HOLIDAY CHARCUTERIE BOARDS

Happy Happy Holiday Season, Loves! It’s time for all things festive and beautiful!! I am so in love with the colors of Fall and Winter and look for ways to incorporate them into all of our events and dinner parties. Emily + I have been making these gorgeous boards for just about every occasion. And I have to admit that I’ve been making these for dinner. Like a Tuesday night dinner. Like a random non-special mid-week dinner. I could eat cured meats and cheese all day every day FOR REALS.

The fantastic thing about charcuterie boards (that’s just a fancy way of saying a big ole’ plate of meat and cheese and crackers), is that there are endless variations and they make sense for every occasion. Girls night + baby shower + picnic date + holiday party + office meeting or THANKSGIVING!! What could be better while you’re cooking all day than a grazing board? Answer: nothing.

There are no hard and fast rules about how to assemble a good board. Guidelines? Yep. Rules? No way. The biggest thing is to make yourself happy here. I love to include one soft goat’s milk cheese, one sharp cheddar and one blue. (the stinkier the better) Then add a good prosciutto, a salami, some good flatbread + crackers, dried fruit, candied nuts, a jam of some kind and some kick ass local honey. Try to vary your colors and textures so that there are endless varieties of stacking.

Try to color block when you assemble so that there is visual interest and make a few cuts in the cheese and salami to get everyone’s motor going!

Honestly, if I had a small plate of one cheese + some prosciutto and a cracker or two I would be happier than a bird with a french fry. But the holidays are about splurging a bit, yes? So that’s what we did here. We made the most swoon-worthy board ever ever and we maybe ate our weight in cheese before that shoot was over.

The only thing on this board that needs to be prepped/cooked ahead of time are the candied pecans. Feel free to buy store bought ones or just include roasted nuts if you like. All will be well. (but these candied nuts are insanity HOLY LORD) The printable recipe for these is below!

Here is what I added to our festive holiday board.

FROM TRADER JOE’S

• Goat Milk Cheddar

• Raw Milk Cave Aged Gruyere

• Raincoast Crisps

• Rosemary Italian Style Crackers

• Columbus Calabrese Salame

• Dried Mission Figs

• Dried Apricots

• Chianti Salami

• Fresh Pomegranate

• Honey with honeycomb

• Red Pears

• Bread Sticks

• Pecan Halves (to make the candied pecans, recipe below)

FROM WHOLEFOODS

• 12 month Mimolette (that vibrant orange cow’s milk cheese you see up there!)

• Cave Aged Blue Cheese

• Spicy Parmesan Crisps

• Fresh Spinach (to wrap the Gruyere with prosciutto)

• Fresh Thyme Sprigs (for color, but they are fabulous to pick and sprinkle on a cracker with some jam + cheese YES LAWD)

We are so thrilled you would stop by to hang out with us for a bit. If you make this, we would love to see a picture of your board! Tag us on the socials with a picture of your creation! We sure do love you all! (especially YOU!)

RECIPE

All of the drool-worthy images are from our friend, Matt Ray. He is the best food photographer around. (He also does a mighty fine job shooting families + weddings!)