French Toast Casserole

OK, so NOT healthy, but YUMMMMMmmmmm!

1 loaf french bread, torn up (if using a lighter french loaf, use less liquid below)
1/2 C melted butter
cinnamon
8 eggs
4 egg yolks
3/4 C sugar
2 C milk
3 C heavy cream or half&half
1 T. Vanilla
1 tsp nutmeg

Topping:
1 C brown sugar
1/2 C melted butter
2 T maple syrup

Grease 9 X13 pan. Put bread in bowl. Pour over melted butter and stir to make sure every piece gets buttered. Sprinkle cinnamon to taste on top. Beat eggs, egg yolks, and sugar together until light yellow in color. Add milk, cream, vanilla and nutmeg and mix well. Pour over bread and stir to make sure all the bread has been coated. Cover and place in fridge over night. In morning preheat oven to 350 F. Combine melted butter, brown sugar, and syrup. Pour evenly over bread. Bake about 40 minutes until puffed and golden.

We had this at a breakfast and i could NOT stop eating it! It was sooo good! We made a healthier modified version at home (of course--at Nate's urging!) and it was fine too. Yum.

Cracked Wheat Cereal

Hey all -- has anyone successfully reproduced mom's cracked wheat hot cereal? I'm in desperate need of new breakfast ideas, and I'm curious as to whether I really love it as much as my memory tells me I do. I don't know why I haven't tried to make it before now... Anyone know whether I use bulgar wheat or whole wheat berries or something else? I imagine she soaked the wheat overnight before cooking it. We make steel cut oatmeal (to-die-for, by the way: no glue, lots of flavor) in our rice cooker -- program it to be ready when we wake up. Maybe the wheat works the same way?