Ham And Cheese Strata

Well I had way to much good cheese left over after last night's pizza, so I decided to look for some recipes that use either Gouda or Fontina.  I find this one that uses Gouda.  Bonus, is that a stale baguette I happen to have will work in place of the bread in the recipe.  That is the only deviation i made from the recipe.  Not only was this really tasty, but it is an amazing way to use up bread and leftovers.  You can alter the ingredients however you want as long as you keep the bread to egg to milk ratio. Just an fyi here, I have seen these made with eggbeaters.  I think that would work, but cleaning up on them is a pain if you don't use extra butter to grease the pan, so don't do it for the calories;)

Ham And Cheese Strata

8    large eggs
1 1/2 c  milk
1/2 t  salt
1/2 t  freshly ground pepper
4 c  Italian bread cubes (1 inch)
6    ounces Virginia ham,cut into 1/2-inch dice (1 1/2 cups)
6    ounces Gouda cheese,cut into 3/4-inch dice (1 1/2 cups)
1/2 c  julienned sun-dried tomatoes,drained
1/4 c  plus 1 tablespoon snipped chives
1 c  coarsely grated Cheddar cheese (about 4 ounces)
1. Preheat the oven to 450. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs with the
milk, salt and pepper. Stir in the bread until evenly moistened, then
stir in the ham, Gouda cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and 1/4 cup of the
chives.
2. Butter a 9-by-12-inch baking dish and pour in the strata mixture.
Sprinkle the Cheddar cheese on top. Bake for about 20 minutes, until
puffed and golden. Let cool slightly, sprinkle with the remaining
chives and serve