Commentary by Joe Drozda and Bob Bley
It was a sad day when the powers of college football yielded to the viewer numbers of television networks and eliminated the traditional 1 p.m. Saturday start for virtually all games. Now we have Thursday and Friday night games and some 11 a.m. games on Saturday. There is nothing we can do about it but mourn. Yet there may be a benefit for tailgaters.
Those early games allow us to serve breakfast before the game. If one has multiple burners on their grill, it isn’t hard to cook omelets with all sorts of ingredients, set out for the guests to choose their favorite. Suggestions are chopped onion, sausage, peppers, cheese, and so on. Then the cook can heat a flour tortilla on a burner and assemble a great breakfast burrito. But what if one doesn’t have burners?
For those tailgaters who don’t want to cook at the tailgate there is always the breakfast casserole. Here is a great recipe that we have tweaked over the past several years to improve the taste. Please, if you are a regular reader, don’t send us emails about how we have repeated a recipe. We’ve had plenty of them in the past.
Sausage pastry bake II
Prep: 30 min. Bake: 30 min.
Ingredients:
•2 pkgs. (12 oz. each) Johnsonville Original Breakfast Sausage Links
• 1 4 oz. can chopped green chilies
• 4 cups frozen shredded hash browns
• 1 medium red onion, chopped
• 2 Tbsp. butter
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Swiss cheese
• 1 8oz pkg. cream cheese cut into 12 even size chunks
• ¼ cup minced fresh parsley
• 10 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• ¼ tsp. salt
• ¼ tsp. pepper
• 1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 Tbsp. water
Directions:
Cook sausage according to package directions and cool slightly; cut into ¼-in. slices and set aside. In a large skillet, sauté hash browns and onion in butter for 6-8 minutes, or until tender. Press hash browns and butter to a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish. Top with cooked sausage, cheeses, chilies and parsley. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, milk, salt and pepper; then pour mixture over cheese.
On a lightly floured surface, unfold pastry sheet; roll into a 13-in. x 9-in. rectangle. Place pastry over egg mixture in a small bowl; combine egg and water and brush over pastry. Cut slits in top of pastry.
Bake at 400°F for 30 minutes or until set and golden brown. Take this to the game and heat it on any grill with a foil tent. Serve with a side sauce of French’s Dijon mustard mixed with mayonnaise.
