This week’s Doris Project recipe comes to us via an advertisement for Bob Evans’ sausage that mom clipped and added to the bag.
I did change up the recipe just a wee, tiny bit, adding peppers, making my own croutons and using my own honey mustard in place of the Dijon called for. The casserole also took a bit over twice as long (55 minutes) to bake properly as the the recipe called for (25 minutes). Still and all, it was good, and I do believe I will be making it again.
INGREDIENTS
•1 lb pork sausage
•Veggie oil
•1 cup red pepper, diced
•1-2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
•1 cup sour cream
•2 tbsp honey mustard (or Dijon)
•1 tbsp brown mustard
•2 cups Cheddar cheese, shredded
•8 eggs (I used three, and a smaller pan than called for, because we just did not need that much breakfast casserole)
•Cheese croutons
Note 1: this is not one of those ‘assemble and stash in the fridge overnight before popping into the oven while you’re still asleep’ casseroles; but you can do a lot of the work the day (or night) before, then assemble and add the eggs to the casserole just before baking.
Note 2: I had a package of Hawaiian rolls that needed using up that I turned into croutons, so I kept the ‘sweet’ going by using honey mustard in place of the Dijon the original recipe called for; but feel free to play around with breads and cheeses and mustards to make your casserole the way you like it. See option ideas at the bottom of this post.
Whisk the sour cream together with the mustards, cover, and set aside (in the fridge if you’re gathering stuff together well ahead of time).
If you’re preparing to cook straight away (or, when you’re ready to assemble and bake), heat your oven to 325º and butter the bottom of a 2-1/2 quart baking pan (I used a smaller pan for just the two of us).
Drizzle a bit of veggie or olive oil in a skillet or other large pan and warm over medium high heat. Add the sausage, red pepper, and a good swig of Worcestershire to taste, then cook, breaking up the sausage, until the sausage is cooked through and the red pepper tender. Drain well.
When ready to bake, arrange the croutons over the bottom of your chosen, buttered, baking dish. I had thought mebbe I should’ve broken my croutons up a bit, but in the end, they were fine as they were. You do what you like.
Cover the croutons with one cup of the cheese, then spoon half of the sour cream and mustard sauce on top of that.
Spread the well-drained sausage and pepper mixture evenly across the top of the casserole – I patted it down with the back of a spatula to compress things a bit.
Make an indentation in the top of the casserole for each egg you plan to add, then break the eggs, one at a time, into a small bowl and then slip one into each indentation.
Spread the remaining sour cream and mustard sauce between the eggs, then top with the remaining cheese and sprinkle with the paprika.
Bake, uncovered, until the cheese is melted and the eggs are set. As noted above, the original recipe said this should take about 25 minutes, but my casserole took every bit of 55 minutes for my eggs to set up properly. 
Mebbe that was an error on the part of the recipe, or mebbe my smaller (and so a bit thicker) casserole took longer to properly heat the eggs; no matter, this was one. Fine. Breakfast casserole, and, even tho’ there was assembly required the morning I served it, I’d cooked the sausage, made the croutons, and whisked together the sour cream and mustards the day before, so it really was pretty fast to toss together.
No Hawaiian Roll Parmesan croutons? No problem! Consider making cornbread croutons with jack cheese, mebbe stirring chipotle mustard into the sour cream, and adding green chilies in place of the red pepper. Or sourdough (or rye) and Swiss cheese croutons, sautéeing corned beef cubes with diced onion and drained sauerkraut, then more Swiss cheese and mebbe some spicy Thousand Island Dressing in place of the sour cream and mustard.
I believe I need to plan a brunch…