This is a great recipe for when you want to make brunch, but you don’t want to have to wake up stupid early. Or for when you bought some lovely brioche at a cute little bakery and then got too busy during the week to eat it.

You need bread. Brioche if you got it. Stale works great, but you can always pop it in the oven for a few minutes to dry it out. I used asparagus and mushrooms in this version, but you can add whatever vegetables you have around. Sometimes I like to use red pepper and fresh corn; tomatoes and onions are great, too.

• 6 cups bread cubes
• 6 eggs
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 1 cup grated cheese (I used a combo of fontina and parmesan)
• 2 cups vegetable (asparagus and mushrooms went into this batch)
• 1/4 cup mixed herbs, finely chopped (I like thyme and parsley)
• salt and pepper
• butter for the pan

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9 x 13 inch pan, otherwise known as a civilian pan. If you are making this the night before, combine everything in the buttered pan and let it sit overnight in the fridge. If you are cooking it right away, allow the mixture to sit in the pan for at least 15 minutes to let the bread soak up some of the liquid, which is perfect if you’ve forgotten to turn on the oven. Cook the pudding covered with foil for 1 hour and then remove the foil and let the top get brown and toasty. While the pudding is cooking you can prepare a side of bacon, as we did, or a small salad. If only the amazing view and incredible company could be so easily reproduced!