Cheddar Bake

Today, the husband, the mother-in-law and I were supposed to be Easter brunching at Rover's, but, the mother-in-law has been sick and she had to cancel her Easter visit at the last minute. We decided to cancel our reservation (although I am excited to try the new breakfast service at Rover's) and stay home. I'm certain that we could have gotten an invite to a friend's house, but mimosa's and The Masters sounded like a pretty good combination.

I decided to make one of the husband's (and my) favorites. At the Costco corporate office (where I used to work) they make something called cheddar bake. It's super tasty but they charged something like 40¢ an ounce, which may not seem like much, but trust me, it adds up fast (cheddar bake is heavy). Making it at home is much more economical.

Here's the ingredients.

8 slices or so bacon, diced (you can, of course, use more or less, or even none, but this is a good starting point)
1 bag hash browns, thawed (I tried making this once with raw potatoes that I shredded and it did not turn out as well), plus it was harder to make)
8 ounces cheddar cheese, divided
salt and pepper
1 bunch green onions, chopped (not pictured, and not in the Costco rendition, but I decided to throw them in at the last minute.

I started by cooking the bacon until crispy. Then, in a large bowl, I combined the now crisp bacon, hash browns, and 2/3 of the cheese, along with some salt and pepper and the green onions.

I put this combination in an oiled 9" x 13" pyrex dish and topped it with the remaining cheese.


I baked this at 350 degrees for 1 hour, until it was golden brown and delicious.

I served this with maple-glazed ham (it is Easter after all, you are supposed to eat ham), a couple of eggs (sunny-side up for the husband, over medium for me), orange slices, and those mimosas I mentioned earlier.

Yummy and crunchy and very filling (it's basically hash browns on steroids). I enjoyed the addition of the green onions so it was a good last minute addition. Cheddar bake is super easy to make and sooo good to eat. It's a great brunch side dish.

This recipe makes a lot of cheddar bake serving 6 really hungry people or 1o (maybe 12) kinda hungry people. We've got leftovers so it looks like we'll be having breakfast for dinner tomorrow. Yum.