CEiMB - New York Breakfast

This week's Craving Ellie in My Belly pick was compliments of Sara of imafoodblog. I love Sara (and her boyfriend Nick, who I swear grinds his own flour and would build a pizza oven from scratch if she gave him a chance). Sara is our fearless leader and she does a fabulous job of keeping us entertained and motivated.

This recipe reminded me that above all else I am cheap and lazy. Let's just say I'm selectively cheap and, well, lazy most of the time. Since there are only two of us, I wasn't buying a loaf of pumpernickel bread just to make this (partly because I thought it was supposed to be rye bread; when I discovered it was pumpernickel, it was a complete surprise). I did look for rye bagels at two different stores before I decided to go with the whole wheat bread in the pantry. I also didn't buy the whipped cream cheese because I have regular cream cheese in the fridge that needs to be used. I also went with the regular cucumber and skipped the red onion. And I added capers because the sandwich screamed "capers!" at me so I complied.

I served these open face as a late lunch and it was really good. I should have seasoned it more, and taking photos of toast dooms you to eating a sandwich that isn't at the peak of freshness. I used way more than 1 1/2 teaspoons of cream cheese, and that was a nice foil to the salmon. When I make this one again, I'll add more capers, cucumbers, chives and maybe even a touch of lemon juice or a light vinaigrette. I felt like it needed more acid to balance the creaminess of the cheese and the salmon.

Many thanks to Sara for picking one of the recipes I've never noticed but which has so many things I enjoy. If you'd like to see what the other Ellie cooks did with this one, click on their names in the left hand margin here.