I’m not as creative as some people who can lay everything out on a single board and somehow have it look beautiful and balanced, so my trick is to use lots of little bowls and plates and nudge them all up next to one another. Most of these are things I’ve collected over the years. Few things match, which I think is part of why it works.
I had a last-minute gathering to attend and offered to put a spread together. Some of what went onto it I already had on hand, some came from the farmers market, and the rest was a quick Trader Joe’s run. That’s really the other trick: a good board doesn’t have to involve making seventeen things.
I started with what I had at home, including Hazaa flats, spreads and finishing dusts, some homemade dehydrated strawberries, and honey from Christiane’s bees here in the City. From the Sunday farmers market came beautiful fresh cherry tomatoes, figs, and dates. Trader Joe’s filled in the gaps with feta, olives, grapes, and Persian cucumbers. A little fresh mint from my little herb garden, tucked here and there gives you some green and makes everything look more intentional than it probably was.
It’s mostly about variety: something creamy, something salty, something sweet, something fresh, something crunchy. Put things in little vessels, move them around until the colors feel reasonably distributed.
And don’t forget the flats. They’re there for scooping, spreading, stacking and building little bites from whatever happens to be sitting next to them. That’s the fun of a spread like this: nobody needs instructions. Mix and match, and see what works.
Tada! You built a board.
0 comments