Yesterday I shared my top holiday entertaining tips with you. Today I am talking about the thing that is going to bring your holiday party over the edge – the perfect holiday cheese board. I love cheese. I love bread. I love everything that accompanies cheese and bread. Creating a beautiful cheese board is an entertaining art form. So I am going to share my top tips to creating an Instagram worthy cheese plate for your holiday get together.

1 Variety. It is important to have three or four different varieties of cheese on your board. Make sure you have a good mix of soft, semi soft, and hard cheeses. My favorites to incorporate are Brie, Gouda, Parmesan, and Mozzarella. I typically stay away from the cheddar, but it is by no means a negative. Go for what you and your guests will love!

2 Slice It. If you are serving hard cheeses on your board like Parmesan or Gouda, pre-slice it. If it is not sliced, guests are not going to dig into it. No one wants to be the person awkwardly trying to cut into the cheese on the table.

3 It’s More Than Just the Cheese. Hard to believe, but sometimes the star of the cheese board isn’t the cheese at all, it’s the accompaniments.

4 Don’t Skimp on the Crackers. Now that I have shared my tips, let’s get into my board shall we? I chose four different cheeses: Mozzarella, Parmesan, Gouda, and Brie and two meats: Prosciutto and Pepperoni. I accompanied the meat and cheeses with blackberry jam, fresh blackberries, olives, cornichons, and artichokes. It’s good to have a nice mix of sweet and savory items on your board.

I also may have eaten half of that board myself… I have no regrets.

xx Casey