Claire's Baby Shower Food

Recently, I co-hosted my friend Claire’s baby shower in which I either made or coordinated some of the food items (a few of our friends also brought food items to help out). Since we were going with a casual variation on an English tea theme, I made some finger sandwiches for her guests. I keep meaning to post the recipes for the sandwiches, but for whatever reason, I just haven’t gotten around to it. Well, just today, I noticed that Claire posted a request on her blog for my sandwich recipes. Then, ironically, my friend Laura asked for the sandwich recipes today, as well. I guess I need to stop procrastinating and post them right away. Since there were three sandwiches, I think I will just publish each recipe under this one blog post for convenience-sake. Also, I did a sherbet punch that I got from allrecipes.com. It is pretty easy to make and very yummy. I will include that recipe, too.
I need to mention that I can only take credit for two of the recipes, since Laura gave me her chicken salad recipe to use after I could not locate mine. The other two sandwiches, Curry Egg Salad and Cucumber Cream Cheese, are my original concoctions.


Laura’s Chicken Salad
Makes 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients:
4 cups of diced cooked chicken (or rinsed and drained canned chicken)
3 Tablespoons of lemon juice
1/3 cup of green onions, chopped (or regular diced onions work too)
¼ cup of chopped walnuts or sliced almonds
1/3 cup of mayonnaise
1 cup of celery, diced finely
1 cup of green grapes, sliced in halves
1 Tablespoon of Dijon mustard (my addition to Laura’s recipe-optional)
1 jar of sliced pimentos (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 Tablespoon of sweet relish (another addition of mine)

Directions:
Mix all ingredients into a large bowl and combine thoroughly. Serve on mini croissants or a bread of your choice.


Jen’s Curry Egg Salad

Ingredients:
8 hard boiled eggs, diced
4 green onions, white and green parts chopped finely
2 ribs of celery, diced finely
½ cup of mayonnaise
2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon of yellow mustard
1 teaspoon of grainy stone ground mustard
1 Tablespoon curry powder
2 teaspoons of paprika
1 teaspoon of dried parsley
1-2 Tablespoons of lemon juice
½ teaspoon of garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste


Directions:
Mix all ingredients into a large bowl and combine thoroughly. Serve on crust-less sandwich bread of your choice.


Jen’s Cucumber Cream Cheese Sandwiches

Ingredients:
2 peeled cucumbers, sliced into thin disks
3 Tablespoons of rice wine vinegar
1 8 ounce block of cream cheese
2 Tablespoons of sour cream
1-2 teaspoons of lemon juice
1 teaspoon of dill
½ teaspoon of cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon of garlic powder
½ teaspoon of onion powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Combine all ingredients EXCEPT CUCUMBERS in a food processor. Blend until smooth and mixed thoroughly. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, marinate cucumber slices in salt and rice wine vinegar. Set mixture aside for ½ hour so cucumbers may marinate. When time is up, assemble sandwiches.

To assemble: Spread thin layer of cream cheese mixture on one side of crust-less bread of your choice. Top with cucumber slices and place other piece of crust-less bread on top of cucumber slices to make a sandwich.


Floating Island Punch

Ingredients:
2 cups water
2 cups white sugar
1 (12 fluid ounce) can frozen
lemonade concentrate
1 (12 fluid ounce) can frozen
orange juice concentrate
1 pint orange sherbet
1 liter ginger ale
1 liter carbonated water
1 (4 ounce) jar maraschino
cherries
1 orange, sliced in rounds
4 cups ice


Directions:
Bring water to a boil. Add the sugar and boil until it becomes a syrup. Let cool.

In a punch bowl combine lemonade, orange juice, ginger ale, and carbonated water. Mix in the sugar syrup. Add ice and sherbet. Just before serving add cherries and cherry juice and float orange slices on top.