Erma dear, Senior Moment. Guess who sent you that Parmesan Salad Dressing? Just a few weeks ago? You’re right, it is a great dressing, but I did send it to you.
Probably you sent me this Egg Salad For Finger Sandwiches some time or other as I am not the type that generally serves such stuff. You, on the other hand, still think in terms of having tea and dainty Finger Sandwiches.
I checked a few of my cookbooks recently and realized that it is only the older ones from before the 1970’s (I know, to you and me, at least, 1970 is not THAT old) that include sections on fixing non-messy finger foods. We must have been the last group that were instructed in the art of constructing tea foods. Remember how we thought we were so elegant when we spread cream cheese and black olives on white bread? Or, (ugh) the ground up cucumber and cottage cheese on whole wheat? Then we ate that stuff while wearing white gloves?
I actually have made this, but as a dip. In that case I do not chop everything as fine as in the original recipe. This is really a very healthy dip, and strangely enough not many people seem to make egg salad any more. Guess we are showing our age again.
These would be nice for a Reception without a full meal. Finger Sandwiches are not supposed to be messy so people can eat them without worrying about silverware or drips. I think these would go nicely with your idea of fruits and cheeses.
Speaking of weddings, I must find the Wedding Cake recipe that we used for Mike and Barb’s wedding. Annie Baxter actually made the cake, but I found the recipe somewhere, and if I do say so myself, it was one of the tastiest wedding cakes I have ever eaten.
Egg Salad for Finger Sandwiches:
3 dozen hard-boiled eggs
6 ribs of celery
3 carrots
2 small green peppers
2 small red peppers
1 regular can ripe black olives
3 cups of mayonnaise
3/4 cup of milk (start with 1/3 cup)
1 tablespoon ground mustard
salt to taste
Bread slices, a mix of white and dark slices, about 12 loaves
With food processor, finely chop the eggs, celery, carrots, peppers and olives. If using as a dip, you will want to keep the ingredients a little larger than if making Finger Sandwiches. For Finger Sandwiches, you want the filling to almost be smooth. Blend in the remainder of the ingredients with only 1/3 cup of milk. Add additional milk if needed to obtain a good spreading consistency and chill until ready to make the Finger Sandwiches. Well chilled egg salad spreads better.
To make Finger Sandwiches, select several cookie cutters with appropriate shapes. Cut out the bread. Make some sandwiches with top and bottom all white, some all whole wheat, some all rye, and some that are mixed with two different colors of bread.
You can assemble the Finger Sandwiches several hours in advance of serving them. Simply lay a kitchen towel on a tray and lay the sandwiches on it. Cover with another kitchen towel and chill in the fridge.
How many Finger Sandwiches does this make? Depends on the size of your cutters. If you were making a regular sized sandwich, you would get about 50 sandwiches. You easily will have 75 to 100 Finger Sandwiches.
If you don’t want to bother with the cookie cutters, trim the crusts off the bread and cut into 4 triangles or 4 long fingers.
Now you have a lot of leftover crusts and bread. Don’t throw it out. Spread the bread pieces on a cookie sheet and dry in the oven at 200 degrees. When bread is completely dry, turn it into dry bread crumbs with your food processor. This is much cheaper than the boxed variety in the store, and you can add any herbs you like. I keep a large canister with a tight cover, above the kitchen stove. The crumbs are ready to use as breading or crumb toppings whenever I need them. This is where the heels of bread go, and stale crackers and unsweetened cereals.
Check the price of those small boxes of breadcrumbs or breading mixes, then read the labels for all the preservatives. For nothing, you can have fresh crumbs. You can’t beat that price.
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