A customized charcuterie board for mom is the perfect Mother’s Day gift – it’s thoughtful, it’s sure to impress mom and it can be customized just for her. Imagine creating a board with all of her favorite fruits, veggies, meats, cheeses and the real showstopper – Gesus Palomino Candied Jalapenos – of course!
If you’ve ever been intimidated by those beautiful, bountiful charcuterie boards seen on Instagram, this blog post is exactly what you need to learn how simple and fun it is to create one yourself. As you’re planning your ingredients, keep in mind that the finished charcuterie board can be as simple or as elaborate as you wish.
The key is to fill the board so there are no holes, make it colorful, flavorful with sweet, salty, savory and choose different textures, sizes and shapes.
Here’s a list of suggested charcuterie board ideas and an easy step-by-step to make your mom a special, personalized board for her special day.
Customized Charcuterie Board
What you need:
- A board of choice – we prefer a cutting board. Choose a size based on the amount of items you plan to display.
- A variety of small plates and bowls
- A small cheese knife
- Small spoons and forks
Suggested Board Items:
*you do not need all of these ingredients! Simply pick the ones that mom would enjoy the most*
- Gesus Palomino Candied Jalapenos
- A few herbs like Thyme and Rosemary (for garnishing and color)
- Crackers – we prefer a variety (sesame, everything, poppyseed, wheat, butter, regular)
- Sweet fruits – grapes, apples, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries
- Colorful cheeses – we prefer Brie and/or Cream Cheese topped with Gesus Palomino; cheddar, gouda, Romano, parmesan, Havarti, goat or bleu.
- Peppery cured meats – salami, sausage, pepperoni
- Prosciutto
- Marinated olives
- Marinated artichokes
- Mini dill pickles
- Nuts – pistachios, almonds, cashews
- Dried Fruits
- Jelly or jam
- Deli mustard
- Honey
Steps:
- Select your board size so you have an idea of how much to purchase, then decide which items above mom would enjoy the most.
- Spread out 3-4 small plates and bowls on the board.
- Garnish the board edges with rosemary, thyme and any herbs of choice.
- Place your cheeses around the board with small cheese knives. Do not cut them yet.
- Top the Brie and/or the cream cheese block with Gesus Palomino and place the jar next to those cheeses.
- Arrange your meats; you can make meat roses, lay some meats flat or fold them.
- Add your fruits on the plates if you’d like or directly on the board.
- Use other small bowls for honey, jellies and jams.
- Add any marinated items in small bowls so the juice does not interfere with the other ingredients.
- Fill in the spaces with nuts, dried fruits and any other ingredients.
- Present this to mom with a fresh bouquet of flowers and her wine, cocktail or mocktail of choice.
- Enjoy!