Cucumber Sliders

Here is another idea for your Super Bowl party.   Guess what?  It has bacon.

8 oz. cream cheese (I like the whipped cram cheese)

¼ cup chopped green onion or chives

12 slices of cooked chopped bacon

4 oz. crab meat (you may substitute chopped shrimp)

Dried dill weed

½ tsp. onion powder

1 seedless cucumber

Clean cucumbers and with a potato peeler decorate the skin of the cucumber by peeling lines on the skin.  Slice your cucumber a little more than ¼ of an inch thick.

Lightly salt the cucumber and let it sit on paper plate or a paper towel.  Use a seedless cucumber.

Clean and chop your green onion or chives.  I prefer chives because it is more delicate and does not overwhelm the crab meat or cucumber.  Chop your fried bacon (this is a good time to buy that pre-cooked bacon).  I use a kitchen scissors for cutting the bacon and the chives.  I have smaller pieces and have a more controlled size.  You could also use real bacon bits in a jar.

Mix a package of cream cheese, chives or onions, bacon and crab. Season the mixture with salt, pepper and dill weed (not seed). Place a spoonful of cheese mixture on a slice of cucumber and top with another slice.  Garnish with chives and/or dill weed.  I like the dill because it just seems to go hand and hand with cucumbers and I have chives in the cheese mixture.

Variation:  Replace the crab with finely chopped deli roast beef or dried beef or with chopped shrimp.  I've also made something similar to this by scooping the center out of a thick cut slice of cucumber (a little over an inch thick) with a mellonballer.  Fill the centers with the mixture and just have little cups. 

Enjoy Super Bowl and Ground Hogs Day and be happy.  May God bless you and yours.