I am making making Mini Cheese Cakes which I am making for the first time.  I am going to top them with berries and glaze the berries with melted apricot jam.
These are incredibly easy and should look really pretty on the dessert buffet.  I love that the crust is a "Nilla" cookie.

When they come out of the oven I am going to pick up the breads I ordered to make "Party Sandwiches" for tomorrow.   These are little sandwiches, fingers and rounds filled with egg, tuna, salmon and cream cheese with smoked salmon.

I learned to make these for a bridal shower when I was 17 and have been making them for parties ever since.
They are like eating peanuts, one leads to the next!  I order the bread 24 hours ahead of time from the bakery at the supermarket - sandwich loaves sliced lengthwise.  I order 1/3 brown to white ratio.
My mother - who always thinks easier is better - taught me a trick to making the fillings.  Use your food processor, make the egg first, use a spatula to get  the egg out of the bowl and off the blade then make the tuna, do the same then make the salmon.  No need to wash the food processor in between fillings.  Saves time.

Lauren said that party sandwiches did not fit the aesthetic of my blog - Feeding your family well.  Possibly, but so many people have asked me how to make them I am still making them 40 years later - says something doesn't it.

Mini Berry Topped Cheesecakes

Ingredients:

18 vanilla wafers

2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese at room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

1 cup blueberries

9 small strawberries                                                                                    

9 blackberries

9 raspberries

½ cup Apricot Jam

Instructions

Heat oven to 325°.

Line muffin tin with foil liners. Place a vanilla wafer in each liner.  In food processor with metal blade or in a bowl using beaters combine cream cheese, vanilla, and sugar; beat until well blended. Beat in eggs until blended. Pour cream cheese mixture over wafers, filling each liner about 2/3-full. Bake for 25 minutes.

When cooled.  Melt Apricot Jam in the microwave in a small bowl for about 40 seconds.

Wash and dry berries well.  Remove green stem from strawberries an cut in half.

Place one strawberry, one raspberry, one blackberry and three blueberries on each mini cheesecake.  Brush each cake with Apricot Jam making sure to cover all the berries.

Refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving. 

 Party Sandwiches
This is the amounts for 200 sandwiches.  I consider 5 sandwiches per person.  Each loaf nets about 24 sandwiches.  There is a lot of waste.  You can make breadcrumbs but how many breadcrumbs but it is a lot of breadcrumbs.
You have to order the breads 24 hours in advance.  Any in store bakery in any supermarket can do this.  In my area Metro does the best breads.
They are best if left a day in the refrigerator before slicing and serving.

Ingredients 

5 loaves white sandwich bread sliced lengthwise
3 loaves whole wheat sandwich bread sliced lengthwise
1/2 cup softened butter


For Chopped Egg
12 peeled hard-boiled eggs
2/3 cup Hellmans Light Mayonnaise
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard


For Tuna
4 cans flaked white tuna drained
2/3 cup Hellmans Light Mayonnaise
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard


For Salmon
3 cans Sockeye Salmon drained
1/2 cup Hellmans Light Mayonnaise
1 tablespoon lemon juice

For Smoked Salmon and Cream cheese
6 slices smoked salmon (8 if small)
1 400 gram container Philadelphia light spreadable cream cheese



Instructions


Cut eggs in half and add to to food processor with metal blade.
Pulse a few times until eggs are course.  Add mayonnaise and Dijon and pulse several times until blended.
With a spatula scrape chopped egg into a container, scrape blade and bowl well.
Refrigerate until ready to use,
Add tuna, Dijon, mayonnaise and lemon juice to food processor.
Process until blended.
Scrape off processor and blade and put tuna into a container until ready to use.
Add Salmon, mayonnaise and lemon juice.  Process until blended.
Now you can wash your processor!

For egg, tuna and salmon
Lay two pieces of bread onto a cutting board, one on top of the other.
Using a serrated bread knife or a pizza cutter, remove all crusts.
Open the slices (like a book).  Spread each piece very lightly with butter then spread filling over one piece.  Put piece without filling on top of the piece with the filling.  Wrap well with plastic wrap.

 For Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese

Lay out one piece of white bread and remove crusts.
Spread lightly with Cream Cheese
Put a piece of salmon at one end and roll the bread up
Wrap tightly with plastic wrap.

 

 To Cut

Cut in half, then cut each half in half, then cut each quarter in half.
Trim any ragged edges.