Putting together a cheese board doesn’t have to be difficult. How to put together a cheese board quickly will have you whipping up a board for your next drop-by visitor, an easy mid-week meal, afternoon session, or bring a plate occasion. Aside from those with lactose issues who doesn’t love cheese, right?
My love of cheese is a well-known fact about me, so much so even my clients send me cheese in the mail as a gift. It doesn’t have to be difficult; most of what you need to make a killer board can live in your pantry or fridge for you to grab when you need it. That’s my first tip, stock your life in preparation for cheese at any moment.
Start with the basics; take stock.
What do you need to have for a cheese board? Think of your favourite things to eat with cheese; fruits and nuts, cured meats and crackers. All of these things have pretty long shelf lives and can be maintained pretty easily. Start by keeping a well-stocked pantry of crackers, nuts and dried fruits and cheeses, fresh fruits and meats in your fridge. Plus, doing things like growing herbs in your garden can add colour and flavour to your board.
You’d be surprised what you already have in your fridge or pantry to get you started. Take a look, and don’t discount anything as possible ingredients for your board. Some suggestions to keep an eye out for are;
Phew. Once you take a look and start pulling things out to assess, a theme will start to appear. Sometimes we have a heap of tomatoes, so we do an Italian style board with soft cheeses, basil, spinach, olives and bread with olive oil to dip. Other times all we have is a heap of nuts, so we pair that with whatever cured meat and crackers we can find. Got vegetables? Keep it simple with a veggie-heavy crudités platter. Look for the theme and things that work together and crush your charcuterie game.
How to put together a cheeseboard – step by step;
Collect and prepare your supplies
Place your cheeses and larger items.
Prepare, fold and place meats and savoury add ons
Group and place crackers; tuck them around
Fill with fruits or sweet add ons
Dollop or place the dips, spreads or honey
And now it is time to raid the fridge and pantry and see what you can pull together. What do you think? Do you have some ideas for how to put together a cheeseboard quickly? The basics are that you need to keep a good stock of items, use what you have and then pull it all together on a board like an Instagram pro. You might just be surprised at the cheese board level that you can pull off with a few basic supplies and very little planning.
And yes, this isn’t even my first ever post about my love of the cheeseboard. A few years ago, after returning from the Barossa Valley, I shared my tips for cheeseboard signature style. Whatever that is. Haha. Let’s face it, any excuse to have cheese for dinner, take some images and write it all off as a business expense*. What can I say? Sometimes you don’t feel like making dinner; cheese for the win.
Ummm, prosecco fans, get yourself ready for your summer beverage of choice. You’re going to love this prosecco cocktail with blackberries and mint. The best news is it is easily adapted for one or for a crowd. And speaking of a crowd, it makes so well ahead of time you won’t even be mad at it. Entertainer win.
How to make Suger’s Prosecco Blackberry Punch
YOU’LL NEED
6Ft6 Prosecco
Lemonade
Vodka
Blackberries
Mint
DO THIS
Combine the vodka, blackberries and mint in a jug. I left my mint whole, but tearing or chopping into smaller pieces would work too, as would muddling it in the bottom of the glass or jug. Use one shot of vodka per serve. Add the prosecco and lemonade at approximately a half/half ratio. I prefer mine more prosecco, less lemonade, but you do you. Serve chilled. Frozen berries assist with this on a hot day! So if serving frozen, add berries when all ingredients are combined.
So, you’ve got a giveaway too, huh?
I’ve been on the lookout for a blog wine sponsor for a number of years. My search has proven to be fruitless but it won’t even stop me trying. That’s when I’ll know I’ve made it. For sure. Alas, this is not that moment, BUT the kind people of 6Ft6 wines have provided some goodness to giveaway!
Competition closes Friday 20th October 2017, with the winner being announced shortly after that. You must be 18 years or older and an Australian resident to win. This is a game of skill, Mr Suger and I will be choosing our favourite answer with a little help from the 6Ft6 team.
The prize pack includes THREE bottles of 6Ft6 Prosecco, a set of four 6Ft6 wine glass tags and their new limited edition tea towel valued at $99. Woooo.
To win the prize pack you must be following @sugercoatit and @6Ft6wines on Instagram and tell me in the comments below what YOU would do with your prize pack? Do you have a special occasion coming up or friends coming over? Get creative and the best entry wins. Competition closes Friday 20th October 2017, with the winner being announced shortly after that. You must be 18 years or older and an Australian resident to win. This is a game of skill, Mr Suger and I will be choosing our favourite answer.
EDIT: If you’re having problems with Disqus (my comment system) you can now enter on Instagram!
Meet Tess of Success Undressed who has a #cheesesuccess hashtag on Instagram, join in!
Now I don’t know about you, but I’m a wine and cheese platter kind of girl. I’m assuming if you hang around here with me, maybe you are too. You are, right? I knew it. All the best people are, even if there’s no wine, just cheese.If you’re here, maybe you want to up-skill your platter game? Let’s talk cheese platters, shall we?
How to cheese platter like a pro!
Have a signature style
Everyone thinks they’re a platter superstar (you know who you are!) and that their platter cannot be rivalled. We all like what we like and have our signature style about it. I love that. That’s platter rule number one for me. Have your signature style.
Be flexible
But rule number two is that you have to be flexible. My favourite thing to add to a platter now is roasted asparagus and other veggies. I picked this up from a friend who loves to turn her platters into a meal. Sometimes I’m into fruit and nuts, sometimes it’s more antipasti and vegetables.
Start with the cheese
Rule number three, start with the cheese. I know, it’s a cheese platter, that’s obvious, right? But you’d be surprised how easy it is to get distracted by everything else and end up with cheese being a bit of an afterthought. I like to choose two or three great cheeses (a hard, a soft and a spare) to set the tone for the platter.
Be generous
When it comes to filling your platter, the plate or even the table (like the team at Table and Plate – https://www.instagram.com/tableandplate/) then you want to be generous. That’s rule number four. Be generous in your servings and accompaniments. Add the largest wedge of cheese you can get. For me, the platter is about abundance and sharing, so don’t get stingy.
All occasions are platter occasions
And finally, in what turned out to be a ‘rules’ post, rule FIVE is that there’s never an occasion that doesn’t deserve a cheese platter. Dinner for two? Cheese. Gathering with friends? Cheese. Struggling with something and need a mastermind? Yup, cheese will help.
Okay team, do you have a cheese platter hot tip! This blog is sorely missing comments these days (I think we talk on Facebook mostly) so to get us back in the habit pleeeease share with me below what your number one cheese platter tip is. And if I know Vanessa, that’s going to be MORE CHEESE, less other crap. Haha.
As soon as my cousin announced her wedding I called shotgun on hosting the bachelorette party. I love to party; it was a no brain’er. I was the girl for this job. I would host THE party of all parties to send this very dear woman off into the “world of wedded bliss” with a bang. And the secret Pinterest board began.
I decided that it was as good of an excuse as any to tackle the “Drink Champagne & Dance on the Table” theme. So I spoke to Amanda and she put together invitations for the ladies that was mentioned in the first post. The front of the card would be made into a sign for the champagne cocktail station and the rest, well, I’d figure that out later; Champagne themed party coming right up.
And boy, oh, boy did I ever!
There were the jars and champagne glasses I found at a garage sale, the ribbon in the perfect shade of purple on sale at Lincraft, and then there was the glitter champagne bottle idea… Something I tackled and already blogged about. So much fun. Then I covered the bases of the glasses with glitter too. Purple, the bride’s favourite colour, glitter and champagne were the orders of the day.
The tablescape was just about done and I said to Mr Suger that I needed some timber boxes to set up different levels. You know, for interest and drama and such things. I might have some, he said, and indeed he did. Legendary. The cherry on top of my champagne themed party was those boxes. SO good.
So I set up a table with all the glorious treats to mix into our champagne plus sparklers, marshmallows and skewers and pipe cleaners for fun and games later on. There were fruits, fairy floss, cordials, juices with tongs for grabbing and straws for sipping. Then it was done. All there was to do was await the guest’s arrival…
Here are way too many photos of the set-up…
And then the party started…
Mr Suger created these things called “Swedish Log Candles” that we also found on Pinterest. Have you heard of those? It’s a piece of timber, a log really about the size of a dinner plate and under a metre long, cut from the top end to three-quarters the way down, hollowed out in the middle and it becomes a containable fire. We had four of them keeping us warm.
Such a simple and effective way to warm a winter outdoor party that doesn’t require someone to stoke the fire nor attend it. I wish I had more photos; I highly recommend them. He lit those about an hour before the party started {it’s pretty smoky when you first kick things off}. Later we toasted marshmallows and gathered around them to chat. A win across the board they were.
Fun, right? Admit it, you wanted to come to the party too?
