Country Club Breakfast

 Country Club Breakfast

        This recipe comes to us from an April 1981 edition of the Laurel (Iowa) Centennial Cookbook 1881-1981. A lady named Pat Howard submitted this recipe.  I've done desserts, breads and main dishes and thought it was about time I made some breakfast. I made this on January 1, 2021 and I have to say I am pleased with how it turned out. Although, I can't figure out why it is called "Country Club Breakfast", because there is nothing fancy about it.  I made a couple small changes, but one of the things I really liked about this recipe is that you can modify it very, easily. For example, I used 4 eggs not 3. I just simply thought 3 eggs was not enough and the recipe calls for 1 to 1 1/2 lbs of ham (cut up) and I only had 1/2 lb of cut up ham. What did I do? I cooked several slices of bacon, which I cut up into small pieces and added with the ham. You could easily add diced chili's, diced tomatoes, use shredded cheese instead of sliced and you could use sausage. With less than a lb of meat,  I had plenty of meat in my dish. I would say that 1 1/2 lbs of meat would be the limit for this dish. Don't like meat? Use crumbled tofu. Another modification I made was I didn't have regular dry mustard, so I used the Spicy Mustard seasoning from Trader Joe's that I have. I somehow didn't see that the recipe said to cover and refrigerate the dish overnight.  Oops. But you know what? I really liked the texture of how it came out, so I guess you could do it either way.  Preparing the night would definitely be a time saver. 

    Would I make this again? Yes, most definitely, only I want to maybe try shredder cheddar and add diced green chilis. 

    To start, I placed 6 slices of white bread in the bottom of a 9x13 pan, which I had greased. One slice of cheddar cheese on each piece of bread came next, followed by spreading my cut up ham and bacon over the slices. I beat the eggs, milk, salt and mustard and poured this mixture of the ingredients in the pan. The next item was melted butter.  The recipe calls for melted "oleo", which is what margarine used to be called. I don't have margarine, so I used butter. One whole stick!!!! The recipe calls for spreading dried bread cubes over top, after you pour your melted margarine/butter. I lightly toasted about 6 pieces of bread. I didn't really measure, but after I cut up my lightly toasted bread, I just sprinkled all of it over top and placed it in my preheated oven at 325 degrees for an hour. 

    The cubed bread was nice and toasty, but not "burned" toasty. And the best part was that the bread cubes had soaked up some of that butter flavor. This recipe could serve 6. Add a fruit salad on the side if you like. And I think this might be nice with a hollandaise sauce drizzled over top when served, so if that interests you, go ahead and try it!

    As always, if you make this, let me know what you think.