Cucumber sandwiches for commoners

Flashback! Real high tea spread from Harrods- February 2009.

Pinkies up, husband!



We had a tea party at work on Friday to celebrate the royal wedding- it was SO much fun! We have a stash of real china tea cups and pots from when the nuns ran the college. Apparently tea was important because there is a closet in the board room with at least 100 different cups.

Everyone contributed a little something. One of my staff members brought in her great aunt's silver tea service, the associate registrar brought in decorations (we had a wall of Big Ben and Double Decker bus cut outs), the director of admissions bought some whipped cream fruit turnovers (yum!), and others brought biscuits and digestives.

We also played musical trivia and I won a pair of socks that say England on them! Awesome. Better than the woman who won the already burned candle. HA!

I decided to get real serious about this tea party business and made cucumber sandwiches. Survey says?

Strangely delicious! I'm telling you- they are tasty! The husband snatched at least 3. Fresh and crunchy- these are easy tea party fare.


Start by slicing up an English cucumber. Those are the seedless ones wrapped up in plastic. Slice them pretty thin- tea sandwiches are supposed to be dainty.

Buy some good quality white bread. In hindsight I should have gotten a regular loaf. My sandwiches were a bit...oblong...due to the homestyle loaf. Cut off the crusts, obviously.

This is how thick the bread slices are pre-rolling.

This takes the tea sandwiches to a more authentic place, but I guess you could skip this step (if you're a cheater). Bust out the rolling pin and roll those slices until they are good and mashed down. The thinner the better. I would have rolled a bit more but the bread started to tear.

Slather on some cream cheese. Use the full fat kind. These sandwiches are so smaller they are practically calorie-free. Bonus!? The cream cheese seals the bread and keeps the sandwiches from getting soggy. I made these the night before and they were still good to go the next day at noon.

Layer on some cucumber slices.

Top with the other slice of cream cheesed bread. Mash it down with your hand.

Slice.

Stack.

From this angle, you can see why I call these cucumber sandwiches for commoners. I was a little too lazy to really get after those crusts. Plus, the bread was oval shaped and I would have lost a lot to make prettier treats.

They must have tasted pretty good, though. Came home with a clean plate!

Eating around the world

I have one last post to write to wrap up our wild New York weekend. We ate our way around the city and around the world.

First stop- Pret a Manger. I *love* this place. Found it first when I visited London many moons ago- it's just a sandwich shop but it's so fresh and they're dedicated to quality products.




We enjoyed two small bites- I got a tomato and cheese and Nick enjoyed a bacon and egg. So simple and so good.


Got hungry while we were at the Met. That place is a racket! We split a sub-par turkey sandwich, drink, and chips. I was unimpressed, but better food was on the way.


We feasted on some sushi at Umi Sushi. Reasonably priced and fresh! We had a cucumber/avocado roll, spicy tuna roll, california roll, and....a deep fried roll! Also pictured is the free and tasty crab salad they give you. Two thumbs up!





A trip to NY would not be complete without a bagel. We tracked down Murray's Bagels and split a pumpernickel bagel with lox spread. Chewy and flavorful- how do they do it? Bagels really are not as good outside of the Empire State.

Post-bagel noshing included a trip to Chinatown.


Can you believe we actually did not get pork chops here? Sacrilege!


I got the mushrooms over rice. This had a funky texture- something was UP with these shrooms.


I also got the world's BIGGEST bowl of hot and sour soup. Pretty good.


These spicy dumplings ROCKED. I *heart* dumplings.

Dessert was a trip to the Cafe Roma for cannolis and espresso. There was something special about these cannolis...ginger, maybe? Gosh, these were good.



We also ate some Salvadoran food in the Bronx- no pictures 'cause we ate too fast!

Gotta love traveling and New York...even when you stay in one city, you can still eat your way around the world.