Catching Up With An Old Friend Over Breakfast Strata

My dear college friend Molly came over for breakfast on Sunday.  She lives in eastern Pennsylvania, so our visits together are few and far between.  She was in town for less than a day before heading home to her three little ones, so I feel so lucky that she chose to spend some of her precious quiet time with me.  When she asked if I was free to meet for breakfast, I couldn’t have been more excited!

The only issue is that 15-month old Mack is particularly difficult in restaurants – he won’t sit still for more than five minutes, and when he does he’s terrorizing the salt-and-pepper shakers or mindlessly hurling silverware clear across the room.  Sigh.  If I wanted to spend any time catching up with Molly, a restaurant was out of the question.  So, I happily invited her over to our place for brunch.

Chris left at sunrise to spend the day fishing on Lake Michigan, so I was on my own to watch the kids, keep the house reasonably tidy, set the table and prepare breakfast.  Thinking ahead, I decided it would be easiest to prepare most of breakfast on Saturday night.  Fortunately, I had my mom’s recipe for Breakfast Strata.  This is a family favorite, and we had it every Christmas morning when I was growing up.  No reason it can’t be enjoyed in July, too!

I also served homemade yogurt, homemade granola and strawberries.  The food was nice, but having Molly right next to me was the real highlight of the meal!

Breakfast Strata

16 slices white bread, crusts trimmed
8 slices of smoked turkey, cheddar cheese and swiss cheese
6 eggs
3 C milk
1/2 t onion salt
1/2 t dry mustard or a few good squirts of regular yellow mustard
2 C Cornflakes cereal, crumbled
1 stick butter, melted

Make single layer of bread in a greased 9 x 13 pan. Top each slice with turkey and cheeses. Top with remaining slices of bread. Mix eggs, milk, onion salt and dry mustard. Pour over “sandwiches”. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Before baking next day, top with mixture of Cornflakes combined with melted butter. Bake at 350 for 1 1/4 hours. Let stand 10 minutes before slicing.

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