Cucumber Sandwiches with Fresh Dill

We hosted a baby shower at our house recently. The ultra-decadent cupcakes were meant to be the star of the show, so everything else was meant as afternoon finger food. We had little bags of white cheddar popcorn, carrots & celery with French onion dip, cashews, and these little open-face sandwiches I made.

Sometimes it's hard to pinpoint exactly why something sounds good to me. But this is the first (and only) thing I thought of to make for the party. They are cool, clean, and crisp. It wouldn't require any silverware, and with a crowed house it was important that our guests would be able to eat easily without being seated at a table. So in that sense, these were perfect.

I made this up. Most of the time I am following a recipe -- but not in this case. So I started by very finely slicing a green onion and some celery. I wanted a bit of that aromatic quality to compliment the dill; but I also wanted a little crunch. I was using thin radish slices on top, so I also decided to finely chop some of the radish greens to carry that flavor throughout. (Later I brought the celery leaves to the party as well.)

I set out two packages of Neufchatel cheese at room temperature for a few hours to allow it to soften. Then I added one package of plan Chobani Greek yogurt, 1-2 Tbsp of lemon juice, and 1 tsp of Lowry's seasoning salt. I used Greek yogurt instead of mayo to make this a lighter dish, and I also wanted some of that tang to play with the lemon juice,

As the name should suggest, dill was a major component of this spread. I chopped up a bunch of fresh dill and blended everything together for a few minutes with a hand mixer.

I carefully spread it out onto these cute little wheat toasts and topped them with thinly sliced cucumber and radish. I was able to use the mandolin to quickly & evenly make super-thin slices of the cucumber. But the radishes are rather small, and I'm pretty gun-shy around the mandolin ever since I sliced a big chunk of my right thumb off during last Thanksgiving. So I just sharpened my nice chef's knife and did those by hand. I topped them all with a little bit of celery leaves, some more fresh dill, and a little bit of fine pickling salt.

I had to try them out and get the green light from the Mrs before proceeding. I decided to add a little more lemon juice and dill. But she said they were great. So that made me feel pretty confident they were good.

This is about two-thirds of the total amount we made -- and they were almost all eaten. I even got a great compliment from my mother-in-law when she asked my wife where we bought that delicious spread. It was certainly a moment of pride when my wife said that I made it. =)

This is a great little snack when you have a house full of mostly women on a very hot day. I think they went over a lot better than if I had made a much heavier appetizer featuring some kind of pork (which would be my tailgate go-to). The dill and lemon is bright along with the tangy cheese and yogurt. You get a cool, crisp bite from the cucumber and radish and it all is a delightful little snack.