Savory finger sandwiches for a party

From the rescued computer files come these fairly easy sandwiches that I made one time for a combined baby shower (men and women, which is my favorite kind) where a group of us were co-hosting and we wanted to strike a slightly formal note because there were a lot of older family members there. I was in charge of non-dessert foods and brought a bunch of stuff to serve with and vases to hold flowers.

Me personally, my heart always falls when I survey a buffet table laden with grapes and bits of cheese; I wanted to make sure there was meat! These were my solutions. They went over pretty well.

Fancy party sandwiches


Pimento cheese sandwiches -- pimento cheese
Roast beef/cranberry sandwiches -- 1/2 pkg cream cheese, 2 Tbsp prepared horseradish, 1c cranberry sauce, 3/4 lb roast beef, 6 slices provolone
Sundried tomato sandwiches -- 1 pkg cream cheese (8oz), 10 herb-seasoned sundried tomato halves, 1 container spreadable cheese with pepper (5.2oz), 1/3 cup packed fresh basil leaves -- makes enough for 5 big sandwiches = 20 little sandwiches


Need to make 5 of each kind of sandwich and cut into
quarters. (20 slices white, 10 wheat)

30 ppl x 2 sandwiches = 60

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Shopping list:

White and wheat bread

5 slices provolone
5.2 oz spreadable cheese w/pepper
jalapeno pimient��o spread
2 pkgs cream cheese

jar horseradish (at least 2 tbsp)
1 cup whole berry cranberry sauce
10 herb-oil sundried tomato halves

3/4 lb deli roast beef

1.3 cup fresh basil leaves
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Saturday night:
--Mix 2 Tbsp horseradish and 4 oz. cream cheese
--Mix 8 oz. cream cheese, tomato halves, pepper cheese, basil leaves.
--Load up car with baby shower stuff


Day of: Start making sandwiches at 11. Set out the two cream cheese mixes.

Spread & cut 5 pimiento sandwiches on white
Spread & cut 5 tomato sandwiches on white
5 wheat slices: spread with horseradish mix, then cranberry, roast beef, provolone
(1 hour)

Lemon chess pie

So good and so easy -- this is one of my fallbacks for taking a dish to a potluck. I'm recovering old computer files and found it!

Lemon Chess Pie
From Southern Living
1 unbaked 9-inch deep-dish frozen pastry shell
1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened (don’t cook the eggs with it!)
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon lemon rind
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon cornmeal
Garnishes: lemon slice and zest
Bake pastry shell at 425° for 7 minutes or until light golden brown. Reduce oven temperature to 350°.

Beat butter and sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy; add eggs and remaining ingredients, beating just until blended. Pour mixture into pastry shell; place on a baking sheet.

Bake at 350° for 45 to 50 minutes or until pie is firm, shielding edges with aluminum foil to prevent excessive browning, if needed. Cool completely on a wire rack. Garnish, if desired.

Flan from a can!

Fast and easy flan that beat the caramelized bottom off the full-difficulty traditional flan in a taste test? Sign me up. Here's my friend Josefina's flan recipe:

1/2 cup raw sugar
4 eggs
1 can condensed milk
1 can evaporated milk
1-3 tsp. Mexican vanilla

Heat oven to 350. Boil sugar in a nonstick pan till it just starts to turn brown. Pour sugar & swish to coat bottom of ramekins (or a bread pan, or a glass baking dish - pie pan maybe?).

Combine eggs, both milks and vanilla in blender. Pour into baking dish/ramekins. Place them in a larger pan filled with enough water to go halfway up the side of the baking dish.

Bake 1 hour or till center isn't wiggly and a knife comes out clean. Run knife around edge, put plate over dish and invert to flip the flan out.

Pound Cake

This is the "Old-Fashioned" Pound Cake recipe from James Villa's "My Mother's Southern Kitchen" (though I truncated the directions, which is wrong of me to do.)

1 pound butter (4 sticks)
1 pound sugar (2 cups)
9 large eggs
1 pound flour (4 cups, but weigh it if possible)
Dash of salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
Juice of 1 lemon

Cream the butter and gradually add the sugar. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well. Gradually add flour and salt, beating constantly, then the vanilla and lemon juice, beating till well blended.
Butter and flour a 10-inch Bundt pan; pour in batter; "spank" around the bottom of the pan.
Bake at 325 for 1 hr 15 min or until a straw comes out clean. Don't overcook.

Pie-Inside Apples

From Alton:

3/4 cup oats
3/4 cup flour
2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch kosher salt
1 stick cold unsalted butter, diced
4 Braeburn apples (Fuji will substitute)
4 teaspoons honey

In a bowl combine all the dry ingredients and diced butter. Rub mixture briskly between finger tips until it forms small moist clumps in a loose sandy mixture. Refrigerate while preparing the apples.

Cut a small layer off the bottom of each apple to create a flat, stable bottom surface. With a small paring knife, cut a cylindrical cone out of the top of the apple, moving about 1 inch outside of the core, similar to removing the top of a pumpkin when carving a jack o'lantern. Remove the top and discard. With a melon baller or a teaspoon, remove the remaining core and seeds, taking care not to puncture the base of the apple.

Place apples on a baking sheet or pie dish and fill each center with a teaspoon of honey. Spoon in mixture, packing lightly until heaped and overflowing over sides of the apples.

Bake in oven at 350 degrees on the top or middle rack for 40 minutes or until filling is golden brown and the tip of a paring knife can be inserted into the side of the apple with little or no resistance. Let apples stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Alton's Peach Cakes

Simplified from original, and made for 2. (Just double if you have 4 ramekins.)

Looks pretty quick and easy, and all you have to buy at the store is peaches (1 for 2 people, 2 to feed 4 people) and a cup of buttermilk. (Plus whipped cream or ice cream if you want it.)

1 Tbsp unsalted butter
1/8 cup brown sugar
1 peach, peeled and cut in slices or chunks
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/16 tsp baking soda
1/16 salt
1/2 Tbsp melted butter
1/6 cup sugar
1/4 cup buttermilk*, room temperature
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. Place in each ramekin (recipe is for 2 ramekins): 1/2 Tbsp butter, half the brown sugar, half the peach pieces. Combine the dry goods in one bowl, the wetworks in another (this includes the sugar; start by melting butter in a little bowl), and then put them together but stir only enough to combine. Pour half into each ramekin over the peaches. Bake on middle rack 20-25 min.

Let cool 5 min, run a knife around the inside edge of the ramekin, cover with a plate and invert to release. Alton suggests whipped cream or ice cream!

*Emerils.com says: Buttermilk Substitute

If a recipe calls for buttermilk and all you have in your refrigerator is regular milk, you can make an acceptable substitute by adding 1 tablespoon of white vinegar to 1 cup of milk. Let this stand at room temperature for 10 to 15 minutes, or until you see the milk thicken to the consistency of buttermilk.