cheese please | platters

“Life is too short for fake butter, cheese or people” SheFinds

After a fabulous relaxing girlie week in Bali, I got to spend a further girlie week with two wonderful friends in our equally fabulous South West.  Life just keeps getting better!

We did what every great woman does; relaxed, slept, movied, chatted lots (and naturally the world is now a better place) and dare I mention we ate lots!

I ask myself, why it is, that in my life, all roads lead back to food?  Maybe we will let that one slide for the time being.  Girl time is such an important time for me (and I hope for you). While food fills your belly, girl talk fills your head and heart.  All three of us are experiencing little brain freezes for one reason or another (mostly treatment-related) and this at times makes for a very funny conversation. It feels great to be able to laugh at yourself in safe company.  The beauty is that when I think back to those conversations I can’t remember them! Girls your conversations are safe with me. I have become the most trusted friend of all, the keeper of secrets because I can’t damn well remember them! Well, some maybe.

Each night, we pulled out the rather large cheeseboard and pretty much emptied the fridge onto it.  It was surprising how that small fridge just kept on giving back to us.

We purchased our little “girl in bathers” in Bellagio, Italy last year (so important that I add this bit to the story, serving no or little purpose whatsoever other than to say we went to Italy) and she now has a home in our beach house, oh and of course sometimes on the cheeseboard (for that little bit of drama).

Photo | girl in bathers and cheeseboard (cheeseboard from Empire Homewares, Mt Lawley and small bowls by Ecology).  Cheeses are no longer whole after a few nights of being regurgitated time and time again onto that same board.

The cheeseboard became our happy time of day.  Where we sat together around the table, with a drink in hand (and surprisingly mostly sparkling water filled with delicious fresh berries and fruit).  Some of you might argue the toss that a “Claytons Cocktail” cannot possibly be as good as the real thing, and yet it tricked this little brain of mine.

Susie tried to teach us Bridge, which is difficult with only three people (and remember women who are experiencing memory malfunction).  She made it more difficult by creating a fictitious fourth player named “Drongo”. So I found myself playing my hand and the hand of this idiot named Drongo and I am starting to think that maybe Susie had intended the name for me. It was difficult juggling my hand, the hand of Drongo and a fist full of cheese and biscuits.

Not every night was filled with quite so much food (oh…maybe most), however, we did manage to bring out the smaller board on one occasion as the fridge stock tragically started its slow descent into nothingness and was fast becoming depleted of all things delicious.
Photo | a BIG cheeseboard is the next best thing to an Italian long table!

Photo | a small board can work just as well (small blue and white coasters, doubling as small serving plates from Ecology).

I love a great cheese board!  For me, it needs to be packed and is a great excuse to clean out your fridge (remembering to keep it fresh).  It should result in an abundance of glory on the board.  Done well, this can also double as an alternative to a dessert at a dinner party.  You could add a few sweet treat items and fresh fruits to the cheese board, and voila, dessert is done!

A few ideas | homemade rocky road, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, walnuts, pistachio nuts, dark chocolate, dried apricots and how about trying your hand at homemade violet crumble.

Check out my Pinterest boards (Debbie-Ann Scott) for more ideas – photos saved under the board titled “Event Food | Cheese & Fruit”. I have 220 photos that have been pinned to this board alone.  Many an hour has been wasted pinning!

Photo | cheeseboard from Empire Homewares, Mt Lawley

Photo | Tom Dixon cheeseboard

While cheese plays a massive role on a board, it is more than just cheese.  It is about the board, the plating and the other wonderful items which fall onto the board as little bits of heaven.  Imagine your board with just cheese, biscuits and grapes for example. How bland!  Cheese needs to sit alongside rich colours and flavours, anything which is in season.

Photo | a recent backyard party – talk about a massive cheese board!  The fairy lights simply added impact.

Investing in a couple of great cheese boards is an investment well made.  Ideally, three boards are best.  A small one for more intimate grazing, a medium for a dinner party for 8-10 and a massive one for that dinner party when you need to please a much larger crowd. I won’t tell you how many we have!!! They are starting to look a little like my napkin collection.

Photo | cheeseboard by Tom Dixon comes in many shapes and sizes

Photo |farmhouse serveware from the Ecology range.  A gorgeous new (and massive) whitewash cheeseboard just waiting to be filled.

Photo | long-styled boards perfect for grazing platters.

No ordinary butter | Of course, we made our butter!  Nothing beats (and trust me there is a lot of beating and is the reason why every girl should have a sister) homemade butter!

Tip |As a minimum you should have the following 3 kinds of cheese on your board.  Don’t forget the honeycomb!

soft cheese

hard cheese

blue cheese

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