I'd show you how to create one of my favorite appetizer
ideas, a cheese board. I love a cheese board because
it's the kind of thing that you can just set and forget and if you have a house
full of family and friends and you're running around
trying to get the meal ready, you'll love a cheese board too. Let me show you how to put
together my go-to selection for a flawless looking cheese board. So step one, pick your
favorite cutting board.
You could do a rectangular cutting board, you could do a square cutting board. I also like a round cutting board, because I find that it makes
a really pretty presentation. But any boards you have will do. So the first thing
we're gonna do is create a little center piece
for our cheese board.
A cheese board is much like
a table and you wanna create visual interest by drawing
your eye to the center. And for me, especially this time of year, when grapes are in season, I like to do a selection of grapes. I'll usually take some green grapes, mix it with some red grapes and
then add some purple grapes, again just adding nice
visual interest to the center of our cheese board. So the first cheese I like
to use is something runny.
So I'll take a nice French Brie and then the second
cheese that I like to use is a salty cheese. And for me that's a
really nice blue cheese. Then when placing your cheese,
place the triangles out. That way I think it's
a lot easier for people to serve themselves.
Then I also like to
include a mild flavored, almost neutral cheese, and for that I'll use a goat cheese log. And then lastly, I also like
to include a sweet cheese like a Stilton, and this time
of year you can find them with dried fruits. I like to use either apricot or cranberry, either one is great. Now that we have all of
our cheese on our board, we're gonna go ahead and pair this cheese with some crackers.
And I like to provide a
variety of flavors and textures with the crackers like
we did with the cheese. Okay, so for the Brie, I love
this cheese because it pairs really well with salty things
as well as sweet things. But because we already have
some sweet cheese on the board we're actually gonna turn it into salty and pair it with some olive bread. I love nice sliced olive bread with Brie, it's such a great combination.
So we're just gonna nestle that bread right next to the cheese
and this is what makes a cheese board so easy, as
everything is on one board. And when it comes to the goat
cheese, we're gonna use some rosemary crackers. I love these little rosemary
flat breads that I can find at the store. You can just break them
up and nestle them in with the cheese.
Then when it comes to the
blue cheese, I love to pair it with something sweet. I think there's a great
combination between the saltiness of the blue and the sweetness of something like a raisin cracker. And then when it comes to the
Stilton, I like to pair that with something sweet and flavorful like a little Brioche toast. Then the next thing that
I think is really great on a cheese board is some texture.
So we wanna have a combination of things that are chewy and
things that are crunchy. So for the chewy side I like
to add some dried cranberries. That's a great thing to add
especially this time of year and some dried apricots. And on the crunchy side
we're gonna add some candied pecans and some candied walnuts, two great nuts that are
terrific with cheese.
Now you could stop here and
you would have a very lovely cheese board, but you if want
it to kick it up one notch then you could also offer
a selection of spreads. For me, some of my go-to favorites are some olive tapenade for something salty, some honey for something sweet, some pepper jelly for
a little bit of kick. Now if you've never had
pepper jelly before, it's really delicious and
especially paired with cheese. It's basically jam that's
made from a selection of red peppers, green
peppers and spicy peppers and it's really nice on a
cracker with some cheese.
And lastly, a little bit of fig jam. I love fig jam because it can
go sweet, it can go savory, it's the perfect type of
thing to serve with cheese and it also is a great
flavor this time of year. So now that you have all of
these delicious ingredients out there just waiting to be combined, let me share with you some
of my favorite combinations. For a Mediterranean twist, you
can take a rosemary cracker, top it with a little bit of goat cheese, add a dollop of tapenade and you will head to the south of France in one quick bite.
Then for something that's
really salty and sweet and is really delicious,
you might wanna try a raisin cracker with a
little bit of blue cheese and drizzle of honey and a candied walnut. And let me tell you, this
is another really great flavor combination. And lastly, I also really
love this combination, some Brioche toast, a
little spread of Brie, a dollop of fig jam, add some candied pecans. This is another winner in my book.
But hey, you guys try them all, tell me what combinations you like best. I love a cheese board because
it becomes so interactive with your guests, because
everybody of course wants to try their own flavor combinations and it keeps them all really busy, while you're in the kitchen
getting the meal ready. So I hope guys give this
one a try and let me know what you think, and I will see
you back here the day after Thanksgiving for a really
great leftover idea. Hold on to that cranberry sauce.
All right, I'll see you then, bye. Loving you is easy, you're amazing Please take a bite of my apple pie Oh, love, loving, love, loving you It's a piece of cake Oh yes, yes, it's true, yes, it's true Because it's you.
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