Colonel Custard in the kitchen with a Frying Pan

When we think about custard we think about a time consuming annoying dessert or cracking through the sugary shell of a creme brulee.  But we are culturally askew.  Any dish that has heat, eggs & milk combined together is a custard (surprise).  This means that america's favorite scrambled breakfast is actually a custard.  So let me give you a few of my favorite recipes.

Breakfast Casserole.
Start with 1/2 to 1 lb of your favorite caseless sausage browned (or bacon or crisped ham).  5-10 eggs (depending on the amount of bread you will be using). 1-3 lbs of cheese (shredded)  and salt and pepper to taste and milk (or cream or 1/2 & 1/2).  One loaf of bread (rye is terrific with this but whatever you like) cubed.

Crack the eggs together and add about 1-3 tsp of milk per egg.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Be a bit light on the salt as both the cheese and the meat will have salt in it. Beat the egg mix until it's all homogenous (no little clear bits floating this is easiest done in a stand mixer, submersion blender or hand mixer).  Pour all of this in a big bowl with the cubed bread.  You want to let this soak a bit so that all the bread is saturated.  You don't want the bread to soak up all the custard or else it will be dry.  If you need more mix up more custard mix with the same proportions and add to the bread mix.  Gently with your hands mix in about 1/2 the cheese and 1/2 the meat.  Dump this mix into a baking pan and sprinkle the rest of the cheese and meat on top.
Bake at 350 until it's just jiggly in the center.  Remove from the oven and let rest for 10 or so minutes (to finish setting).

This is a savory bread pudding It is wonderful and was inspired by the much demanded breakfast casserole of my Father's wonderful wife.

This one is all mine though.
French toast.

4-5 eggs and an equal volume of 1/2&1/2. dash of salt, 2 tblsp of sugar,  2 tblsp of cinnamon , one tsp of your wonderful homemade vanilla extract (or store found) and an optional dash of nutmeg (optionally you can add some pumpkin spice mix or star anise instead of the nutmeg).  Sliced bread of some sort.

Put everything in a bowl except the eggshells and the bread and mix until thoroughly combined (I really like using an immersion blender here).  You need to watch out for and try to eliminate the floating cinnamon as if it's on the outside of the bread it can burn and become bitter.

In a frying pan over medium low heat add some oil (I like 1/2 butter 1/2 canola oil mix) soak your bread in the custard and toss in the pan until browned and then flip until the other side is browned.  Toss in a warm oven to keep warm and to finish setting until you are done with all your toasts.  If you have leftover custard freeze until you are ready for more.  This is a flavorful toast that really doesn't need syrup but feel free to add some anyway.  For a real treat use thick slices of pannetone.  One thick slice makes 2-4 servings depending on your hunger and/or self restraint.