Father's Day Brunch Casserole

Happy Father's Day to all the amazing daddies out there!

My husband, Brett, and his dad are out fishing this afternoon, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to share what we made this morning for my kids super-wonderful, totally awesome daddy for breakfast.

I wanted to make something hearty for my hubby but I also wanted it to be something the girls could help me with in the kitchen.  This casserole was perfect!  I gave the girls the task of tearing up a large french baguette of bread into chunks and they had a ball.

This casserole turned out to be so tasty!  I found this recipe here and tweaked it just a little bit.  The casserole has a whole loaf of crusty bread, bulk Italian sausage, red bell pepper, onions and is soaked with an egg, milk, heavy cream, cheese and chives mixture.  Are you hungry yet?  You should be because this is so good!  

I used Monterrey jack cheese instead of the swiss because I thought that would be more appealing to the kids.  But unfortunately the girls didn't even want to try it.  No biggie, though.....I'm sure my hubby and I will have no problem polishing this off all by ourselves!  I think next time I'll go with the swiss.  Italian sausage and swiss cheese is always a winning combination.

This is a great make ahead dish because you can assemble it the night before and just pop it in the oven in the morning.  It takes about an hour to bake and is ready to go when it is puffed and golden and when a knife inserted comes out clean.  I also garnished the casserole with extra fresh chives from our garden.

So, that's what was cookin' over here this morning.  I hope you all were able to make the special daddy's in your life something good to eat.  I firmly believe that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach and it's a great way to show him how much you care!