Loaf Party!

While I often serve up traditional cookout foods for Memorial Day, this year, I think you should have a real party. It's time to break out of the routine of making hot dogs and unspeakable salads (or making hot dogs into unspeakable salads) and take a day making a craft project everyone can eat. This, of course, means we're heading back into party sandwich loaf territory with selections from 500 Ways to Make Tasty Sandwiches (ed. Ruth Berolzheimer, 1949). 

In case you've forgotten, party sandwich loaves are the enormous sandwiches that usually cut loaves of bread into layers (rather than the usual slices), fill the layers with various fillings, and then "frost" the whole thing with cream cheese, mayonnaise, and/or whatever else will look vaguely frosting-like so the loaf will look vaguely cake-like. You know, something glorious and welcoming, like this:

I'm not sure I'd use the phrase "all comers" in the caption for a foodstuff so covered in shiny white goop....

The layers of filling can be as compatible or discordant as your feelings about whoever is tasked with consuming the thing. The main recipe for the Frosted Sandwich Loaf is downright sedate by sandwich loaf standards, layering just tomatoes, minced ham, and lettuce.

Never fear, though. There's also a list of alternate filling possibilities to cover various tastes...

...from the veggie-centered grated carrot/ cottage cheese and celery/ egg and pickle layers to the sweet-tooth's cream cheese and nut/ orange marmalade/ date and orange layers. And if you want the sandwich loaf to look extra-impressive, sprinkle the outside with sieved egg yolk. 

Of course the "beautiful goldenrod color" is lost in the black-and-white photo, so it looks more like a dirty sponge than a brightly-decorated cake.

The exciting thing about 500 Ways to Make Tasty Sandwiches is that it goes beyond the typical party sandwich loaf, though. If you want something smaller and more personal, like petit fours rather than a whole cake, you're in luck! The Frosted Party Special makes 16 individual sandwiches with layers of egg salad and ham salad tucked under the protective cream cheese coating.

And they can be made into scary little snack cakes...

(I'd be half-tempted to drizzle with a little chocolate syrup and call them zebra cakes!)

...or cut into rounds for the tiniest, weirdest layer cakes ever.

Happy Memorial Day, everyone! Turn it into a craft day with one big project or lots of little ones. At least if you're not a great crafter, the finished project won't spend the next couple years collecting dust before you finally decide to throw it out or give it to Goodwill.