This summer, strapped for time and staving off heat stroke, I can’t stop craving cucumber sandwiches. The simple sandwich highlights the natural coolness of a cucumber and don’t require me to turn on an oven (if you didn’t know, New York has been in the middle of a record breaking heat wave).

Cucumber sandwiches take minutes to make, and seconds to eat, and will leave you feeling light and satisfied.They can be posh with crusts off, perfectly thin bread, cut into tiny triangles and served on china; or they can be rustic with thick, uneven bread, crusts left on, and eaten right off the cutting board they were assembled on.

In fact, they are so easy, I hadn’t even planned on posting the recipe. Then, I brought them to a picnic with friends and was asked for the recipe. Well here it is, if you can call this a recipe. Enjoy and keep cool!

sloppy/neat tea sandwich

Recipe: Cucumber Sandwich

Makes one sandwich, repeat as necessary

• two slices of delicious bread, the thinner and denser the better
• a shmear of mayonnaise and/or cream cheese
• cucumber
• salt and pepper

1. Spread the mayonnaise on one slice of bread, and the cream cheese on the other (or if you only like one of the spreads, spread that one on both slices of bread).
2. Slice a big cucumber on the bias, until you have enough slices to cover one slice of bread. I like the shrink-wrapped English variety for this as their skins aren’t too tough and you can get nice big thin slices out of it.
3. Add the cucumber slices to one side of bread. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and then place the other slice of bread on top.
4. If you’d like to remove crusts or cut the sandwich into shapes, now is the time to do so, because if you wait a moment longer, they will be devoured.

Enjoy with a nice tall glass of iced tea or lemonade.

One year ago: Strawberry Jam Brownies