‘Tis the season for festive food & fun! Whether you’re looking for something to snack on for a night of holiday movie watching or fresh ideas for your family to graze on during the day before a big meal, Pure Flavor® is here to help with some sophisticated charcuterie (pronounced shar-koo-tuh-ree) and family friendly snacking ideas.

You’ve decked the halls, lit some candles and put the tree up, now it’s time to sit back and wait for the arrival of a certain big, potentially jolly, white-bearded man in a red suit.

In the days leading up to the holidays, there may be plans for movie nights, games nights, or even a date night or two. With those activities, there are certain expectations – like snacks. With that in mind, we have put together some snacking boards for these types of occasions.

Have you heard of this new trend of individual charcuterie cones? We decided to give it a whirl and created these Holiday Charcuterie Cones. They are fun to make and the best part? They are individual servings!

We used parchment paper to make our cones. First, cut the parchment paper into a square, then cut it on a diagonal to make two triangles. Roll each triangle in the general shape of a cone. Pro tip: invest in an ice cream cone holder to hold your cones up! Not only does it help them keep their shape, but it makes it easier to fill them and it’s a wonderful way to display them!

We then made some festive focal points for the cones. Using our Aurora Bites Mini Sweet Peppers, we cut the tops off of them and stuck a Sangria Medley Tomato inside. Then using an appetizer skewer, we threaded a piece of cheese cut into the shape of a star using a small cookie cutter, another tomato, and some quality deli meat then stuck the skewer into the tomato that we put inside the pepper. Fill the cone up partially with Sangria Medley tomatoes and put some Long English Cucumber spears, breadsticks and nestle the pepper right in the middle – garnish with some rosemary.

The results speak for themselves, these delightful cones are sure to be a hit! They also make an excellent gift – if you need any more ideas in that department.

These cones are great on their own, but they pair perfectly with our Holiday Charcuterie Board! To build a charcuterie board like a pro, there’s a bit of a formula: sweet, salty and savory, plus adding some festive touches – like tealight candles, or fancy bowls.

For our version, we used Uno Bites™ Nano Cucumbers, Juno® Bites Red Grape Tomatoes, Sangria Medley Tomatoes, Aurora Bites Mini Sweet Peppers, a roasted garlic hummus dip and various cheeses for savory; quality charcuterie meats for salty; topped off with grapes, figs, blackberries and pomegranate for sweet!

There is no wrong way to prepare ‘your’ charcuterie board. We like to approach it by placing the focal point and/or larger items first and then filling in the gaps. You really want to layer and overfill so that it looks plentiful and opulent. Letting items “spill over” is a nice touch, as well as scattering items across the board instead of clumping them all together in a bunch.

Finally, we put together a more “kid-friendly” Holiday Snacking Board complete with fun little charcuterie skewers that have images of seasonal characters on them. The same formula applies here too, but instead of using artisan and goat cheese, you can use more kid friendly cheeses.

For the little charcuterie skewers, we put a small cube of cheese, a folded-up piece of summer sausage and stuck it into a tomato so that they stand up on their own. Our savory items on this board include Uno Bites™ Nano Cucumbers, Juno® Bites Red Grape Tomatoes, Aurora Bites Mini Sweet Peppers, hummus, and cheddar cheeses. The sweets include raspberries, grapes, clementines, and pomegranate. For the salty, we selected some kid-friendly deli meats like summer sausage and some mini pretzels. Our festive touches were the charcuterie skewers and mugs of hot chocolate!

The process of putting the board together is the same with the overfilling and layering, but start out with the larger items on the board so you can see what gaps need to be filled in.

The great thing about charcuterie & snacking boards is that once you assemble them, the work is done! Your family serves themselves and they will be quite content to do so while waiting for a meal, watching a movie or whatever the occasion may be!

To view, download or print the full recipes: Holiday Charcuterie Cones, Holiday Charcuterie Board, or Holiday Snacking Board.

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