I've seen a lot of variations on this casserole over the years. It's not always called the same thing and it doesn't always have quite the same combination or proportion of ingredients, but the central theme of potatoes, pork, and eggs is always there. I usually see it made with frozen hashbrowns, eggs, some sort of cheese, and some sort of pork. The cheese is usually something relatively mild that melts well: mild cheddar, colby, or monterey jack. And the pork is often in the form of bacon, but might also be ham or breakfast sausage. Sometimes there will be chopped onion or, as in this rendition, green onion. There might also be a small amount of other vegetables -- usually bell peppers -- but not too many. And then some form of scrambled eggs or custard gets poured over the whole thing to hold it together.

For this version, I used a few hashbrown patties because Reiver had a packet in the freezer. Lose hashbrowns would probably work a bit better, but the patties were just fine in this case. You could even make your own hashbrowns from scratch if you really wanted to!

There's really not much else to this casserole. It makes for a very easy toss-everything-in-a-dish-and-bake sort of breakfast. It takes a while for it to cook through and the custard to set, but it doesn't take much effort or active time. Just bung it in the oven and wait for your delicious breakfast to be ready!

Farmer's Breakfast Casserole

Slightly adapted from The Big Book of Breakfast by Maryana Vollstedt

Ingredients

• ~3 c. frozen hash browns (or 4-5 hashbrown patties)
• 1 c. chopped cooked ham
• 1/2 c. grated cheddar or pepper jack cheese
• 2-3 green onions, chopped
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 4 large eggs
• 1 1/2 c. milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Grease a 20cm (8") square baking dish.
3. Layer the potatoes, ham, cheese, and green onions into the dish.
4. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
5. Beat the eggs with the milk and pour the custard into the dish with the other ingredients.
6. Bake at 180°C (350°F) until custard is set (~1 hour).
7. Serve with ketchup¹.

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¹ The original recipe calls for serving this casserole garnished with fresh strawberries. This is clearly insane. Please use ketchup/tomato sauce, brown sauce/HP, or some other sensible topping for it. ^Back