Breakfast strata

I've finally figured out the two main tricks to make my egg-strata recipe delicious *every* time: ordinary sandwich bread and swiss cheese. In the past, I thought I could jazz up the egg-bake recipe by including artisanal breads like rye or garlic or some kind of boule with a beautiful crust. But then the bread became the feature that was surrounded by egg. Not good. Now, I just use a very ordinary white sandwich bread that the kids like so much. The swiss cheese also adds a creamy, sweet, rich flavor that other cheeses cannot match. Swiss cheese is the most essential ingredient to pulling this recipe together. I also love to use red tomato, green jalapeño peppers, and bacon alongside the egg yellow---such great color variety.

Here's my modified recipe:

2 cups diced meat (any combination of meat: ham [cubed and frozen leftovers from Easter ham], turkey [I use deli-cut turkey], bacon)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 medium tomatoes, diced
1/2 green pepper or 1 jalapeño pepper
8 large eggs
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
2-1/2 cups milk or cream
8 slices white sandwich bread
1 cup white cheddar cheese, shredded
1 cup Swiss cheese, shredded

Saute meat, onion, pepper, tomatoes. In a bowl, beat together eggs, mustard, salt, pepper, and milk/cream. Grease a 9x13-inch casserole dish with soft butter. Layer all bread cubes in bottom. Sprinkle meat and veggies over bread. Sprinkle cheese for third layer and milk/egg for fourth layer.

Cover with foil; let set in refrigerator for 8 hours (overnight). Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Serve with hot sauce. And toast and jelly, hash browns, coffee and cream, homemade orange juice. A perfect breakfast...