Hamantaschen, Pickles, & Pastrami on Rye

If you know me, then you'll know I'm a huge fan of Jewish delicatessens. It's unfortunate there's no good one around here. Perhaps it's a blessing in disguise because I'd probably gain lots of weight. But really, who am I kidding, I'M DESPERATE FOR A GOOD JEWISH DELI AROUND HERE!  If only Katz's was next door...

The craving reached an all-time high this past holiday season; so much so that I ended up making pastrami.  It took two weeks to brine and marinate (let's not even talk about all the time it took to find specific spices!) and a whole lot of painful waiting.  While it didn't quite have the melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness that Katz's has, it still was pretty tasty.

Ok ok, I bet you're tired of hearing (reading?) me blab so I'll get on with the pictures.  I made hamantaschen, pickles, and pastrami on rye with a touch of deli mustard.  I first created the hamantaschen cookie by creating a shell and then filled it with a mix of fimo deko gel, chalk pastel, and small chunks of clay.

Next up was the pastrami on rye!  For the pastrami's pepper crust, I coated fimo deko gel over a chunk of meat colored clay and then rolled it in black sand.  Then I sliced and textured the meat.  Similarly I did the same for the rye bread.  I made an oval shape of dough colored bread, shaded and textured the outside, sliced it, and then created the bread texture on the inside.  You can't quite see from the photos, but I was playing around using different techniques to texture the bread because I don't like how I usually texture it.  Still haven't found a texture I like... 

To texture the pastrami, I used a sharp needle tool (a sewing needle or safety pin would also work well) and made a crosshatch pattern.  Then dragged the needle in random directions to make it look better haha I'm not sure what the technical term is, all I know is it makes the meat look more realistic!

Keep piling on the meat!

Don't be fooled, that is definitely NOT cheese, it's deli mustard.

You can't serve pastrami on rye without pickles! I made two different colored pickles; this photo only shows one.  Ugh, it was such a pain to mix the colors to get a realistic looking green! The center of the pickles are the peel color mixed with a whole lot of translucent clay.