English Tea Cucumber Sandwiches

I brought these tea sandwiches to our Life Writers Group Wednesday meeting at the Monroeville PA library.  It was in celebration of Ellen's belated birthday and Keith Neill's new book Growing up in Eighty Four, Pennsylvania, A Slice of Americana which is available in Amazon.  We had fun eating the wonderful fare consisting of turkey pepperoni, hummus, crackers, chips, Indian style tuna salad, this cucumber tea sandwiches plus caramel chocolate pretzels, lemon squares and cupcakes for dessert.  

Keith Neill's new book Growing up in Eighty Four, Pennsylvania, A Slice of Americana which is available in Amazon. 

After we all had a filling late lunch munching on the goodies, we then read what we wrote for that day.  What were shared was a mix of lighthearted and serious pieces all written with a lot of heart and soul. Beautiful time with wonderful friends. As Win said, we have a good group.  Amen.  

Keith and Ellen

Vandana and Margaret

Roz

Win in foreground with Roz at back.

English Tea Cucumber Sandwiches

Adapted from this source

• 1-8 oz package cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder (or more to taste)
• 1/8 tsp onion powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 dash Worcestershire sauce
• 1 English Cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced (Note 1)
• 1-1 pound loaf sliced bread, crusts cut off (Note 2)
• dry lemon dill seasoning for garnish or fresh dill

1. Mix the cream cheese, mayonnaise, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and Worcestershire sauce in a bowl.

2.  Spread the cream cheese mixture on one side of each slice of bread.

3.  Distribute the cucumber randomly if not cutting in shapes.  If you are cutting in two later, place the cucumber in two rows over half of the bread slices so cutting in half will be easier. Sprinkle dry lemon dill on top of the cucumber.

4.  Place the other half of the bread slices with spread sides down over the cucumber slices to make a sandwich.

5.  You can cut each sandwich in half between the two rows of cucumber.  

6.  If transporting, place the sandwiches in a tray.  Cover with one or two layers of paper towel wet just enough but not soaking wet to prevent the bread from drying out.  I stored the sandwiches this way and then placed the sandwiches in the tray with wet towel in a large plastic bag and placed them in a cooler with two ice packs. I had to do this since I had several errands starting at nine in the morning till we met at 1 pm for the meeting and did not have time to go home.  The sandwiches remained moist and cold.

Notes

1. If you use English cucumber which does not have seeds you do not have to drain the moisture from the cucumber. If you are using regular cucumber follow the instruction from the source of this recipe.

2.  I used Pepperidge Farm white bread and also plain Italian bread.  I found them both equally good with the latter to be cheaper.