Party Sandwiches

We had a party last week and made 7 sandwich platters. This is the "egg" tray - egg salad decorated with cheese, cucumbers, red onions, peppers, etc. We also had trays of roast, ham, pastrami... as a decoration for the meat sandwiches we like to use sliced egg (get yourself a nice egg cutter!), plus everything we use on the egg ones.

These sandwiches are very economical to make, look pretty and taste great. Actually, the egg ones are my favorite the next day for breakfast.

What else did we serve? We kept it simple with meatballs (in the crockpot), chicken skewers - we prepared the chicken ahead of time and baked 1 tray at a time. then placed the skewers on an electric hot plate to keep warm), green salad, fruit salad, shrimp coctail and clam chowder. We discussed the idea of a potato or pasta salad too, but didn't. It is a pretty safe menu, enough to satisfy both the vegetarians and meat eaters for a little social get-together.

Fast Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

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Someone was over the other day and watched in amazement as Little Boy and I very quickly made this pie. This is definately a "kid" friendly recipe because you can actually get it done before they lose interest! We have rhubarb coming out our ears this time of year and this recipe is a favorite!

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Here's what you need:

Pre-made double pie crust

1 cup sugar

3 cups chopped rhubarb

1 cup strawberries in light syrup - spoon off a little of the syrup though

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

3 Tablespoons flour

1-2 Tablespoons butter

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* - About those strawberries - of course, you can use chopped fresh ones, but many times our grocery store does not have fresh strawberries, so we get the frozen ones instead, which work just fine too! Oh - and it is a bit faster than chopping strawberries. AND - the extra left-overs are sooooo good on vanilla icecream with a nice slice of this pie!

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OK - thaw out the pie crusts, but don't let them get too warm, ok? About 15 minutes should do it.

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Mix sugar, flour and cinnamon together. Add eggs and beat altogether. Stir in the rhubarb and strawberries.

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Pour mixture into pie crust. Cut little chuncks of butter and put over the top of the mixture. Invert 2nd pie crust over top one (this is where it gets "sticky" if your pie crust is too warm, which can make it a bit hard to get out of the pie pan). If it rips a bit, just moisten your finger and "patch". Crimp edges with a fork. Cut good sized slits on the top of the pie with a butter knife - wiggling it back and forth a bit to open the slit up.

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Rip 3 pieces of tinfoil, each about 4". Wrap the tinfoil around the outside edges of the pie.

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Bake at 400 for 45 minutes (on a cookie sheet).

Left over grilled steak salad plate

A great summer dish - next time you have the grill on - throw on an extra steak. After it is cooled, slice it very thin. I love it a day or two later with a variety of salads (tonight's salads were purchased macaroni and purchased potatoe salad, a tossed green salad, and cucumber salad). Because it isn't too hot to run the oven yet - we also had baked garlic bread. Yum! A perfect summer meal!

Cucumber Salad - well, I grew up on sliced cucumbers in vinegar with a sprinkle of pepper - for sure this must have been served just about every day - either with lunch or supper. And that is good - very good, and healthy too. BUT - if you don't care about a few extra calories.... try this - thinly sliced cucumbers stirred in sour cream with probably just less than 1 TBS vinegar. Add some fresh dill if you have any - it looks pretty. And - just before serving - grate a bit of salt over it. Don't add the salt early or your cucs will get watery.