My First Time Building a Charcuterie Board

Hi y’all! 👋
Charcuterie board newbie here! I had never even ate from a board- not in my last 5 or so memborable years anyway, before much less MAKE one.

But it’s all the hype around the holidays and I am all about food.. especially if it’s pretty.

I started Pinterest-ing (my favorite verb) different boards.. and can we just go ahead and say thank GOD for predicted text because charcuterie is hard to spell! Let alone say into your talk to text microphone that doesn’t understand my southern twang half the time on easy words.
I found lots of pretty board inspo and woke up the next morning excited to go up and down every aisle of Trader Joe’s picking out crackers and meats for my very first board.

Except, I forgot it was Saturday, 3 weeks before Christmas and Trader Joe’s is next to the mall. Yeahhhh... no thanks🙅🏼‍♀️

So I made a little list and went to Kroger. I was not disappointed! It was actually SOO much fun. I had a blast looking through the different types of crackers and cheeses, sliced meats and fruits. I thoroughly enjoyed it and just went about my business living my best life. It was like the best by-myself date I’ve ever had!
If you’re ever looking for something to do alone, I highly suggest charcuterie board snack shopping☺️

Tim asked me to wait until he got home to put it together so he could “help,” and I wish I hadn’t waited.. lol. He was basically on his phone the whole time and I would have enjoyed it more if I could have taken my time and played around a little more. But it was nice to have him there for pictures. #instagramboyfriend 

I started with my Thirty One Close to Home Round Tray. It’s made from mango wood (which is super easy to grow and harvest. Yay earth friendly!) and is food grade safe so no nasty stuff. Plus. It’s beautiful so even if it wasn’t safe for food, I would’ve used it anyway.

I put two small bowls on opposite sides of the tray and lined them with two different types of crackers. I wish I could say I had the bowls just sitting because I’m fancy but I’m not.. they were just two different sized measuring bowls from Pioneer Woman😅 but they worked perfectly.

Next, I lined one side of the edge of the board with porchetta and mozzarella rolls. (Purchased like 10 rolled for $6 and cut them in half. Worked super well!)

From here, I started working quickly placing things from the outside to the inside of the circle. We were getting hungry. I couldn’t tell you my “technique” because I didn’t really have one since it was my first time and I was feeling rushed to finish so we could eat.

I did make sure not to have two like snacks next to each other on the board if I could help it. For example, no two crackers next to each other or no two cheeses next to each other.

My board turned out way more beautifully than I expected and it was super yummy and filly.
If you’re looking for how much to use per person, there’s plenty to help you online, but since this was purely for my own enjoyment and our dinner, I just filled it up and made it look good.

I look forward to creating my next board using a Thirty One Close to Home Tray in the rectangle shape vs. the circle, but if you ask me the circle would be more challenging. But I believe in you.. you could handle either!