Of all the sandwiches, breakfast sandwiches are my favorite. There's something comforting about taking everything that's great about breakfast and putting it in between two pieces of buttered bread. It's also possible I find it comforting because I grew up eating breakfast sandwiches on Sunday after church. My mom is the queen of the fried egg sandwich. I guess I have her to thank for the fact that I find plain eggs and bacon boring and unsatisfying. At least these things are acceptable in North Carolina.

You can really do whatever you'd like with a breakfast sandwich. Be as creative or as simple as you'd like. Change up the choice of bread. Use ham instead of bacon. Spread cream cheese on the bread instead of adding a slice of regular cheese (I promise this is amazing). This seems like a pointless recipe to put up because it's so simple, but I've realized that a shockingly large number of people haven't been clued in on the sheer joy that comes from a good breakfast sandwich. So, I am posting two variations.

The variation I want to explain first is the Pimento Cheese, Egg and Bacon Breakfast sandwich. There are few, and I mean very few, things in the world that are better than a grilled pimento cheese sandwich. If you're not from the south, I'm sure this is a completely foreign concept to you and that's ok.

You may agree with me that the trick to a great, gooey grilled cheese sandwich is hand shredded cheese and adding a small layer of mayo to the inside of the bread.  Well, the same thing goes for using homemade pimento cheese in your egg sandwich. I combined this with soft scrambled eggs and bacon which results in a blending of flavors that is seriously out of this world. You start out with spreading the pimento cheese on the unbuttered side of a slice of bread, and once your eggs are done, you spread them over the pimento cheese, add a few slices of bacon on top and then sandwich it with the other piece of bread and grill it in the pan. Putting it back in the pan is essential, as it gives you the good buttery crunch and it also melts the ingredients together.

The second sandwich I've shown is much simpler, and it's my go to since sadly I do not always have homemade pimento cheese around. I sometimes leave out the bacon or the ham if I'm out of those ingredients. The pan I used was pretty bad, so the egg stuck too much to make it a perfect over medium fried egg, but my suggestion is to do it over easy if you're up for the mess or over medium. You can either use egg, mustard and cheese (with or without meat), or do egg and cream cheese (with or without bacon). I'm always rushing in the mornings, so if I have time to fry up a quick egg sandwich I promise you do too!

Enjoy!

Homemade Pimento Cheese*
Makes a full serving, feel free to cut this amount in half

2 10-ounce blocks Cracker Barrel Cheese, one Sharp White Cheddar, one Sharp Cheddar, grated
2 heaping tablespoons diced pimentos (not sliced!)
1 to 2 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup Duke's Mayo
1 teaspoon cracked pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne (optional)

Grate the sharp white cheddar and sharp yellow cheddar cheeses together in a bowl. Do not buy pre-grated cheese, as these cheeses come with a waxy coating on the outside and will not melt as well (or taste as good). Throw remaining ingredients into bowl, and blend gently with a spatula, forks, spoons, or whatever you have on hand. Keep refrigerated until ready to use. Leftover pimento cheese is delicious on crackers, veggies, burgers, sandwiches, pretzels, etc.

*Adjust amount of cream cheese and mayonnaise to suit your personal preference. If you prefer a creamier and tangier cheese use slighly less mayo and 2 ounces cream cheese.

Grilled Pimento Cheese, Bacon and Egg Sandwich
Makes 1 sandwich (double, triple, quadruple as needed)

2 pieces cooked bacon
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon milk
2 slices sourdough bread
1/8 cup pimento cheese
Salt and pepper for taste
Butter for the bread

Cook bacon in pan or in oven until crispy. Spread one side of each piece of bread lightly with softened butter. On the non-buttered side of one slide, spread a generous layer of pimento cheese, it should be about a 1/2-inch thick. Break bacon slices in half an set on top of pimento cheese. You can also crumble the bacon on top if you want to make sure to have it in every bite (or bacon lattice it if it's that kind of a day!).

In a nonstick skillet, melt a small amount of butter. Whisk eggs and milk with a fork until combined, then add a dash of salt and pepper. Pour into pan over medium-low heat. Stir with a heatproof spatula until small curds begin to form, increase heat to medium high. Begin to fold the eggs over themselves until they are still soft, but fully cooked and no liquid remains. This will happen VERY quickly, so make sure not to overcook. Remove eggs immediately and place on top of the pimento cheese and bacon slice of bread. The key is to start with a pan that is the right temperature and not take your eyes off of the eggs while cooking. This will give you a flavorful, soft scrambled egg.

Place the remaining slice of bread on top, butter side up, and add to the pan over medium heat. Slightly press down to make sure the ingredients come together without compressing them too much. Flip once sides are lightly brown. Cut in half and enjoy! Keep napkins nearby.

*Note: To make a fried egg sandwhich, everything is the same except for you spread a thin layer of mustard on the bread instead of pimento cheese. Then you can top with your choice of cheese, bacon or ham, and a fried egg. Throw in a pan and lightly brown on each side. This works well with the soft scrambled eggs, too, but I wouldn't recommend swapping fried for scrambled on the pimento cheese version.

I've had a lot of breakfast casseroles. I'm not sure how it is in other parts of the country, but in the south I feel like just about everyone I know has their own version of a breakfast casserole. In my family we've always used my grandmother's. Her breakfast casserole has been on the table for Christmas brunch since before I was born. It's a good, no gimmicks breakfast casserole. My family doesn't like it when people throw onions or peppers in, that ruins a perfectly good casserole (though I wouldn't object to mushrooms). My grandmother does it just right. I tell you this because I want you to realize that saying a recipe is better than my grandmother's is going against my entire upbringing. I blame Paula Dean.

This casserole has potatoes in it, something not in my grandmother's, and I think those really add to the overall makeup of it. It's incredibly cheesy and rich, and absolutely amazing. Will I try to get my grandmother to start serving this? Oh goodness no. Her recipe will be in my recipe book for the rest of my life..but it will be right beside this one, and this is the one that I will be using.

As a side note, Paula Dean's cookbook The Southern Cooking Bible is fantastic. I've linked to it on Amazon, so if you're feeling in the mood to buy a new cookbook today this is a great choice!

Sunday Morning Breakfast Casserole
Recipe from Paula Dean's The Southern Cooking Bible

Ingredients

6 slices day-old white bread (french bread works best)*
1 lb breakfast sausage
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced cooked, unpeeled red potatoes
1 1/2 cups mixed shredded Cheddar & Monterey Jack cheese
6 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups whole milk
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
black pepper

Directions

1. Grease a 2.5-3 quart baking dish (attractive enough to bring to the table) with butter, oil, or cooking spray. Cube the bread and place in the dish in a single even layer.
2. In a large skillet, cook the sausage, breaking it up with a spoon, until it's almost cooked through, about 5 minutes. Drain off the fat. Layer the sausage over the bread, and top with potatoes. Sprinkle the cheese on top.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, mustard powder, salt, and black pepper to taste. Pour the egg mixture over the sausage and potatoes in the casserole. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
4. When ready to cook the casserole, preheat the oven to 350. Bake the casserole until set and golden about 30 minutes. Serve hot.

*Recipe as written calls for two slices of bread. I adjusted this based on reader comments. If you are using big slices of thick bread you can go down from six. I would recommend using a sturdy, day-old white bread for best results. Regular sandwich bread won't give the same crunch of the crust, and it is more likely to get mushy.
 
 

I know what you're thinking: this looks nothing like a breakfast pizza. You're right. It's more like a breakfast casserole the way I made it. I felt like I couldn't justify using 12 eggs for something I was just making on a whim, so I halved the recipe and used an 8x8 pan. I posted it anyways because in hindsight I'm not sure why those extra six eggs were so precious to me. So here is my first tip for the "pizza": make the full version. It wasn't really a problem that I made it smaller, but I also halved the bacon and I immediately decided that was a poor decision. I actually wouldn't have skimped on it, but I used the majority of my bacon stash for bacon chocolate chip cookies the night before.

But as for the breakfast pizza, I love how easily it came together. I have been reheating little squares of it for snacks here and there over the past few days. I'm used to grabbing a square of brownie or a cookie (healthy, right?), but it's a nice change of pace to actually have some real food to munch on. It's also good because I'm trying to wean myself off of the pizza sticks I wrote about a few weeks ago. I kept making them over and over again, and I think I was beginning to develop a slight addiction. One last tip is that I used mostly mozzarella for these because that's what I had on hand, but I think sharp cheddar is the most flavorful so that's probably your best bet. 

I promise this will be the last post from Southern Plate for a few weeks. I just can't get enough of her recipes. Nothing fancy, no hard to find ingredients, no completely unnecessary steps that you can't figure out how on earth make that much of a difference–she's just a true home cook. I love it. I promise you'll feel the same way if you take a look around her site.

Bacon Breakfast Pizza

Recipe from Southern Plate

• 1- 8 count can crescent roll dough
• 3 cups shredded hash browns (can used cubed)
• dozen eggs
• 1 cup shredded cheddar
• 6 slices bacon (more or less, depending on what you have on hand)
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Optional: Other toppings of your choice. Examples are: Onions, mushrooms, other meats, other vegetables, etc

Cook bacon and set aside. Spray a 9×13 inch pan with cooking spray. Place crescent roll dough in the bottom of the pan, pinching seams together to seal. Spread frozen hash browns over dough. Salt and pepper to taste (I start with 1/2 tsp of each). Beat all eggs in a bowl and pour over hash browns. Sprinkle crumbled bacon over. Place in oven at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes, or until set in center. Sprinkle cheese over top and return to oven just until melted. Serve warm.