Weekend Brunch & Hash Brown Casseroles

I have been cooking! Thought I'd share two recipes since I've actually managed to try two in the last two weeks. As you know(or not), among my Summer hobbies has been putting together a cookbook over at Heritage Cookbook. A friend asked and No, they won't be for sale. Just a personal project and something to help me improve in my cooking. Anyhow, there are a few recipes in the cookbook that I did try out before I put them in(all posted here) but most are new to me. These two are both new and I am so pleased that I decided to include them. Both were easy, I was successful in preparing them AND they were pretty darn good to boot! WooHoo! I guess I'm getting better at this cooking thing!

Weekend Brunch Casserole
1 pound sausage
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 (8 ounce) can refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
4 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Crumble and cook sausage in medium skillet over medium heat until browned. Drain.

Line bottom of greased 13 x 9 inch baking dish with crescent roll dough, firmly pressing perforations to seal. Sprinkle with sausage and cheese. Combine remaining ingredients in medium bowl until blended; pour over sausage. Bake 15-25 minutes or until set. Let stand 5 minutes before cutting into squares; serve hot. Refrigerate leftovers.

I tried this recipe for breakfast last week while at the folks house. Jackie & Scott had spent the night, so I knew it wouldn't go to waste and I really wanted to try out something from the cookbook. I chose this recipe because Mom had all of the ingredients on hand! It was easy to prepare and really good. I used the hot variety of sausage (all we had), but everyone agreed the spicy/hot sausage "made" it.


That was last week. This week I tried a recipe I found on the Loveless Cafe (my favorite restaurant) website. This was for a hashbrown casserole, similar to or perhaps the very one they serve at the Loveless. Jackie & Scott were spending the night at our house so I was excited to get to try something new! Oh! It. Was. Delicious. We had it for lunch and again the next morning with breakfast and I've had it again today. It's one of those things that gets better the next day or two and it was easy easy easy! This may be my favorite recipe yet. Went well with the baked BBQ chicken recipe that also made it into the cookbook.

Loveless Hashbrown Casserole
1lb. bag of frozen shredded potatoes
2/3 cup finely diced onion
2 cups shredded cheddar
1 can of condensed cream of chicken soup
16oz. sour cream
salt & pepper to taste.

Mix it all together and bake in a covered casserole dish for 30min. Remove cover and bake another 30min. or until good and brown!

The only thing I did differently here was I used onion flakes from a shaker(not as much as called for) and I didn't have shredded cheddar so I used shredded Cheddar/Jack instead.

I guess Hashbrown Casserole is a popular dish 'round here...I received three different recipes for my cookbook. I ended up with a version from my friend Rhonda and this one from the Loveless. I've seen it on the menu of several restaurants, and someone always seems to bring one to potlucks. I'd just never thought to try making it myself before. Glad I did!

In case you are curious, the Loveless Cafe has several other recipes available for free on their site and I believe there is a cookbook available as well. Check out the free recipes here. Heading to Nashville on Friday...I really hope we make it there for lunch!