In my family, we have this absolutely wonderful, yet crazy time of year from March until June when it seems like we have an excuse to celebrate something nearly every weekend. It starts at the end of March with my younger brother’s birthday, then we celebrate my sister and dad in April, my birthday comes in early May right before (and sometimes on) Mother’s Day, my older brother comes in June right before Father’s Day and my parent’s wedding anniversary at the end of the month- phew! We have lots of special traditions and celebrations that we get to enjoy during this time of year and it’s always such a great time of year for us- and it always means a TON of parties and entertaning for a few months.

This year, I’ve discovered that one of the best ways to throw a super causal and really fun get together is to keep it simple and stick with a charcuterie spread! My parents threw a surprise get together for me when I graduated in April (another celebration and yes, I was 100% surprised!) and as neither of them loves to cook like I do, they simply assembled a giant, and gorgeous charcuterie board across their entire kitchen island and this has been our go-to all season long. My older brother loved it so much, he requested that we re-create it for his birthday celebration a few weeks later.

We went to our favorite grocery store and simply selected meats, cheeses, fruits, nuts, chips, crackers and some sweet items that looked interesting and paired well together and arranged them across the counter. For our “boards” we used leftover flooring tiles that weren’t used in my parents bathroom a few years ago- seriously! We also have a few green slate tiles left over from the kitchen floor that also totally work. It gives the same look and feel as one of those huge wooden cutting boards, but we didn’t have one so we improvised!

When arranging a great charcuterie board, you want to make sure you get a good variety of items; something salty, spicy, creamy, crunchy- hit all those flavor notes! Add something fresh and green to the spread (I used basil leaves arranged alongside bright orange clementines) to make it extra pretty.

What makes this fun is instead of spending days preparing a sit-down meal, all you have to do is assemble, and people can wander around and chat while they eat as much or as little as they want of all of the offerings. It’s a very fun and casual feel and saves tons of dishes! We also had some cocktail plates and napkins that went with our color scheme so people could stack up a plate and move to chat with other guests.

We’ve thrown a “charcuterie party” at least three times this season and I can’t say if we’ll ever stop- it really does make for the perfect laid-back summer get-tother when it’s too hot to cook and you’d rather spend time with your family and friends than your dishwasher. It’s foolproof. Give it a try!