When you hear that word – charcuterie – do you start getting nervous?

I see pictures of all of these boards for meat and cheese or hot chocolate or roasting marshmallows.

And I get charcuterie-paralysis.

What do I put on it? What cheese should I put on it? Salami or Pastrami? Fruit, no fruit?

Just the thought puts me in a stand still.

Until this past Thanksgiving.

I decided to just do it.

The kids love salami, so I had my husband buy salami. I enjoy goat cheese, so I had him buy two small packs of goat cheese. We had a berry jam and apricot jam so Iput them in small dishes. My mother bought crackers and regular cheese. There were grapes in the house and cherry tomatoes.

That’s when I grabbed a beautiful wooden board and put it on the counter. I filled it with crackers, cheddar cheese, cheddar jack cheese, a small plate with goat cheese, salami, crackers, grapes, and cherry tomatoes. I made sure to have little knives and little spoons. Then, I had to continuously refill the board.

Surprisingly enough, I was the only one who ate the grapes and tomatoes.

After making the charcuterie board, I wondered why I had never done this before. Everyone tried it. They put jam on cracker and cheese. They mixed cheese with the Salami. They ate just salami.

So have you made a charcuterie board? Was it successful? Share your pictures in the comments.