Easy, Quick Cucumber Sandwiches for Tea Time

I watched The Importance of Being Earnest the other night, and it got me back into the English mood. I have phases like that, mostly when going to Renaissance Faires, but also often when watching a Jane Austen or other period English movie. Thankfully, this recipe takes all of five minutes to put together, and the baby was well able to entertain herself with her toys for that time. Try making these with a cup of Lady Grey tea. And of course, you can make as many as you want; I only made four cut finger sandwiches.

Ingredients:

a few thin slices of Artisan Bread
8-12 slices of cucumber
butter
a few dashes of ground black pepper

Butter the insides of the slices of bread, then layer cucumber slices inside, as high as you want your crunch to go (I had four slices on each side of the bread halves so I could cut them down the middle). Sprinkle a little black pepper on top of the cucumbers, then top with the opposite side of bread, butter side down. Cut each sandwich in half, or into finger-sandwich sizes. Make as many as you want! And serve with cups of English tea. Very tasty for something so simple, and I'm told these are actually authentic.

Experimenting with Falafels

I saw this recipe in Parents Magazine and thought it sounded tasty, so I decided to try it yesterday while my husband had his one day off and could help with the baby. She was fussing and wanting to be with me instead of him, but I stayed strong and finished making dinner anyway. Aside from the fiasco of the pita pockets that I'd bought just two days ago being totally covered in mold (forcing my husband to run out and buy more), this did turn out to be pretty tasty. Of course, he found it "missing something", which was probably meat. Why can't men eat a meal that doesn't include meat once in awhile?

Ingredients:

1 15-oz can garbanzo beans
1/4 cup shredded carrots (just grate half a big carrot from your fridge, don't go buying a bag of pre-shredded carrots)
3 Tbs Sesame Tahini (either buy a can or make it yourself, which I'll tell you how to do)
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt (you might try vanilla, since the plain wasn't very tasty)
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tomato
a few lettuce leaves
mini or regular sized whole wheat pita pockets
2 Tbsp flour
1 1/2 tsp. chopped garlic
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1 Tbsp olive oil (in sprayer)

To make sesame tahini: grind 2 Tbsp roasted sesame seeds in a chopper/food processor for about 30 seconds. Add 1/2 tsp. sesame or olive oil and 1/4 tsp. salt, then grind together another 20 seconds. Add UP TO 1/4 cup of warm water, bit by bit, grinding after each time you add a little, until the mixture becomes pasty. The recipe I found said to add the whole 1/4 cup and mine became watery, so I'm thinking you should add a little less. Tahini is a sesame seed paste.

Preheat oven to 425F. Rinse and drain garbanzos and mash together with carrots, flour, 1 Tbsp water, 2 Tbsp Tahini, garlic, cumin, salt and pepper. Use a potato masher and then finish mashing/mixing with a fork. It's fine if it's a little chunky. Grease a cookie sheet with olive oil spray and shape mixture into small patties, about the size of a half dollar. Place on cookie sheet and spray over all with a little more olive oil. Bake 5 minutes, then pull them out and turn each patty over. Bake another 6 minutes.

While falafels are baking, mix yogurt, remaining tahini, and lemon juice in a small bowl. Add a little water if the mix seems stiff.


Stuff 2 falafel pieces, tomato slices, and a lettuce leaf in each pita pocket half with a spoonful of the yogurt sauce. Dip sandwiches in extra yogurt sauce served on the side. Serve also with slivers of pepper and cucumber and dip in the sauce.

BLTG for lunch

I was lucky with the baby again today, given that with this recipe I could set her in her high chair to watch me cook and also give her a little taste of fresh avocado (before adding the salt, of course). Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato and Guacamole is the name of this recipe, the idea for which I got from a diner at the mall. I made the guacamole myself, but it turned out a little on the salty side so I'm going to reduce the sodium measurements for you here.

Ingredients:

At least 4 slices of bacon
2 ripe Hass Avocados
1/8 tsp garlic salt
1/8 tsp sea salt
2 lettuce leaves, rinsed
1/2 Roma tomato, sliced
3 Tbsp Mayonnaise
2 slices of bread, toasted

Fry up the bacon nice and crispy and then set it to cool down on a paper towel atop a plate.

Meanwhile, put the bread in the toaster and slice your tomato. Peel and remove the pits from the avocados (and give your baby a taste if you like), then mash up and mix in a bowl with the two different salts. This is your easy guacamole; you can add a bit of cilantro and lime juice if you have it.

Pull the toast out when done and slather each half with mayonnaise, then layer the bacon first, then lettuce, tomato, and top with a few spoonfuls of guacamole.

Put the top half of bread on and enjoy!

Dinner tonight is going to be my famous hamburger/cheeseburgers, so I probably won't be blogging about it. But you can find the recipe to your right in my eHow articles, or I can link you to it HERE.