Sandwich Log

Photo: flickr user dichohecho

Ingredients

White bread loaf (unsliced), with crust cut off, of course

Egg salad, use your favorite recipe, Ham salad (kind of like deviled ham), use your favorite 4 lrgs Cherry tomatoes, cut in half, and scoop out the inside

8 Hard boiled, peeled quail eggs

Cream cheese

Mayonnaise

Preparation

OK, so here I am again, riding on a Shinkansen, going through email. Last night, I saw a Japanese TV show which demonstrated a recipe for a sandwich log. It has nothing to do with chiles, but I knew that the list would love it. Of course, we can slice up a Serrano and toss it in, just to make it legal.

Cut the loaf of bread in slices, the long way, so that you make long rectangles about 12" long, 6" wide, and 1/2" thick. You will need 4 or 6 slices, depending on how big you want to make the log.

Spread one slice with ham salad, and roll it up the long way, making a roll 6" wide. Spread another slice with egg salad, and roll it around the first roll. If you want, wrap one more egg-salad slice around this. Repeat the whole process to make a second roll. Then, butt these next to each other to make one long "log." Wrap them in Saran Wrap (TM!) and chill until they are firm.

Spread one normal slice of bread (crusts removed, mochiron!) with egg salad, and roll it into a small log. Cut off 1/4" from each end (to make flat, smooth ends), and then cut it in half, at an angle. (=/=) Chill.

Mix cream cheese with mayonnaise to make a smooth, thick cream.

Take out the chilled log, and place it onto the dish to be used for serving. Spread it thickly with the cream cheese mixture. Place the two small logs on top, with the slanted ends facing up, so that they look like broken branches sticking out of the log. Spread the cream cheese over them as well. Leave the ends of the branches (with the rolled "rings") visible.

Then, use a fork to texture the cream with long scores to look like textured bark.

Stuff a little egg salad into the shelled-out tomatoes. Then stick in a boiled quail egg to that it sticks halfway out of the tomato. Put small dots of the cream cheese mixture on the red caps to make small white spots.

You have just made little mushrooms. Place these around and on top of the log.

Garnish with a little parsley to look like moss.

Try not to laugh.

Serve it to children by cutting slices of the log.