Easy Charcuterie Board with Sonder LA's Winsome Board
My guess is you’re currently stuck inside right now (with the exception of an occasional walk or stroll outside to keep from going stir crazy, or if you have to pop into a grocery store) - unless you’re an essential worker of course (which thank you for all that you do, it’s an extremely crazy and overwhelming time right now). And if you like to entertain and are looking for a skill to hone in on, I suggest learning how to create a beautiful charcuterie board!
WHY A CHARCUTERIE & CHEESE PLATTER
It’s really simple, but creates a very dramatic effect for any event big or small. I’m apart of this neighborhood ladies game night once a month (which sadly is on hold, but will be such a great reunion when we can resume our meet ups), and when we were still meeting, I was tasked with hosting for the month of February! So alongside a main dish of a baked potato bar, brought over 2 charcuterie and cheese boards to start the evening off with - and paired with a wine selection fo course. The response from the guests were great! Even from guests that don’t usually like to eat from charcuterie & cheese boards.
WHAT BOARD I USED
I got to put my Sonder Los Angeles Winsome Acacia wood board to use - it’s seriously the perfect board to create a platter because of the grooves cut into the surface. I used the side that has a well to be able to place crackers into, the reverse side has a border groove that allows for crumbs or excess liquid during food prep to fall into which allows for easy clean up. And there are finger grooves on each side that make it easy to carry.
PLACEMENT OF MEATS, CHEESES, FRUITS, ETC.
I like to start with placing the big items on the board first as they will act as an anchor for the other ingredients you’ll add to the board. So for me it was the cheese wedges, mini bowls for olives and trail mix, then grapes. I finished off the board by scrunching the salami and prosciutto in between the bigger things (which creates a beautiful effect) and filled up the well with mini toasts, pita crackers and dried apricots.
You can easily substitute these items for your favorite fruits, cold cuts, veggies and other finger food items that you prefer. What’s so fun for me is I can be really creative with the boards and the options on what to present as a platter are limitless! You can make the platter unique with the colors of foods that are used and be able to accommodate guests that have food allergies. When I presented my boards I got such a huge, positive response at how delicious and beautiful everything looked - and the prep is not meticulous at all! Don’t forget to add in serving utensils like knives for the cheese and spoons for anything that needs to be scooped.
PRO TIP - I saw this at a wedding once for a grazing table, so if you aren’t using cubed or sliced cheese because you want to present the cheese wedges like I did, make it simple for guests by pre-cutting off some of the cheese at the front of the wedge so they don’t have to spend time trying to slice away at the cheese wedge. Also include signs toothpicked into anything that would need label-ing (I didn’t have time to do this, but my group was small so I let everyone know what the cheese were).
