Breakfast Casserole with Sausage, Apples & Caramelized Onions

Serving a holiday brunch? Planning a special breakfast for Christmas morning? Consider adding the recipe for this unusual sausage, apple and onion (oh! the onions! all dark and slightly sweet) dish to the menu, either as a side dish or the main course. Make it ahead of time, then pop it in the oven for serving hot or slightly warm. Your family or guests will say, "What smells so good?" This one's a keeper! My family shrinks geography by shifting time. When my sister’s boys were young, many years we celebrated our family Christmas a day or two before or a day or two after December 25. “What day is Christmas?” we’d decide, thereby setting the night before as ‘Christmas Eve’ when Santa would visit, planning our ‘Christmas Day’ dinner with all its trimmings. One year we shifted New Year’s Eve’s stroke of midnight too, setting the clocks ahead by two hours. We started the festivities early, too early as it turned out. When the party began to lag well before our ‘