Country Breakfast Casserole and Austin City Limits

I hope this is the year Austin City Limits realizes it desperately needs a little energy. For years I’ve stressed that the lack of an exciting headliner (defined as someone that can spark a sincere mosh pit) is crippling this festival. Everything is pleasant, solid, and burgeoning with key intangibles: gorgeous location, advanced logistics, stellar food options, some of the most educated and pleasant patrons you’ll run into. You can thank southern hospitality and the University of Texas there; a guy actually ran me down Sunday afternoon to hand me a dropped, wet twenty.

Still, without something loud and confrontational and horrendous – Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day – the closer will continue quietly ending evenings with bleeding attendees and bored masses weighing the pros and cons of sticking around for that one song. Fifteen years ago, Pearl Jam uses mother nature, specifically the mud, to its advantage; to make people go crazy. During their stellar, fantastic, righteous, irrelevant set, people nodded agreeably.
And for all the high decimal ratings Grizzly Bear, Bon Iver and Dirty Projectors pile up along the scene, when it’s pouring and gross and the Cowboys are losing to KYLE ORTON, there’s no patience and no release. It’s no surprise that the only mass appeal highlights during the weekend (local electro dance wizards Ghostland Observatory and mash up heist artist Girl Talk) had the requisite strength to carry the night.
Really, we had an incredible time.

You may be asking yourself, “how do such hardworking, hard-playing young adults find moments to cook during such a weighty weekend?”

Breakfast.
Saturday morning I made my first career casserole; it was simple, easy and spurned the desire for future casseroles. The key ingredient here, and I imagine this is fairly standard but it blew my mind, was the cheap packet of white gravy. At the suggestion of Victoria, we seasoned with Basil and used overpriced, Chipotle sausage. She also took this appealing photo:

• 1 roll (12 to 16 oz.) sausage
• 6 bread slices
• 6 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup water
• ½ cup milk
• 1 pkg. sausage country gravy mix
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 2 Tbsp. melted butter
• Paprika

Crumble sausage into a large skillet; cook over medium heat until brown, stirring occasionally. Remove sausage and drain on paper towel. Spread sausage over bottom of a lightly greased 11X8 inch baking dish. Cut bread into 1 inch cubes. Set aside. Whisk together eggs, water, milk and gravy mix. Sprinkle cheese over sausage. Pour egg mixture over cheese. Arrange bread cubes evenly over mixture. Drizzle butter over bread. Sprinkle with paprika. Bake at 325, uncovered, 40 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let stand 10 minutes before serving.