Last week my husband and I, he who took a break from being un-retired in Haiti, motored down to Boston, a city I’ve never seen, to meet with a really cool medical specialist about my “pernicious anemia.”  Great trip all around!  Boston is a wonderful city and I want to go back to spend some quality time there.  The doctor is involved in both treatment and research on this rare type of anemia and plans to get me back to France soon, swilling champagne and snarfing down tons of cheese and “les abats” with my crew in Sens. Big shout out to Jeanette Silvert Lovett who pointed me in the right direction.

Every year around Labor Day, our neighborhood organizes a Sunday potluck brunch to celebrate the holiday and to catch up with each others end of summer news.  I chose an easy, old breakfast stand by with sausage, bread, cheese, scallions and red pepper.  I have used this recipe numerous times for overnight guests because you can assemble the casserole the night before, refrigerate covered, remove covering and just shove it in the oven the next morning.  No fuss.  This recipe is so quick and easy that you actually could do it in the morning; crunchy bread cubes. savory sausage and moist eggs, that is if you aren’t too busy drinking coffee and staring out at the trees, which is my usual morning activity 😉

Sometimes I am just not hungry, can’t think of anything I want to eat, there are no leftovers and I don’t feel like cooking.  So I end up skipping a couple of meals.  The problem with this is that I eventually get “I could eat a bear” hungry and end up messily throwing anything I can find onto a plate, as long as it’s large 🙂  Here is my big bread, sausage patties, egg, cheese, lettuce and tomato sandwich, with mayo.  Not elegant, it wasn’t about that, but ENORMOUSLY satisfying.

Because the refrigerator is so bare, I decided to defrost a rolled pork roast from the freezer, which is far from bare, and make some char sui pork to have on hand for salads, sandwiches and Asian noodle bowls.  For pork haters, I have also done this successfully with boneless chicken thighs.  You just hang them for less time in the oven.

Also, I just love “S” hooking meat in the oven 🙂  Although it was my husband’s idea, I always feel so clever!  But like his money, his ideas are my ideas 😀

I removed the strings and cut the roast into four, more or less, equal chunks.  I could have cut them smaller but I wanted to make sure that while getting a charred, somewhat crispy outside, that the inside would be cooked yet still juicy.

Be sure to aluminum foil wrap a cookie sheet or something for the the pork to drip on to, otherwise you could risk an oven fire, your home smoke alarms will annoy you and the oven clean up could ruin your day.  Looks like MY oven racks are crying out for Easy Off 🙂

Whether you make char sui with pork or chicken, it is delicious and fun to do.  Is it me or does the front piece of char sui look like a pig’s head with a smiley face?

Sliced char sui makes wonderful sandwiches and with ingredients you can go the American lettuce, garlic mayonnaise and tomato route, the Vietnamese Banh Mi route or whatever you like on your sandwich.  You can’t go wrong.  I smeared a little hoisin sauce on top.

If you are avoiding the “white stuff” or are not a big fan of bread, just eat it plain with some salad.  I did, at first, and then I ate the sandwich.  I’m going to be big 😀

Easy Sunday Brunch Casserole

Butter

6 cups of cubed bread

1 lb bulk sausage, cooked

1 bunch scallions, sliced

1 red bell pepper, diced

2 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

10 eggs

3 cups milk

1 tsp salt

Butter a large baking pan, sides and bottom.  Place the bread inside, then sprinkle with half the sausage, half the scallions and bell pepper and 1 cup of the cheese.  Repeat the layer, reserving the 1/2 cup of cheese.

Beat the eggs, milk and salt together until well blended, then pour over everything in the baking pan.  Sprinkle with the reserved cheese.

At this point, you can either bake the casserole for about 55 minutes – 1 hour in a 325 F oven or refrigerate, covered until ready to bake.  Overnight is fine.