Charcuterie Board

Are you ready to receive those guests? 

Whether for the holiday season or a friendly get together, a simple Charcuterie Board with all the delicious bites is sure to get your guests eating and enjoying themselves. 

The word Charcuterie is French, and it means cold cooked meats. While I love the cold cooked meats idea, I do need to pair them with cheeses, breads/crackers, fruit, veggies and nuts. I mean, why not?! So, this is my kind of Charcuterie Board. Add a glass of fine wine and i’m content!

The more colorful, the better. And all these different textures on one platter make me so happy.

So, for a holiday party at my work, I put together this colorful beauty. I was very happy with how it turned out. The variety was perfect for a larger crowd.

Here’s what I did:

I picked up a Charcuterie sampler from Costco. It came with 6 types of meats; sausage varieties and salami varieties. It was about $15.00, pre-sliced, organic and ready to go. A huge time saver. All they needed is to be removed from the package and fluffed up a bit. 

During a trip to Trader Joes I picked up: 

• Cheddar Cheese
• Italian Truffle Cheese
• Dried Apricots
• Dried Oranges
• Grapes
• Olives
• Persian Cucumbers
• Crackers
• Bread Sticks
• Almonds
• Honey Roasted Peanuts
• French Baguette
• Dark Chocolate Stars (Super cute and my kids love them)

You have to have a chocolate option. Maybe a chocolate covered fruit or whatever you prefer. 

I already had the almonds in my pantry so I used those.

Then, I made a cheese ball. My first ever cheese ball. It’s a simple mix of Cream Cheese (1 package – softened), cheddar cheese (1 cup), minced sweet red pepper (about 1/4 of a cup). Mix and form into a ball, place on parchment paper and refrigerate for about 15 minutes. Roll in bacon bits (1/2 cup) and refrigerate until you are ready to serve it. This was surprisingly super delicious. 

I used a 19″X14″ serving tray to put it all together. The enclosed sides are ideal for keeping everything contained. And since I needed to transport the thing to work, it was perfect and secure.

I lined the tray with parchment paper and went to town arranging my ingredients. I placed the meats on first (I only used 5 of the 6 meats), then the cheeses, veggies, fruit/nuts and ended with crackers and bread. 

The French Baguette was thinly sliced, drizzled with olive oil, seasoned with salt and baked at 300 degrees for 15-20 minutes, until nice and crispy. These crunchy slices were perfect with the cheese ball. 

It was well receive and it was certainly festive and fun. Remember that here’s no set way to put together one of these beauties. Just gather the items that you like and arrange them to your liking. Get creative and have fun!

As always, thanks for reading.Wishing you all a beautiful holiday season!

Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE to receive my new posts in your inbox. I hope to have a lot more things for you in the new year. Xo