Ree Drummond's Tater Tot Breakfast Casserole | The Pioneer Woman | Food Network

There was a time if I was hosting a brunch, I would get up that same morning really, really early and cook all the food. Fortunately, I have wised up. I like to do things the day before. That way I can really enjoy myself when the brunch rolls around. I'm making a tater tot casserole for tomorrow. It is so wonderful. It's an all-in-one main course. It's got a great shortcut ingredient and it's make-ahead. Check, check, and check. I'm going to assemble the casserole today and bake it tomorrow. I'm just browning some breakfast sausage with some finely diced onion. This is a really hearty breakfast casserole. It's kind of old-fashioned. It reminds me of something my mom and her friends used to make for brunch years and years ago. And I love it because everything is all in one casserole. I'm going to let this sausage cook all the way through. And while it does, I'm going to grab that shortcut ingredient. Frozen tater tots. So easy. All I need to do is get them into a buttered baking dish. This perfect layer of tater tots is going to get topped with the brown sausage and onions. And it's fine that this is hot. It's going to have a chance to cool down before I add the other ingredients. Once the casserole bakes, those tater tots just turn into potatoes. You would never know they were frozen. Okay, that is all the sausage. Now I'll start working on the egg mixture. This casserole has a lot of cheese, so I'm going to grate up some cheddar and some Monterey Jack. It's probably the cheese combination that I use the most in my kitchen. When it comes to making things the day ahead, whether it's dinner, lunch, or brunch, casseroles are always so handy. So many casseroles can be assembled the day before and baked when you need them. And it just saves so much time, especially if you're having friends over. You want to keep the kitchen clean. Okay, that's enough cheddar. I'll start grating the pepper jack. Love pepper jack cheese. It's so creamy, and I love the spice. Okay, that's it for the cheese. Get it out of here. I grated so much it's stuck. All right, now for the eggs. I've got four eggs that I cracked into the pitcher, and I'll add a cup of milk. It's whole milk just to make the whole thing a little more rich. And speaking of rich, a little bit of half and half, just about half a cup or so. Now the sausage is really flavorful and plenty salty, but I'm going to add just a little bit of seasoned salt, about a quarter teaspoon. And for some spice, a little cayenne pepper. Really simple. And then I'll whisk this together. You know, this is kind of a down-home dish. There's nothing fancy or elegant about it, and that's why I kind of like serving it at a lady's brunch. You don't have to be fancy when you have friends over. As long as it's delicious and you make everything look nice, it's just perfect. Okay, that is nice and mixed. So I'll add some green and red bell pepper. I seeded it and pulled out the membranes, and then I diced them really fine. Okay, the last thing to add to the egg mixture is half of this cheese. The other half is going to go on top of the casserole. I think I might have over grated here. There's a lot. Okay, I'll give it a quick stir. And then this beautiful concoction gets poured over the sausage, which is cool by now. And look at all that chunky wonderfulness. Those veggies. I'll just spread it out into a single layer. Make sure it's all even. And then the rest of this cheese goes on top. This is a cheesy, cheesy dish. I think there's more cheese than anything else. I could give up a lot of things in life when it comes to food. Cheese is not one of them. Now I've got to cover it with foil, stash it in the fridge overnight, and tomorrow when it comes to baking and serving, well that's going to be a cinch. I'll get the casserole into the oven at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Then I'll take the foil off and bake it for another 20 minutes. Then when it's hot and bubbling, I'll get it out and onto the counter. And everyone will have a lovely hearty helping. Oh boy, check out all the tater tots and sausage-y, onion-y, eggy cheesiness. Mmm, fantastic. I'm having five of my good buddies over for brunch tomorrow, and I'm putting together a delicious and beautiful spread. This citrus salad is where beautiful comes in. This is going to go alongside the tater tot casserole and Bloody Marys I've already put together. The great thing about this brunch is that everything is make-ahead. I've just been slicing a whole bunch of citrus. I have regular oranges, blood oranges, which are gorgeous. And I'm going to throw in some limes just to be ornery. It's kind of nice to mix in the light green color with the beautiful orange and the deep red of the blood oranges. Okay, I've got the citrus all sliced. Now this is not citrus, but it's pretty. I've got some radishes, and I'm just going to slice them, and those will get sprinkled over the top of the citrus. I don't need too many radishes. I think radishes are a great little contrast to the citrus. Sometimes they're a little bit spicy. I think I'll stop there and see how that looks. Now I'll just arrange the citrus on the platter. I'm going to start with the regular orange. So bright and beautiful. I think there was a time when I was younger that I thought I had to spend days getting ready for a party. I would actually iron napkins. Who irons napkins? Not I, I'll tell you that. But making it the day ahead, oh boy. It just makes life that much more enjoyable. Speaking of making life enjoyable, blood oranges. They are so beautiful, and what I like about them is some of them are deep red, and then some of them are more just slightly colored on the edges. Now for the limes, I'm just going to kind of wedge them in between the orange and the red slices. How pretty is this? It's like a kaleidoscope. Now the radish slices, I'll just stick them here and there. So gorgeous. I mean, I would dive into this right now. Okay, now I'm going to make the dressing. I'm not going to pour this over until tomorrow, but I'm going to go ahead and make it in a jar so it'll be ready to go. It starts with a little olive oil, a little champagne vinegar, and you can just kind of eyeball the amounts. You can add a little more of this, a little more of that. I like to add some Dijon. It seems a little unusual when you're putting it with citrus, but it just adds the best tang, really great flavor. For a little sweet, I like honey. And then just to drive home the citrus point, I'm going to cut an orange in half and squeeze in some of the juice. Oh my goodness, you don't even have to serve this dressing over citrus salad. You can serve it over any salad. It is out of this world. All right, I'll shake it up. I can't remember the last time I actually whisked a salad dressing in a bowl. This is the new whisking, shaking it in a jar. Okay, that is the dressing. Now I'll get the salad covered. And while I do this, let me walk you through how this salad all comes together tomorrow. First, I'll drizzle dressing over the salad. Not too much. I don't want to totally drown it. Then I'll sprinkle over whole mint leaves. I think keeping them whole makes it look really pretty. And that's the salad. Gorgeous. It'll be just the thing served alongside the casserole.