My Food Corner: A Cheesy Breakfast

Hello and good morning everyone! Wake up and smell the food!

I am going to write about another breakfast meal I made with one of my favorite ingredients: cheese. I love cheese, whether its cheddar, parmesan, mozzarella or even delicate and strong tasting Italian cheese. I wish I could go to Italy someday to pig-out on all the cheese.

Anyway, I was feeling especially “cheesy” today (mind the connotation) that I wanted to make a cheesy meal. Thus, I raided the fridge.

Sausages: check.
Cheese: check
Tomatoes: check

Then I raided the kitchen cabinet.

Bread: check
Chili sauce: check

I could make a mini pizza! I love mini pizza. So, I got some bread and spread chili sauce (I like it spicy, you could use tomato sauce) on one side. Then I chopped the sausages into small pieces and spread them evenly on the bread. I would then usually sprinkle a generous amount of grated cheese on top of it. However, we only had a small block of Kraft cheddar cheese in stock. We had a lot of Bega cheese singles though. Mom had bought the black pepper cheddar type. Because of that, I embarrassed myself that morning.

When I opened the plastic cheese packet and saw the cheese, I gasped out loud. There was mold on the cheese! Little black dots of mold! I was sure that this type of cheese wasn’t supposed to have any fungi on it’s surface. I thought mom had bought expired cheese. So I yelled out to mom: “Mama! Kejunya jamuran!” (which means, “mom, the cheese is moldy!”) However, as mom came rushing in, I saw the packet and it dawned on me. It was supposed to be speckled. It was “black pepper cheese”. Silly me.

I turned to my mom with a sheepish grin on my face. “Hehe… Black pepper-nya, Ma,” I told her. She just smiled and went on with her business. So, I continued with cooking.

I laid one cheese single on top of each slice of bread. Then I sliced the tomato into big, round, pieces and put one slice on top. I put the mini pizzas into the oven for 7-10 minutes at about 200 degrees.

I would always know if it was ready by the sizzling sounds of the cheese melting and boiling. I also like my crusts brown and crispy. That’s why I leave it in the oven a little bit longer sometimes and peek in repeatedly to see whether the crusts were brown enough.

While I was waiting for the pizzas to be ready, I prepared another meal. Dad had cooked some cassava fries earlier and I wanted to eat them for breakfast too – with a little twist. So I grated the small block of cheddar cheese and sprinkled it over some fries. Then, I put it on a tray and into the oven as well.

I usually make more than enough pizzas so that my brothers and sisters could eat it when they wake up later (I usually wake up the earliest in my family). I usually make four pizzas, one for each of us.

When the oven bell rang, I took out the pizza and fries and turned off the oven. Then I put two sizzling hot pizzas (I was greedy today) and some cheesy fries on a plate. Then I poured myself a cup of strawberry juice and dug into my breakfast happily. Alhamdulillah, it made my day!

Try this at home, cheese lovers!