This recipe is on a stained piece of copy paper, with my mother’s handwriting filling an application for the Wisconsin Egg Cooking Contest. On a bottom corner is a newspaper clipping with the headline “Thornburg Receives Alternate Egg Honors”. This was a BIG deal for our small Wisconsin town, and an accomplishment for my mother, a chemist who stepped aside from the laboratory to take care of husband, children and assorted animals. Her kitchen became her creative place and in this recipe she won state-wide honors. The Wisconsin State Journal newspaper article writes that Marcella Thornburg of Prairie du Chien will be going to the final off cook-off. I do not have record of how that competition went, but I do have this delicious brunch recipe. Recently I made Supreme Egg Brunch for church. It went so fast that I had to eat scraps off of Stan’s plate! It will go fast at your house also. Thank you Mom!

Set oven to 375 degrees, non-stick spray on a 2 1/2 quart casserole dish.
This recipe serves 4-6 (You can double recipe for a 9×13 pan that would serve 8-12)

Ingredients
2 cups of frozen hash browns thawed (I used the small cubed southern hash browns)
6 hard cooked eggs
1 can of sliced water chestnuts (8 oz)
1 can of cream of onion soup, undiluted
1/4 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon creamy horseradish sauce
1/4 green pepper diced
1/4 cup chopped green onion
2 tablespoons butter for saute
6 slices crisp fried bacon, crumbled
Pepper to taste
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup crushed rice squares cereal
1/4 cup melted butter,
Parsley for garnish

Directions
Shell hard cooked eggs, separate whites and yolks. Thinly slice the egg whites and set aside.
In large bowl mash egg yolks then combine yolks with undiluted onion soup sour cream and horseradish sauce. Sauté green peppers and onions in butter until softened and onions are translucent. Add sautéed onions and green pepper to soup mixture and combine well. Set aside.
Place thawed hash browns on the bottom of a 2/1/2 quart casserole dish. Layer hash browns with the thinly sliced egg whites, then water chestnuts. Pour soup mixture over the layered contents in the casserole. Use a spatula to gently spread go the corners of the dish. Sprinkle crumbled bacon on top of the soup layer, then add your pepper to taste.In a separate bowl combine crushed rice cereal and the cheese and then sprinkle the mixture over the bacon. The final step is to drizzle the top of the casserole with the 1/4 cup of melted butter.Bake at 375 for 30 minutes Sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley for garnish.

Denise