Sausage, Egg, & Cheese Bread

The announced on the news this morning that the rainy season has officially been declared over in Okinawa, 15 days earlier than normal. I’m guessing that that means it will also end early here in Kanto (Tokyo and the surrounding prefectures) as well, probably around 4th week of June or so.

While the rainy season ending early isn’t bad news in itself (After four years in Japan, I still can’t get used to so much rain…), it makes me nervous about this summer. For those who don’t know, last summer in Japan had record high temperatures, combined with the infamously high humidity in Japan in the summer, people were dropping like flies. Hundreds of people died in the Tokyo area alone. As schools in Japan don’t have air conditioning, a lot of kids (actually people everywhere) suffered from heat stroke.

In our apartment we didn’t have air conditioning, so it was brutal. I would go to the (well air-conditioned) library every morning when it opened at 9:30am, and stay there until about 5 or 6pm. At night, I would sleep with 2 frozen gel packs, one next to my back, the other clutched to my chest, and I still slept badly.

Eventually one Saturday in mid-August, I had a melt-down, and simply burst into tears and cried hysterically (much to the surprise of my husband), going on about how I couldn’t stand the heat anymore. My husband tried to console and told me that, OK, we would buy an air conditioner. Small story short, it was a highly traumatic summer that I hope to never repeat, ever. EVER!

Fortunately, this summer we have our lovely air conditioner, however, Japanese air conditioners only cool one room. Our living room and bedroom connect, so we cool those two rooms. The rest of the apartment, the kitchen, bathroom, etc., are not cooled, and thus, still super hot. STILL! It’s so much better just having those two rooms cooled rather than suffering in hot agony! So I’m not complaining! I am, however, wondering if since the rainy season will most likely end early, if that means we’ll have a longer than normal summer.

They’re saying this summer won’t be as hot as last summer, but it might still be hotter than usual. That’s meteorologist speak for “We don’t know”. I’ll just wait and see what comes, but I’m crossing my fingers for either a shorter than normal summer or a cooler than normal summer. Or both! Wouldn’t that be nice? We’ll see what happens. Right now though, I’m just going to enjoy the pleasantly warm weather we’re having today.

*        *        *

Last night for dinner I made bread stuffed with ground sausage, scrambled eggs, and cheese.

When my two brothers and I were kids, my mom would sometimes make this for breakfast. We all loved it. I haven’t had it in years, and was craving it recently, so I decided to make my own. I had some frozen bread dough in the freezer from the last time I made rolls, so I didn’t even have to make bread dough! (Note: having bread dough/pizza dough in the freezer for whenever you need it will make your life sooo much easier. So next time you make bread, make double and freeze half! You’ll be glad you did! Just don’t forget about it in the freezer.)

You can use pretty much any bread dough you want for this. Use whatever you have on hand. Also, I rolled out my dough into a rectangle, covered it with the fillings, and then rolled it up like a stromboli. The dough I was using was more delicate than say pizza dough. It ripped a bunch, and the fillings were oozing out of various spots by the time I got it on the pan. After I baked it though, it both looked and tasted delicious. My point is, the filling doesn’t have to be perfectly sealed within the dough. If it looks like a mess, just tell yourself that it’s rustic. It’ll look great after baking and taste even better. Don’t stress.

This is super easy to make, delicious, and makes a great meal any time of the day. Enjoy!

Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of this both when I took this out of the oven, and when we had dinner, so this is from breakfast this morning, hehe.

Sausage, Egg, and Cheese Bread (serves 3 – 4)

• 1 batch of bread dough (or pizza dough) that’s finished first rise
• 3/4 – 1 lb. ground sausage meat (I used my homemade turkey sausage)
• 5 eggs
• 1 c. milk
• 1 – 2 c. shredded cheese

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 C).
2. Add sausage meat to a skillet over medium heat and cook until sausage is crumbly.
3. In a bowl, beat four eggs and milk together. Pour into pan with sausage, and cook while stirring, until eggs are done. Turn off heat. If your eggs release a lot of liquid, use some paper towels to dry up the excess liquid.
4. On a lightly floured surface, roll our your dough into a large rectangle. Spread shredded cheese evenly on dough, and then cover evenly with the sausage egg mixture.
5. Roll up dough like a jelly roll, sealing the ends when finished. Place on a foil-lined and greased baking sheet, and bake for 15 – 20 minutes, or until golden brown.