Sausage Hashbrown Casserole

So Christmas is nearly here!  Just a few days to go now!  Today, I’d like to share a Christmas tradition with you…….my family and I get up before the crack of dawn on Christmas morning to open gifts.  When I say before the crack of dawn, I mean before the very butt-crack of dawn!  It’s EARLY!  Like, um, 3:00AM……… IF I can keep the Tall Skinny Man in the bed and NOT waking up the Ankle Biters before that!  So we get up and we unwrap gifts and enjoy a little time looking at what we all got.  Then we get up and start breakfast.  A HUGE  breakfast has been our Christmas tradition for my entire life.  It’s just changed a bit over the years.

Christmas doesn’t “look” like it used to for us.  We used to get up that early, then go to my Moma’s house by 5 AM to do Christmas there.  Then we were at my Granny’s by 7 AM to eat breakfast at her house.  You can’t even wrap your head around all the food she would have for breakfast!  She made all the biscuits homemade……probably 10 dozen of them!  No joke!  Then it was to my Daddy’s house by 9 AM for Christmas there.  On to my Pa John’s (my Daddy’s Daddy) for Christmas there with him and my Daddy’s brother and sisters and their families.  We ate a big lunch there before proceeding BACK to my Granny’s to have Christmas supper there with all of my Moma’s brothers and sisters and their families.  It was a joy! 

Most of those folks have gone home to be with the Lord now.  So it’s just my brother and me for Christmas.  And we get up and cook this insanely huge breakfast for just the 7 of us!  Hopefully this year, we’ll have 8 with my nephew’s sweet little girlfriend.  But it’s just 8 people and we have this ginormous spread of food!  But our ginormous doesn’t hold a candle to the size of the breakfast at our Granny’s from years gone by.  But Unk sure can come awfully close to Granny’s homemade biscuits! 

My nephew is a picky, picky, PICKY eater.  But he LOVES the casserole I’m going to share with you today.  It’s a recipe my Aunt Ann, my mom’s baby sister shared with me several years ago.  I’ve tweaked it and made it my own over the years.  And it’s something that our “new” Christmas breakfast wouldn’t be complete without.

So let’s get started.  Here’s what you’ll need:

Frozen Hashbrowns (shredded or cubed worked equally well), Frozen Seasoning Blend (a mixture of chopped onions, bell peppers and celery), sage, black pepper, cream of mushroom soup, garlic, milk, sharp cheddar cheese and sausage (I prefer to use the one with sage or the hot, but it’s up to you which one you and your family prefer.)

Start with the hashbrowns in a large bowl.  You’ll need one big enough to be able to stir it all up! 

 

Next, brown the sausage in a skillet.

Break it up as you brown it so the pieces will be fairly small and not in large chunks.

Back to the hashbrowns, add the bag of seasoning blend to the potatoes.

Add the sage to the potato mixture.  If you have fresh sage, it’s preferred, but right now, all my fresh herbs are freshly DEAD.  So I had to use dried sage.

Next add fresh cracked pepper.  If you don’t have a pepper grinder, you can use plain old pepper from your pepper shaker.  I just happen to prefer freshly cracked peppercorns.

 

Now add minced garlic.  I really prefer the fresh for this too, but this time of year, my garlic seems to go bad as quickly as I bring it home from the friendly neighborhood Kroger.  So it’s just easier to buy a big bucket of already minced from Sam’s.  Whatever works, huh?

Add a can of cream of mushroom soup.  Now if you’re opposed to mushrooms or allergic or whatever, cream of “whatever” soup will work just fine here.  Personally, I LOATHE fungal units.  But they’re so tiny in this, I can tolerate it.  But cream of celery or potato would be just as good!   Once you dump the soup in, fill the can with milk and swish around in the can to loosen the remainder of the soup.  Now pour it into the bowl.

Add the shredded cheese.

 

 Now add the drained sausage to the bowl.  You’re ready to mix it all up.

All mixed up and ready to go into the baking dish.

Be sure to spray your baking dish with non-stick spray!  You’ll be glad you did later!  Now add the casserole into your pan of choice.  Bake it for 45 minutes in a pre-heated 350° oven.

And when it’s finished in the oven, this is what you’ll have.

And now you’re ready to eat!  YUMMMMMMM!  This goes great alongside a quiche or waffles or biscuits and gravy or just by itself! 

Sausage Hashbrown Casserole

*  1 large bag frozen hashbrowns

*  1 bag frozen seasoning blend

*  1 can cream of celery soup

*  1 can milk

*  1-8 oz. bag shredded sharp cheddar cheese

*  Garlic, sage and black pepper to taste

*  salt, to taste

*  1 pound sausage, browned and drained

Open hashbrowns and seasoning blend and pour into a large mixing bowl.  Add spices, soup, milk and cheese.  Brown sausage and break up into small pieces.  Drain well.  Add to potato mixture.  Stir until well combined.  Spray a baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.  Bake in a pre-heated 350° oven for 45 minutes.  Serve hot.

And that’s a part of our Christmas morning breakfast tradition!  I wanted to share a little of our tradition with you and yours!  I hope the next few days of Christmas preparation are full of fun and joy and the magic we all love at this time of year!  Merry Christmas!