Party Sandwiches

Sometimes people call these little sandwiches sliders but I don't know why.  Maybe they slide down your throat?  Whatever.  I don't go to a lot of parties.  I got the recipe from Laquita at church.  Everything she cooks is good and I steal her recipes all the time.  It's so bad that her recipes are about all I have for church suppers-It's so bad that I have to ask her what she's taking to the monthly church potluck to keep from duplicating one of her dishes.

These are tasty.  They're small and easy to handle.  They're about the equivalent to a half or a quarter of a "real" sandwich.  And they're easy to make ahead of time.

Here's how:

Mix up:

2 sticks butter, melted
1 Tablespoon garlic powder
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
1 teaspoon poppy seeds

You can mix this ahead anytime you want and even leave it in the refrigerator to have whenever you want it.

Take a package of rolls-- I use the sweet Hawaiian rolls.  They are baked in such a way that each roll is connected to all the others.  I take a serrated knife and slice horizontally through the whole "loaf" of individual rolls; it makes it easy to spread the butter on the whole thing this way.

spread each roll on the bottom with the butter.  Put ham and swiss cheese or whatever kind of filling you want.  Spread more butter mixture on top.

Heat at 350 degrees until the cheese melts.  Serves either hot or cold.

Cheese Wafers

I got a lot of compliments on these crackers at the annual Womens Retreat at Gilmont this weekend.  I can't take credit for them because I got the recipe from a cookbook the Dallas Arboretum put out.  It has recipes of some of the great dishes they serve in their tea room.

No matter where it came from this recipe produces a crisp, light and tasty savory for afternoon tea:

1/2 pound butter (Now you understand why this is so good.)
4 cups of grated Sharp Cheese
2 cups of flour
1 cup of finely chopped pecans
1 Tablespoon Paprika
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt

Blend the butter and cheese together.  Add the pecans and spices and mix well.  Add the flour and mix well. 
Roll this into a 2 inch roll.  Wrap in plastic and chill.........30 minutes in the freezer will do.  Use the refrigerator if you will chill longer.  You don't want to have to cut frozen dough.

Slice into 1/4 inch slices.  Bake at 350 degrees 10-15 minutes or so until crisp.

After they've cooled you can freeze them if you need to. This makes about 36.  Maybe a bit more.  I tasted some and kind of  lost track of how many I ate.

Garlic Toast

I love the lightness of this toast.  And it keeps forever, especially if you freeze it.

about a half a stick of butter
4 cloves of garlic to start with
about 1/2 cup of olive oil
Italian herb blend (spice aisle)
a cheap loaf of French bread (Walmart has fresh loaves every afternoon)


Melt the butter
chop the garlic
put the butter and garlic into a blender
slowly add the olive oil until the garlic has been thoroughly pulverized and incorporated into the butter and oil
turn off the blender and add some Italian herbs.  Don't try to blend this because you can end up turning the whole thing an ugly green.  No, better to be able to make out the specks of herbs rather than to have Army green toast.

Slice the french bread about 1/4 or 1/2 inch thick.  Lay on a big sheet pan.  Brush the garlic oil onto the slices.  Another way is to let the garlic oil set in the fridge a while to solidify when you can spread it on the bread like butter.  It's a little easier that way.

Toast the bread slices at around 200-250.  You want it to dry out the bread and let it absorb the oil and butter.  This can take a couple of hours.  Low and slow is better. You are not cooking anything, you're drying the toast out.  It should end up with a delicate crunchy feel to it.

When it's done you can store the slices in a ziplock bag in the freezer or fridge.  Or just sit down and eat the whole batch.

Suzanna's Seasoned Christmas Crackers

Beaven's cousin has sent us these for the past two years and I finally got the recipe from her.  It was simply called "seasoned crackers" but I've decided she needs a snack named for her.  It just sounds better this way.  Suzanna isn't the only lady in the world making these, though.  When I took them to bible study last week another woman had the same snack but with different crackers.  Good thing, too, because we ate them both right down to the last cracker.  I added some of them to my Texas Trash.  I guess I'll list that recipe here, too.  Or you could just buy a box of wheat chex cereal and the recipe is on the box.

1 package oyster crackers
1 package Good Season Italian Dressing mix (the other lady at bible study used Hidden Valley dressing mix)
1/2 teaspoon dill weed
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2/3 cup oil (I used olive oil)
* Suzanna said you can also add crushed red pepper-which I think she did to mine.  Very tasty addition)

combine it all and give the oil time to soak in.