Aunt Blanche’s Cheese Strata

My aunt Blanche of Norfolk, Virginia, my father’s older sister, taught me to make this dish. After my father died when I was little, my aunt made sure to spend time with me in the kitchen, instilling the family’s love of food and cooking in me via favorite recipes.

Every trip from our home in Maryland to hers in Virginia was spent counting the hours until I’d have a cheese grater in my hand, working to get as much of the Cheddar into the bowl as possible without scraping my knuckles