New Year’s Eve celebrations are approaching, and I am thinking about the Charcuterie Boards that your friends invited you to bring to their party.   I will be packing my Charcuterie Board to a celebration 200 miles from my home base so I need some hardy food items and beyond the smoked salmon and smoky ham appetizers, I include deviled eggs. 

Why?  Because eggs are a fundamental symbol for  fresh beginnings, they travel well, and they reassure and satisfy during uncertain times, and all times are that.

 

I scrub the slate clean on New Year’s Eve., and wipe out the  tired and  negative thoughts and the plans that never made it off first base.  The deviled eggs on a Charcuterie Board represent fresh ideas and new goals for the year ahead.

And guests relish them and come back to the Board for more!  Plan two deviled eggs per person!  The recipe comes together with ease, and Spicy Beer Mustard underscores the fullest flavor!

                     Spicy Beer Mustard Deviled Eggs

Start with 12 large eggs.  Place eggs in a medium saucepan and cover with cold water.  Bring water to a full boil, let cook for 1 minute, then turn off heat and cover pan.  Allow eggs to stand for 15 minutes. Cool immediately in cold water, and when cool enough to handle, peel the eggs and cut the whites in half lengthwise.  Scoop yolks into a large sieve or the bowl of your food processor; place whites on a serving platter.

Press the yolks through the sieve with a wooden spoon and into a bowl or pulse them until fluffy  in the food processor.

Ingredients

12 large eggs

2 1/2 Tablespoons Spicy Beer Mustard

2 1/2 Tablespoons good quality mayonnaise 

1/2 tsp. vinegar

parsley leaves and paprika for garnish

Process

Mix Spicy Beer Mustard and mayonnaise.  Add the vinegar and mix well.  Incorporate the mustard/mayonnaise mixture into the finely shredded egg yolks until the mixture feels creamy yet holds its shape in the egg white.  Taste, and add 1/4 tsp. salt if needed.

 Make Spicy Beer Mustard Deviled Eggs and all your dreams come true in 2019

Hello, Mustard Mavens,  see December’s Haiku for you…

Spicy Beer Mustard

Triumphs over winter blahs

Celebrate the day

And today I offer you a template for use in creating your holiday Charcuterie Board.  Standard items although not exclusive  to consider arranging on your board are the following:  salami, slices, summer sausage slices, ham slices,  smoked turkey slices, a soft cheese, medium cheese and,  hard cheese, fresh fruit (apple slices), dried fruit (apricots), black olives, pickled beets, pickled red onions (a pickle), crackers, crostini, bread sticks, carrot sticks, cucumber sticks, deviled eggs, pretzels.  And Spicy Beer Mustard to slather on the crostini and top with a slice of salami and a pickled onion or apple slice.

I laminated my cards so I can arrange and rearrange them on the Charcuterie Board in consideration of colors, sizes, shapes, high and low stacks and a sense of abundance that Charcuterie brings to the table. Enjoy the experience, and I will be thinking of you.

Buy Spicy Beer Mustard on Amazon.com and you may easily flip to the Amazon product page by clicking the Amazon button on Buzzsavoriesllc.com home page.  Consider buingy the Spicy Beer Mustard – 6 pack too.  Makes a welcome gift for neighbors and friends paired with a roll of your favorite salami or summer sausage.

 

 

Salami

Summer Sausage

Crostini

 

Black Olives

SPICY BEER MUSTARD

Fresh Fruit

 

Cucumber Strips

Bread Sticks

Pickled Beets

 

Nuts	Cheeses	Crackers
Cheese	Pretzels	Pickled Onions

Continue reading Templates and Tools for Charcuterie

Before I discovered Charcuterie, a French word pronounced  (shahr-cute-uh-ree).  meaning smoked, dry-cured or cooked meats., I served many a cheese and cracker tray that in retrospect looked drab and tasted ordinary.  Then after  seeing Lisa, a food-stylist,  fine cook, and neighbor, build masterful Charcuterie Boards, my idea of an Hors d’ oeuvre Tray quickly evolved. Her Boards glowed and shimmered like  Cezanne’ paintings with layers of color plus salty, sweet, sour, smoky flavors.  And most important, with the Charcuterie board within easy reach, we lingered longer to tell our stories by the Board of Plenty.

Lisa Building a Charcuterie Board

Fun for all and inspired by thin slices of salami and summer sausage and black olives and pickled beets and cheeses soft and hard, bread sticks, salty nuts, carrot sticks, piles of strawberries, and more!

 

Read on to see how easy it is to make an impressive Charcuterie Board.

 

Begin by setting the stage for your  Charcuterie and think handmade and of natural materials.  Get creative by choosing a plank of wood, hand thrown pottery plate, a tile of slate or include the option of your scarred and soulful cutting board or grandmother’s bread baking board.

 

A Slate Charcuterie Tray

In your prep place, set out a range of charcuterie. Choose cured meats that represent various styles and textures: smoked and meaty, dry-cured and firm, such as; salami,  summer sausage, thin slices of ham and smoked turkey, smoked wild goose or duck, venison sausage, maybe a  liver pate’.

For me, Charcuterie Boards express the terra on which I live, and I search for meats and other foods that are grown, hunted, dried, smoked, packaged nearby.

Charcuterie can be a Continental experience.  Meat Companies in my region of Nebraska make sausages from recipes that traveled to America with new settlers from Germany, Sweden, Mexico, Central America and other countries too.  Salami, summer sausages, dried and smoked meats, venison sausages, smoked goose and duck breast plus ham and smoked turkey are all available in our rural Nebraska meat markets.

With Spicy Beer Mustard as the centerpiece of your Board, zip and flavor are guaranteed.

Meat selections come first then get creative with color, shapes, textures and tastes.

Maybe you can find a cheese maker in your region, or visit your local grocery or cheese shop and select about 1 or 2 oz per person.   Look for hard and soft cheeses from mellow to sharp.  Cheeses are easiest to eat when already cubed or sliced.

My recipe for Charcuterie Cheese Ball, a simple, colorful and good-to-eat cheese ball.

 

 

 

 

Ingredients

8 oz. cream cheese at room temperature

2 tsp. Spicy Beer Mustard

1/3 cup shredded slices of dried beef

Instructions

Shred the dried beef in a food processor or by hand with a French Chef knife

Mix all ingredients and refrigerate until firm (20 minutes)

Form into 2 balls, cover and refrigerate.

Serve on the Charcuterie Board at room temperature.

 

The board should look full, don’t be afraid to pile and stack them while thinking about varying the different items throughout.

Vegetables:  Vary heights:  consider adding tall slender carrot sticks, cucumber or celery sticks or bread sticks in a translucent glass jar for interest and crunch

 

Bread and Crackers: Again variety is key, include buttery flaky crackers, whole grain crackers and thinly sliced and toasted baguettes.

Express yourself and your terra and feel amazed at the shine and beauty and flavor of your Charcuterie Board.  Cheers!

 

Purchase Spicy Beer Mustard at Amazon.com – grocery and gourmet, then search for Spicy Beer Mustard – 6 pack and Spicy Beer Mustard 2 Pack

At long last Spicy Beer Mustard in a 2 Pack and in a 6-Pack may be purchased on Amazon.com. Find it by searching Amazon.com/grocery for Spicy Beer Mustard and scroll to find Spicy Beer Mustard 2 Pack at $17/pack or $8.50/jar and Spicy Beer Mustard 6 pack at $42.00 for 6 jars or $7.00/jar. Shipping is free!

And appreciate  (as many of you do already)  the rich flavors that accent your favorite foods and snacks, and by knowing Spicy Beer Mustard as an Honest Food.   Spicy Beer Mustard on your pantry shelf may provide a spoonful of assurance in our chemically laden food supply.

I’m also thinking of easy, affordable – under $20 – and pleasing gift idea for the Holidays. I am packing a box with Spicy Beer Mustard, my favorite salami or summer sausage or jerky product plus a local cheese. Add a sprig of pine. I quickly assembled a simple and pleasing gift to pack, send or carry to a friend.