Cucumber Sandwiches and Potato Soup

Covered Dish Supper at church -- hmm, what to make? Our elderly church members have an annual Soup and Sandwich lunch in the middle of each January. What a great idea! This is a perfect comfort meal for the middle of a cold winter.

Adam makes the soup around here, so I was left with the sandwich decision.  Grilled cheese? PBJ? Ham & cheese?  Then it occurred to me:  Cucumber sandwiches.

At our church?  Would the little old men eat them? Do their pinkies go high enough for that?

I glanced at the recipe here, called "Best Cucumber Sandwiches." When I went back during the cooking to refresh my memory on the ingredients, Firefox wouldn't open (ARGH!), so I was left to my memory.

I did soak the cucumber slices in the water/vinegar solution, which was fun, but neither Adam nor I have any idea what purpose it served. Flavor perhaps?  I patted them all dry afterward. Nothing worse than wet cucumbers, soggying your sandwiches!

I used regular honey-wheat sandwich bread, with the edges cut off. Here's the spread, as I ended up making it:
*8 oz softened cream cheese
*about 1/3 cup mayo (Real Kraft and nothing else!)
*a dash of garlic powder (That was ALL we had left! We had 2 bottles of it just a week ago? How did we use 2 bottles of garlic powder?)
*a dash of garlic/lemon Mrs. Dash
*some salt, since it didn't have any
*some basil, to make it more speckled
*about 1/4 tsp of lemon juice. At this point I was just being creative. If it tasted horrible, I'd just make sure nobody knew they were MY sandwiches.

They actually turned out very good. I love the look of a cucumber sandwich. It looks fun and crunchy.

The problem is, what to do with all those leftover bread crusts?  We save them to make bread crumbs, which we use in manicotti and on pork chops. However, I also had a few leftover cucumber slices, so I did this:

Isn't that cute? They pop in the mouth. Next time, I may just put some of these miniatures around the edge of the platter.

Adam made his potato soup. It's delicious and smooth as silk.

He used Yukon Gold potatoes, so the soup would have a soft yellow color, instead of the gray tone that potato soup can sometimes have. He fries bacon bits, boils the potatoes, puts them through a blender (including most of the potato water) until there are NO lumps whatsoever, adds half-and-half, and salt/pepper, and I think that's about it. It's a huge family favorite.

So, what did the little old guys and their dainty pinkies think of my sandwiches?  The first time I looked back at the buffet table, my sandwiches were all gone.  Poof!