Not Your Everyday Cucumber Sandwich

I would love to make a 2013 resolution be "cook my way through a cookbook" but it just won't be feasible. Too much pressure. Maybe trying out at least one new recipe every week is much more promising. It doesn't have to be completely new recipe with ingredients I've never heard of but it has to be something different (and not just "a little different" because I'm missing an ingredient at home and decide to use something else similar). Although, now that I think about it, I probably already do this. However, I'd like to be more intentional about it. Every week will include the goal of trying out at least one new recipe. This morning's adventure was a Lemon Custard Cake recipe from Food Everyday: Great Food Fast. This evening's trial was cucumber sandwiches from Party Basics by Cornelia Schinharl, Sebastian Dickhaut, and Kelsey Lane. My husband and I made a few minor alterations....

Servings: 4 sandwiches (we ended up eating all of them because it didn't seem like they'd hold up to bringing for lunch the next day)

• 1/2 cucumber (we used a whole one...we really like cucumbers)
• 1 avocado (we used two because the one we bought seemed too small)
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, salt (not sure how much lemon juice was used, squeezed half a juicy large lemon)
• 4 leaves of head lettuce (maybe more like 8)
• 2/3 cup of cream cheese at room temperature (we used 4 wedges of Laughing Cow® light creamy Swiss)
• 1 tablespoon horseradish from a jar (we forgot to buy this so omitted it)
• 8 slices of sandwich bread
• 1 handful radish sprouts, alfalfa sprouts or cress (we used alfalfa sprouts)*
• curry powder (initially wary of this but glad we tried it because it's awesome)

1. Peel cucumber and slice diagonally into 1/4" slices. Cut avocados in half, remove pits, peel, and mash with fork with lemon juice and season with salt.
2. Rinse lettuce, dry. Combine cream cheese with horseradish (if you bought these items) and spread on all bread slices (we plopped on the Laughing Cow® and spread). Top half of the bread slices with cucumbers and spread the avocado cream on the other half.
3. Sprinkle sprouts over the cucumbers and season with salt and curry powder. Top with lettuce leaves, then the other bread slice with the avocado side down. 

*Note: Pregnant women should avoid raw sprouts due to the high risk of contamination from Salmonella or E. coli. If you really can't resist, nuke them in the microwave until steaming hot to decrease the risk. For more information, check out USDA Food Safety for Pregnant Women.