Salami Rose Cheese Board -

If there’s one thing I love serving in the summertime, it’s an epic cheese board. It’s so glamorous and preparing it won’t heat up your house! As part of my partnership with Kroger this summer, I filmed a video buying all of these goodies at one of their Texas Fresh Flavors events last weekend and the cheese board came out so perfect, I just had to blog about it!

Building a cheese board is truly an art. A fantastic cheese board includes:

At least three cheeses (a cheddar, a blue, and a soft white cheese is a solid place to start) and, preferably, two kinds of charcuterie (cold cuts)
Colorful fruit
Nuts
At least two kinds of crackers
Herbs for a pop of color

Watch me buy the ingredients:

Personally I like to choose my cheeses first and go from there. When building a cheeseboard, I also like to place the cheese on the board first, then the meats, and then I go from there, filling in spots with different colors and textures as I see fit. I almost always include rosemary, basil, or mint on the board because fresh herbs make everything prettier.

Now I’m sure you’re wondering how the heck I made the salami rose. Isn’t it cool? It literally took thirty seconds! I promise I’ll film a video as soon as I can but the concept is easy: take a small wine glass and fold one piece of salami over the edge of the glass. Lay another slice over half of the first slice. Repeat with remaining salami until you can no longer see the wine glass through the salami. (One pack of salami filled my small wine glass perfectly!) Carefully pick up the glass, place your hand on the salami, and carefully flip upside down on to the board. Take off the glass and voila: a salami rose! You did that! Aren’t you fancy!?

Salami Rose Cheese Board
3 kinds of cheese (recommended: cheddar, blue, and a soft cheese like port salut
Prosciutto di Parma
Salami
Marcona almonds
1 apple
Grapes
Berries of your choice
Crackers
Optional: honey or a fun jam that pairs well with your cheeses
Herbs for garnish

Style cheese board with the above ingredients. I recommend starting with the cheese, then the charcuterie, fruit, crackers, almonds, then garnishing with herbs.

Stay cheesy,