Stuffed French Bread...Bake It....It's Yum!

  A couple of nights ago, I asked Bradley if he had any ideas for dinner.  He replied by saying, "Hmmm....What is something good that we haven't had in a while?"  I immediately remembered a yummy recipe that I hadn't made in years.  Sausage Stuffed French Bread. 

While I was in my own little world of thought, Bradley said,

"How about sausage stuffed french bread?  We haven't had that in forever!"

Ok, that was weird. Too weird.

Did that really just happen?

I figured that if we both thought of the exact same most random meal in the world, then it must be fate. I had to cook it. And if I was going to cook something yummy, then I might as well share the recipe with you guys. 

Please remember, I am not a real chef. And I do not know the proper techniques for taking food photos. I am a plain old Mom who is tying to get the point across.

 Fair warning.

This is a recipe that my Mom cooked for us as a child.  I remember it being one of my favorite meals.  I especially loved it when we had it served with "Pepsi Free" to drink.  We were't soda drinkers, so that was a rockin' night when we had both.

Mom's recipe in her handwriting...

(My Dad's handwriting is the substitution note at the bottom of the recipe.  I can't figure out why he ever would've written that.  He certainly never cooked this meal.  But, it's true, nonetheless.  You can substitute if you wish.)

First, you need to brown a pound of sausage.  I used hot sausage, but next time, I will go with mild. My younger sons tender taste buds didn't approve of the spice.

While the sausage is browning, chop up a small onion and some celery.

When the sausage is brown, add the veggies to the pan.  Cook them until the veggies are nice and mushy.

While the veggies are getting mushy, go ahead and work on the bread.  As a child, Mom used one big loaf of French Bread.  My itty bitty local grocery store didn't have that in stock.  So, I used a pack of hoagie rolls.  This made an individual loaf for each person. I like this version better anyway.

Slice the top off each loaf of bread.  Make it a thin slice.  Pull out all the innards of the bread and put it aside in a separate bowl. This leaves a nice little cozy shell for the yummy goodness that will soon fill it.

You gotta get another little bowl dirty for this next step. Grrr. 

Put two eggs and 1/4 cup milk in a bowl and mix it up.  Add the sage and the pepper.

Drain the sausage and veggies.  Add the sausage mixture and the egg mixture to the bowl with the bread in it.

There is probably a proper mixing utensil that you could use to get all this stuff mixed together perfectly, but I think clean hands works just fine.  And it looks especially nice if you have a burn scar on the top of your hand from a different unfortunate cooking adventure.

 Take handfuls of this mixture and put it inside the little bread shells.  Fill up each one.

Top each little sandwich with cheese. Don't be shy about it.

Put the lid on it.  The recipe calls for brushing the top with melted butter, but I didn't want to dirty up another bowl, so I just sprayed mine with Olive Oil spray and it worked just fine. 

Wrap up each little nugget of happiness with aluminum foil.  Slide them in the oven on 400 degrees for 20 minutes. 

Laugh hysterically when your husband takes your photo while you are doing this because....well....taking photos like this is funny.  It doesn't feel natural.  Moving on.

Serve it up to your ravenous crowd.  Enjoy!

This is how the ratings on this meal went at my house.

Bradley and I both loved it.  We gave it two thumbs up each.  I love it probably more for nostalgic reasons than anything else.  Bradley is a big fan of meat.  This is basically a meaty sandwich, so he loves it.

Two thumbs up from Tucker.

One thumb up from Sawyer.  He said that it was too spicy, so he could only give it one thumb up.

Carter initially gave it two thumbs up, but later changed his vote to two thumbs down.  He also said that it was too spicy.  My 'littles' have tender taste buds, I tell ya.  This was really NOT hot at all, but I will go with Mild sausage next time.

This recipe will not win any healthy food awards, but having a little sandwich for each person is kind of fun and it's really tasty!