French Toast Casserole

We woke up this morning to news coverage of tornado damage throughout the St. Louis area, some of it very very close to our house. We are fine and we have power and we are extremely grateful this morning to have suffered nothing but a couple of hours sitting in the basement with overly wound-up children. There are neighborhoods nearby that were destroyed. If you want to help, here's the link to the local chapter of the American Red Cross.

My french toast casserole recipe has no relation to the tornadoes, and is symbolic of nothing. It was inspired by my having half a loaf of cinnamon bread in the fridge that was bordering on two weeks old, and a package of sausage that needed cooking.

Ingredients

• 8 slices Pepperidge Farm cinnamon swirl bread
• 1 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup oatmeal
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 Tbsp butter

Directions

Heat the oven to 450. Arrange the bread in a single layer on a cookie sheet and bake about 10 minutes until toasted.
1. In a small bowl, stir the pecans, brown sugar and oatmeal to make a struesel topping. Cut in the butter until the the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside.
2. Cut the toasted bread into about 1" squares and put in a 1.5 quart casserole dish.
3. Lower the oven temperature to 375.
4. Whisk milk, eggs, and vanilla. Pour over the bread and stir briefly so that all of the bread absorbs some of the milk mixture.
5. Sprinkle the struesel over the top of the bread.
6. Bake 30 minutes.