Hello! Welcome to the sounding board. 

We are a place to chat about sound off about kitchens, monograms, entertaining, and everything in between. To jump right in our first stop is illustrating how we do a WREN style charcuterie board. 

Here's the thing; there are a lot of fantastic charcuterie (say it with me: shahr-koo-tuh–ree) board guides out there, but over at WREN, we keep it nice and simple. Aka, if it can't be done in 12 minutes or less, it's probably not going to happen. So we threw together a quick n' simple serving option, that will wow even the most critical of cheese-board connoisseurs.

5 Quick Steps Below:

1) Pick out a gorgeously fun board. Our fav is the XL Large Board w/ John Boos. It's the color of that dreamboat lake house you always wanted, and it makes even the most basic ritz cracker look like a five-star cracker baked by Bobby Flay himself. 

2) Grocery run: Boursin cheese, brie, drunken goat cheese, cashew cheese (if you have some dairy-free folks) prosciutto, salami, dried apricots, dried banana chips, plus green + black olives are our go-to's. Add a dollop of apricot jam plus a half sleeve each of water crackers and seed crackers to pair with cheese, and you're good to go. For a little extra fun, throw some cheese crackers and Marconi almonds on there too! 

3) Artfully dress the board. The trick to placing the food on the board is not to overthink it! We like symmetry here, so put the meats on opposing ends of the board, along with the cheese, so they mirror each other. 

• Layer the dried fruit around the meat, and we like to place our olives in little bowls to catch the juices. 
• Nuts can go in the middle and place the crackers around the edges of the board, for easy grabbing! 

4) Pour yourself a glass of wine, honey, because you just made a semi-homemade gorgeous cheese board in under 10 minutes. Sandra Lee would be so proud!! 

5) You can quickly prep this the night before, keep in the fridge, and then lay that baby out for all your guests to admire. 

Our quick how-to video here gives you a great little description of creating and laying out your magnificent charcuterie board. 

We love quick n' easy, so you have more time to hang with your guests, instead of making food for them! The last thing - if you're interested in adding some additional goodies that we whip out for our last-minute book club meetings, friend dates, and just because. Pop frozen bites in the oven for 20 minutes, and you can slide them right on to the XL Maple Board - it's heat resistant, so you don't even need to let them rest! 

Now, go enjoy some of that gorgeous food you just displayed so beautifully and relax!