Cheddar Cheese and Red Bell Pepper Strata

2 posts in 1 day? Inconceivable!
Here is another red and green thing that I made over the holidays. Apparently I was subconciously festive the entire week. The motivation for this one was to have a nice breakfast or brunch when we woke up. It smelled awesome in the oven, but again left something to be desired. This is one of the few strata recipes I have come across that does not say to refrigerate (I always want to put a "D" in that word) it overnight. We did and it was mushy. Too mushy for Dan to even eat. I made him some scrambled eggs and put this back in to oven to bake a little longer for myself. It did dry out some more, but maybe I shouldn't have let it soak so long, or reduced the amount of milk. The flavor was great though, so I'll give it another try.

Cheddar Cheese and Red Bell Pepper Strata
adapted from Bon Appetit via epicurious
The cooking time below includes the additional baking.

1 1/2 tablespoons butter

1 large (or 1 1/2 smaller ones) red bell pepper, thinly sliced

1 cup chopped green onions

6 slices whole wheat bread
1 1/2 c. grated medium cheddar cheese
1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese
2 cups whole milk
3 large eggs
2 tsp. yellow mustard
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

1. Melt butter in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add bell pepper to skillet and sauté until just tender, about 4 minutes. Mix in green onions; sauté 1 minute longer. Remove from heat.

2. Cut bread into 1/2-inch pieces. Layer half of bread in 8 x 8 x 2-inch glass baking dish. Cover with half of cheese, then half of bell pepper mixture. Repeat layering with bread, cheese and bell pepper mixture. Beat milk, eggs, mustard, dry mustard, salt and pepper in medium bowl to blend. Pour over strata.

3. Refrigerate overnight.
4. Preheat oven to 350 °F. Bake strata until lightly browned on top and set in center, about 50-65 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes; cut into squares.