I love assembling charcuterie boards. It allows me to be creative and contribute to entertaining without cooking. Score! Using mostly yummies I bought at Trader Joe’s I’ll share my latest charcuterie board.
You can see some of their holiday products here.
Ingredients
Meat and Cheese
Trader Joe’s and Costco generally have the best prices on meats and cheeses. The prices for a good cheese are pretty hefty so finding and using the selections at those stores can save a lot of money.
Use at least three cheeses, one being soft. For this tray I used Boursin, provolone and a really yummy white cheddar.
Frankly, meat is optional on my trays, but I wanted a little more substance on here for a pre-holiday meal. The genoa salami is a thinly sliced softer meat, so it’s easily folded into quarters and looks pretty tucked here and there.
Something Salty
The cheese, crackers and nuts are salty and savory. Kalamata olives add to the salt factor too. Trader Joe’s jalapeno hummus is my favorite all-time hummus. Lots of people seem to agree because it went quickly.
Something Sweet
Any fruit will do, but grapes are my preference. Green grapes, figs, dried apricots were all used.
Something Even Sweeter
Let’s kick this up a notch, shall we? Chocolate next to cheese is a necessity. Am I right? Delicious chocolate covered pretzels are my personal favorite. Dangerous.
For the holiday touch, I found these dark chocolate mint star cookies. Oh, dang, they’re delicious too. I had no need to ever find out about those.
And then. Sweet & Salty Snack Mix. Good grief! A big hit. Caramel popcorn, peanut butter stuffed pretzels, peanuts and chocolate covered potato chips. Someone needs to go to jail for marketing that.
Leftovers
The board quickly filled up and I barely had room to garnish with my freshly picked rosemary. So more than half the cheese I purchased didn’t make it and will have to adorn another board another time.
No problem.
December Fit Challenge
If you’re joining me on the fit challenge, please let me know how December is starting off for you.
Adorable Susan is the bootcamp instructor on Saturdays. DF Evon and I have been attending her 8 a.m. classes since she started teaching them and she’s one of the good ones.
She let me snap this pic after class. You can see she makes us use a lot of toys in class.
Fun!
I know not all of you are feeling your best right now. Please know I am praying for you and hoping the joy of the holiday season will find you soon.
XO
Corine, I love that you are doing this fitness challenge. I wish I could participate, but I am still under the weather.😡 But I am enjoying reading your post and getting great ideas. Keep it up!
Darn it! Get better NOW, my friend!
Beautiful! You could offer classes!!