LET'S HEAR IT FOR HOUSEWIVES DAY OFF

In honor of Housewive's Day Off, whadda ya mean you didn't know it was Housewive's Day Off day? March 05 is Housewive's Day Off day. Never heard of it? Well, you have now! And in honor of this glorious day, I gotta fix Thursday's food today so I can have tomorrow off.

What I'm gonna have for breakfast is one of my family's favorite breakfast foods, breakfast casserole. Now when I got this recipe from a friend years ago, I think it had a name somethin' like Potato Crust Quiche or somethin' like that, but we have gotten to where we call it plain ol' breakfast casserole. My son loves this dish and when I fix it I have to make two, one for him and one for the rest of us. I'm not kiddin', he eats a whole one himself. Not at one settin' but about every hour through out the mornin' he goes back into the kitchen and gets another piece. He's a growin' boy, don't ya know? I usually make it for holiday's and special occasions (like son's birthday, it's what he orders).

Now since tomorrow is a special day, Housewive's Day Off, I'm gonna fix just one (son's not gonna be here) for me and CD.

This is an easy dish and you can fix it the day before and cover it with foil and heat the whole thing up in the oven or put it in the microwave, either the whole thing or piece by piece. That way for your day off, Thursday, you don't have to cook breakfast.

The ingredients you are gonna need to fix this day's off breakfast are:

1 regular size bag of shredded Hash Brown potatoes or
1 regular size bag of shredded frozen Hash Browns, thawed and you must squeeze the water out of the thawed frozen hash browns.

1/4 cup butter, the real thing, melted. Sometimes I use a little more butter, about another 1/8 cup
1 1/2 cups diced ham or sausage
1 onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 1/2 cups grated cheese, your choice but I usually use sharp cheddar
3 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

I am usin' sausage today for my 'day off ' breakfast casserole. Fry your sausage, stirrin' and crumblin' it up as it cooks. Drain any grease off and set aside when fully cooked.

Line a 9 inch pie plate with the tators that have had all the water squeezed out of them if you are usin' thawed frozen hash browns. That's why I like to use the fresh hash browns that I find in the cooler section at the grocery store, there's no squeezin'. If I'm gonna be doin' any squeezin', I don't want it to be hash browns. i gotta stay nice now 'cause tomorrow is a special day for us housewife's.

Press those tators real good like into the pie plate and drizzle the butter over 'em. Pop this into a 425 degree oven for 25-30 minutes. Now CD likes a good brown on his tators so I leave 'em in 'till they start brownin'.

While the tators are brownin', in a bowl, mix together the sausage, onion, green pepper and the grated cheese.

In a smaller bowl beat the eggs with the milk and add the salt and pepper.

Now here are my hash brown tators out of the oven. If you don't want them this brown you can take 'em out sooner.

Put your meat and cheese mixture in the pie pan on top of the tators.

Pour your egg mixture all over the top of the meat mixture.

Pop this bad boy back into the oven that is now set at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until knife stuck in center comes out clean.

And voila! You now have breakfast ready for your day off on National Housewife's Day Off! Now remember you don't have to let it get this browned. My husband likes burned food. He really does.

Now I'll have this for breakfast and again for lunch with a salad and then my husband is goin' to be takin' me out for dinner, even though he doesn't know it yet.

I hope you have a wonderful day off from house work, I certainly am plannin' to, and I hope you like this breakfast casserole, it's mighty good vittels.

R.