Probably everybody and their grandma has a variation of this recipe, right? Plus, who wants to get up and slave away in the kitchen on New Year’s Day? There are parards to watch, bowls games, family stuff, and the occasional hang over if you had a wild night out. And reading. We all need to read more, right? Well, this puppy can be made the night before, stuck in the fridge and taken out when you are ready for food the next morning. Sadly, my college team plays their bowl game late tonight instead of on New Year’s Day but still…

Ingredients

½ pound bacon
diced onion
12 eggs
½ cup diced jalepenos
1 cup milk
2 cups (16 oz) frozen hash brown potatoes
1 cup shredded cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Make It and Bake It (Or not…)

Fry bacon in skillet. Remove and pour out grease. Once bacon is cooled, crumble into small pieces.

In the same pan, saute onion and green pepper until tender (this adds some nice bacon-y flavor to your onions and peppers).

In a large bowl, combine eggs, milk, hash browns, cheese, salt and pepper. Add in crumbled bacon, onions and peppers.

Pour mixture into greased 13×9 pan.

Bake at 350 F (177 C) for 35-45 minutes or until cooked thoroughly.

If you are making this the night, simply cover with foil once you add egg mixture to pan. Refrigerate until ready to bake.

If you want to be fancy, garnish with sliced green onions, chives, black olive, all of the above, whatevery you think will look and taste good.

Tips

1 – You can substitute sausage for bacon, just make sure to drain it really well.

2 – You can use Hormel Bacon Pieces if you don’t wnat to fry up all that bacon. Fresh bacon is better but hey, I am aaall about quick, easy, and convenient. Use butter to saute your onions and peppers if you do that.

3 – You can substitute green peppers and/or red peppers or nothing at all for the jalepenos. We just like stuff a little spicy around here.

Since this is an old family receipe and we’re looking at the start of a new year, I’ve decided to go back to the beginning–my very first book with Harlequin, COWGIRL’S DON’T CRY. I’ll admit, Cassidy might get a little teary-eyed when she makes this casserole for the Barron family because it’s something her mom then her dad made when she was a kid. Chance’s Aunt Katherine Tate also has a similar recipe and her brood of boys grew up on it. COWGIRLS DON’T CRY is $1.99 so go grab your digital copy, you know, in case you don’t have one already. Just click on a pic with the cover or the title. What about y’all? Does your family fix something similar? If not, what’s a traditional breakfast dish that you make?