My favorite trend of 2019? Grazing boards. If you know me, you know I like to have options and grazing boards give me LOTS of options! So, what is a grazing board? See image above. But in all seriousness, a grazing board is board, however big you want it to be, with whatever treats you want it to have. And no, it’s not for cows like Joel keeps insisting.

I first came across Pretty Pleese when looking for vendors for our own wedding, needless to say, I was obsessed! Crystal not only creates beautiful boards for all occasions, but has also been so wonderful to work with! Her work inspired me to recreate some of these tasty treats!

Let’s get down to it, how do you create these boards? Honestly, there’s no wrong way to do it, but there are some basics.

1. Sweet or Savory? I’ll be featuring both today, but will delve more into the Savory board!
2. How many people will you be serving? This will determine the size of your board.
3. Will you have a theme? The board I’m featuring today was “truffle themed”, there’s a particular 5 year-old tenant in our house that is quite fond of all things truffle. I created a monster.

Shopping List (based on a board for 5-7 people)

I make my boards all about layering! As you’ll see in the pictures below, start with your base and/or any accessories you may use. For example, in my savory board I laid down the arugula first and decided I wanted my small bowl of truffle honey to be in the center. For my sweets board, I wanted my mini mason jar (filled with sprinkles to elevate the Piroulines and a nice decorative touch) to be offset and I added a small candy bowl next to it. Then decorate around those pieces!

Here’s a step-by-step look at the Savory Board

Started with my arugula base.

Added my bowl (for truffle honey) and placed the 3 cheeses I used which were: Truffle Pecorino, Saint Andre, and Truffle Goat (this is the diced one).

Added my cheese and deli meat vessles. The vessels consisted of thin rosemary crackers, garlic and parsley bruschetta rounds, and some bread sticks.

Added my deli meat next. For the prosciutto, I rolled it up and placed in between crackers and near cheese, I like to put these around the edges. For the chorizo, I folded some like a taco and put under the pecorino, but for the pieces standing, I used a tri-fold and they stand up nicely like this when placed together and tucked between things!

Ta da! Here I added the delicious truffle honey, a sprig of rosemary for decoration and our knives so we could enjoy!

As you guys can see, there’s no wrong way to eat a reeses! But really, there is no wrong way to create these boards. Who wouldn’t be happy to be sitting in front of a platter of cheese, meat and bread?! Below are some pictures of my sweets board!

Some tips for the sweet board:

• I like to dip the mini donuts, glazed donuts, and the Piroulines in frosting or Nutella and then dip in sprinkles. Makes these items look less store bought and more homemade.
• If you need some variety in height, add some leftover sprinkles to your jar, pretty and functional!
• Vary your sweets. Surprisingly I’m not a sweets person, but in general peoples sweet preferences are all over the place. I like my boards to have a little something for everyone. On this board we have sour candies, chocolate covered pretzels, mint chocolates, chocolate wafers, cookies and cream pocky sticks, powdered donuts and glazed donuts. A little something for everyone 🙂

I hope this inspires you to make some boards of your own. When you do make your own, please share your pictures!