Acts of Love: Enchant yourself AND your guest

Feeding people graciously and lovingly is one of life’s simplest pleasures: a most basic way of making life better for someone, at least for a while.

-Anne Thomas

Gathering and feeding folks is my love language. It fills me with love!

When you gather those you love, whether its 2 or 20 make it work for you by creating a menu that fills YOU with JOY first. While I love to create luxurious feasts, I often enjoy a simple “dinner” of cheese, charcuterie and crudité!

Boards are a lovely way to get things started AND can also be the main attraction. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you create your boards.

· Choose your vessel. A wood cutting board or tray are always a good choice. Ceramic or other types of platters work best for pre-portioned cheese
· Choose your theme. Cheese & charcuterie / Crudité & Dips / Cobb Salad / Taco “Bar” / Sweet and Savory (as pictured here).
· The keys to creating a beautiful board are: Abundance / Texture / Color / Height
· When purchasing ingredients keep each category above in mind. Fruit and veggies are great for adding color (Blood oranges, dried apricots, watermelon radish, whole pomegranates, fresh specialty berries, kumquats). Bread, crackers, crisp breads, nuts, chocolate bark are perfect for texture.
· Don’t over think it! Allow the ingredients to inspire you; start with placement of one item and build around it; pile things high to create height; use small bowls for jams/spreads/chutney/chocolate sauce.
· Enjoy the process! You can always start again if your first try isn’t what you imagined. I often need 2 or 3 tries before the magic happens.