this was a last minute board we threw together for a bit o’ family fun; sent a couple ideas to ryan while he was en route to the grocery store + he grabbed what stood out to him. take a look at some before + after images below–it’s always easy to see what was a hit when we see the empty board afterwards. this was a fun improv + now, i’ve gotten a few ideas for next year too!

building blocks:
(serves 4-6)

mini club crackers (leprechaun size)
green cookies with icing
green grapes
orange slices
cherry tomatoes
sweet petite pickles
salami slices
block of cheddar
cream cheese + pepper jelly
cheese wisps (our gold coin’s for today)
rice crackers
dot’s pretzels
pretzel slims
white chocolate pretzels

a few additions that would be right at home on this board:
apricots
herbed goat cheese
pistachios
sliced roast beef
aioli/ranch dip
chocolate coins
green pepper(s)
additional/other styles of pickles
cucumbers
cutout sugar cookies
shortbread cookies
the list goes on…

directions: 
(15 minutes)

today, we were just trying to get the kids fed quickly, so we combined all the foods onto the board as we typically do with no particular layout in mind. if you wanted to recreate this board exactly, start with the block of hard cheese in the middle as a main focal point, then work outward mixing the colors of foods around the board (in this case green, white + orange/colors of the irish flag); next time we will probably play around with creating an irish flag shape by grouping the foods by color.

serve it up: once everything is on the board, it’s ready! give kids a small dish of their own to create a custom serving that interests them. practice good charcuterie board ettiquette by teaching that we never eat directly from the board, rather we make selections then eat from our individual plates.