Charcuterie Boards: Easy Appetizers For Holiday Entertaining To Wow Your Guests

I know you’ve been stalking those beautiful Charcuterie Boards on Pinterest and Instagram, don’t lie. I too am LOVING the whole concept, and we recently hosted a Black Friday Party and just SLAYED the appetizers, presentation and all. I’m going to show you what we did, where we got our supplies and show you how they all came out- you can totally do this!

*This post may contain affiliate links. Please see full disclosure at the end of the post.

So, one of the things I was wondering when I gathered all of the goodies to make the boards (which we MOSTLY did with platters, but it’s the same concept) is if they would actually get eaten. To my surprise, people REALLY did dig in and eat just about everything but the garnish!

And, you know what’s so COOL? I got almost everything for the boards from Costco (and since Sams carries many of the same things, I’m betting you could shop this same list there).

The other coolest thing: I gave her all of the stuff and my daughter made all of the boards so I could finish cleaning and setting up the rest of the party. It’s so awesome having artistic kids!

Charcuterie Boards: Easy Appetizers For Holiday Entertaining To Wow Your Guests
Charcuterie Boards: Easy Appetizers For Holiday Entertaining To Wow Your Guests

 

Step One: You don’t actually need those $200 boards. Use different cutting boards and platters you already have. Have some antique silver or pewter platters? Those work, too! I have a ton of little ramekins that I use for sauces etc every day and these work PERFECTLY in this instance to hold sauces or juicy things that you don’t want soaking the surrounding foods (nobody likes soggy crackers).

Charcuterie Boards: Easy Appetizers For Holiday Entertaining To Wow Your Guests
Charcuterie Boards: Easy Appetizers For Holiday Entertaining To Wow Your Guests

 

Step Two: Shop your list!

Get something to put all those dips and goodies on: We shopped Costco for crackers (we like Carr’s Water Table Crackers), Hawaiian Rolls, Artisan Breads, mini Naan bread, Stacy’s Pita Chips etc. These are to make little sandwiches and sample sauces, cheeses, and meats.

Salty foods: Black, green, and kalamata olives. Cocktail dill pickles, marinated artichoke hearts, stuffed tomatoes/peppers (Costco has a Charcuterie platter with these already made!), marinated mushrooms, and heart of palm.

Fresh, colorful foods: Cherry or grape tomatoes, cranberries, grapes, kiwis, strawberries, blueberries and pomegranates. Try to find good ones that are in season!

Cheeses: Costco has an artisan cheese section by the wine. Get an assortment of stinky cheeses, soft cheeses, marinated mozzarella balls, etc. Try some new ones!

Meats: In the same section as the cheese there are artisan and fancy meats: pepperoni, prosciutto, and smoked salmon. I went WAY overboard on meat. Keep in mind how big your platters are!

Garnish: Herbs are great for garnish to add a little green in places that need it.

Sauces and Dips: We used tzatziki, hummus, spinach dip (Knorr vegetable dip with fresh chopped spinach instead of cooked), cream cheese and red chili pepper spread (for the salmon).

Crunchy foods: We used pine nuts, but you can do little bowls of walnuts, pistachios, etc, also.

Charcuterie Boards: Easy Appetizers For Holiday Entertaining To Wow Your Guests
Charcuterie Boards: Easy Appetizers For Holiday Entertaining To Wow Your Guests

 

Preparing: It’s really tough to time this right, but with a little common sense, you can get these out just as your guests are arriving.

Tip: Not feeling creative? Use a picture from Pinterest and copy the board (the greatest form of flattery!).

Charcuterie Boards: Easy Appetizers For Holiday Entertaining To Wow Your Guests
Charcuterie Boards: Easy Appetizers For Holiday Entertaining To Wow Your Guests

 

Start with your crackers and room temperature items (black olives, nuts, etc). Then move to cutting the cheeses and meats (when you’re done, stick them back in the fridge to keep them cool until you’re ready to add them to the platters). Next add the cold fruits, the cheeses and meats, and finally the cold sauces and dips in ramekins.

The last thing you should be doing is toasting your bread just before the guests arrive!

Tip: Use clean, white flour sack towels to wrap over your warm rolls to keep them warm and moist until people start digging in!

Charcuterie Boards: Easy Appetizers For Holiday Entertaining To Wow Your Guests
Charcuterie Boards: Easy Appetizers For Holiday Entertaining To Wow Your Guests

 

Arranging: The idea is to keep sets of complementary foods next to each other. On the smoked salmon platter we had the chili jelly and cream cheese and water crackers nearby to build a little sandwich on.

If you have something especially unusual or you just like labelling things, you can make little Alice in Wonderland signs “Try me on a cracker with red jelly and cream cheese!” These cardholders on Amazon are super cute and reusable!

Charcuterie Boards: Easy Appetizers For Holiday Entertaining To Wow Your Guests
Charcuterie Boards: Easy Appetizers For Holiday Entertaining To Wow Your Guests

 

Displaying: I like using all of my serveware! If you have cake stands, etc, get those out and put your desserts on them. It gives the table different heights and depths.

Charcuterie Boards: Easy Appetizers For Holiday Entertaining To Wow Your Guests
Charcuterie Boards: Easy Appetizers For Holiday Entertaining To Wow Your Guests

 

For fun centerpieces (that don’t take up a ton of room) check out these wine bottle cork fairy lights to put in your saved wine bottles- at about fifty cents apiece you really can’t go wrong! It gives the table some additional interest, height, and color!

Charcuterie Boards: Easy Appetizers For Holiday Entertaining To Wow Your Guests
Charcuterie Boards: Easy Appetizers For Holiday Entertaining To Wow Your Guests

 

These little porcelain ramekins are awesome and we use them for individual dipping sauces all the time. They have been super hardy and durable!

Charcuterie Boards: Easy Appetizers For Holiday Entertaining To Wow Your Guests
Charcuterie Boards: Easy Appetizers For Holiday Entertaining To Wow Your Guests

 

As you can see, I use the platters as a centerpiece and layer around them. We almost always have deviled eggs (because they’re MY favorite) and adding pies makes for a fun evening paired with your favorite wines and spirits. That beautiful wooden cake stand comes with a pretty glass dome and I use it all the time! The egg plate and four bowl server are both from Pottery Barn, but unfortunately I don’t think they’re available anymore.

Charcuterie Boards: Easy Appetizers For Holiday Entertaining To Wow Your Guests
Charcuterie Boards: Easy Appetizers For Holiday Entertaining To Wow Your Guests

 

For more ways to use your saved wine bottles, we have a Great Wine Bottle Post on upcycling! And those low white porcelain serving bowls with the bread and crackers are one of my new favorite brands: Dowan on Amazon, their stuff is sturdy, well made, sourced responsibly, and sturdy!

Charcuterie Boards: Easy Appetizers For Holiday Entertaining To Wow Your Guests
Charcuterie Boards: Easy Appetizers For Holiday Entertaining To Wow Your Guests

 

Do you have favorite goodies that you serve around the holidays? If you have combos you love on charcuterie boards, I’d love to hear about them in the comments section below!

Check out more great content on our blog!

Cheers and Happy Holidays!

 

 

*Legal stuff:

I am honest about my experiences with different products and write because I enjoy it.  I do however, have the opportunity to earn money for my writing, also.

Slavetodiy.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.  Amazon offers a small commission on products sold through their affiliate links.  Each of your purchases via our Amazon affiliation links supports our cause at no additional cost to you.

If a blogger links to an Amazon product (with a special code for affiliates embedded in the link), and a reader places an item in their “shopping cart” through that link within 24 hours of clicking the link, the blogger gets a small percentage of the sale.  Amazon links are not “pay per click.”  If you click on the product link and stay around Amazon and purchase something else, however, I will get a commission on that sale.

Slavetodiy.com is also a VigLink affiliate advertiser which works similarly.

How To Use All of Those Wine Bottles You Saved

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I collect things with some vague notion of re-purposing them in the future. Well, I’ll have to admit, I may have let the wine bottle collection get a little out of hand. So, I came up with a few ways to use them and even smuggle some of them out of the house, legitimately.  Check out this inspiration and maybe you too can get your collection under control.

*This post may contain affiliate links. Please see full disclosure at the end of the post.

The first step was gathering all of my collected bottles in one place and doing a mini-inventory. With the few ideas I had, I needed to sort them by shape, size, and color… and of course figure out what I was gifting and what I was keeping for me.

 

How To Use All of Those Wine Bottles You Saved
How To Use All of Those Wine Bottles You Saved

 

Having a usable workspace in the guest bedroom gave me a little time to be in work on this and not have to put everything away again.

 

How To Use All of Those Wine Bottles You Saved
How To Use All of Those Wine Bottles You Saved

 

1: Holiday Decorating

The first thing I did was weed out the bottles that I want to keep. I like interesting shapes and, of course, different heights, etc. I like a varied collection that adds interest in the display. I did a test order of some SUPER inexpensive fairy lights and used a few of the bottles in my fall decor.

Saved Wine Bottles: How To Use Them This Holiday Season
Saved Wine Bottles: How To Use Them This Holiday Season: As you can see by our cork collection, we’re committed to the process

They are really pretty! But, the real thing I’m looking forward to is seeing them in the Christmas decor. I think these will look spectacular on the stairs, especially once I get all of the greenery up! I used to sometimes think big foyers were a waste of space, but the look during the holidays makes it all worth it!

How To Use All of Those Wine Bottles You Saved
How To Use All of Those Wine Bottles You Saved

 

Now, we’ll see if the cats leave them alone. My guess is I’ll have some smashed glass to contend with, but we’ll see.

How To Use All of Those Wine Bottles You Saved
How To Use All of Those Wine Bottles You Saved

Here they are with some eucalyptus/fir garland! What do you think?

2: Holiday gifting

I’m always in search of Christmas gift basket ideas throughout the year, and I found a brilliant way to make my problem someone else’s. For my “extras”, *cough *cough, I’m going to do gift sets with tabletop wine bottle lanterns. There are very reasonable wick kits on Amazon to make these, and with bottles of lantern fluid, and a cute wrap job, what’s not to like? If you want to go SUPER thrifty, skip the lantern fluid and basket… a bottle with wick kit, a pretty ribbon, and a handwritten note works just as well!

How To Use All of Those Wine Bottles You Saved
How To Use All of Those Wine Bottles You Saved, Homemade Wine Bottle Lanterns in a Simple Gift Bag

 

 

How To Use All of Those Wine Bottles You Saved
How To Use All of Those Wine Bottles You Saved, Classic Gift Wrap in a Canvas Bag

 

3: Backyard lanterns

I’ve seen these lanterns mounted with brackets on backyard fences and I dig that too (especially with our evening mosquito problem)! I found some brackets that I am going to try with the smaller bottles around the interior of the pool enclosure and see how it looks, and more importantly, if it works. Of course, you can bring your bottle down to the hardware store and just fit the pieces together there. I had to laugh, finding these for sale without bottles was challenging. Me: Um, we’re good on bottles.

They also work brilliantly as tabletop outdoor lanterns.

How To Use All of Those Wine Bottles You Saved
How To Use All of Those Wine Bottles You Saved

 

4) Watering your plants!

With a wine bottle, and a terracotta watering spike, you can forget about your plants for weeks and they’ll still be going strong! These are essential for people like me, who have trouble not killing plants inside.

Winebottlewaterer

I know if I don’t get this wine bottle habit under control I will never hear the end of it. So, here goes!

Do you have any great uses for wine bottles? Please share in the comments below! And, of course, check out more great content on our blog!

Cheers!

 

*Legal stuff:

I am honest about my experiences with different products and write because I enjoy it.  I do however, have the opportunity to earn money for my writing, also.

Slavetodiy.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.  Amazon offers a small commission on products sold through their affiliate links.  Each of your purchases via our Amazon affiliation links supports our cause at no additional cost to you.

If a blogger links to an Amazon product (with a special code for affiliates embedded in the link), and a reader places an item in their “shopping cart” through that link within 24 hours of clicking the link, the blogger gets a small percentage of the sale.  Amazon links are not “pay per click.”  If you click on the product link and stay around Amazon and purchase something else, however, I will get a commission on that sale.

Slavetodiy.com is also a VigLink affiliate advertiser which works similarly.