So part of the advantage of this hibernation-vacation-unemployment is an abundance of free time. Under normal circumstances, this would be enough to drive anyone mad, and if you are being driven mad in your lockdown or hibernation or whatever situation you may find yourselves in, I highly recommend watching this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snAhsXyO3Ck it’s helpful, and stresses the importance of structure, activity, and productivity when your time becomes nigh infinite and your space a tad bit more limited. The hardest part for me has been exercising more, but I am finding ways to expand my activity.
On the flip side, general productivity both for work (there’s always things to prep and study for the wine world) and my side projects have been on the rise! I’m trying new cooking things, reading a lot more (mostly wine books, part of a New Year’s resolution to try and refocus on the industry that’s suffering so), and editing a ton. I haven’t actually written a great deal in 2021 so far, between my monthly short stories (still for free here), successful NaNo attempt, and finished of Freedom and Control’s last first drafts, the early portion of this year is being spent on catching and tidying up.
All of this has been fueled by an increase consumption of cheese boards.
Is that healthy? Probably not. I mean cheese had nutrients of a kind, right? They can be made kind of healthy but like… why? It’s fuel, it’s not health food. I’m cooking generally healthier (…generally), and my activity’s up, so why not treat myself with cheese? Cheese is wonderful! Cheese boards even more so. Sometimes that means wine on the side. On sober days it means mocktails or iced tea (or regular tea. Tea’s also great.) But I’ve honestly defaulted to prepping a cheese board almost every other day in the early afternoon.
Cheese boards have a few massive advantages when it comes to snacking, though. The first is their variability, whatever cheeses and various other things (accoutrements, a fun word) go on the board, the more amazing it will be! Second is their sheer versatility. Need to slowly edit pages for hours? Cheese board’s got your back. Reading through a book on champagne? Cheese goes good with champagne. Watching binge worthy TV shows in your scheduled downtime? Better snack of something, so why not cheese? Third is cheese. Just cheese. That’s reason enough.
Normally for an at home cheese board, if I’m not entertaining, the focus is on a single cheese and surrounding accoutrements. There’s a fun place for experimenting to see what goes with what, depending on the cheese and depending on the accoutrements. I like that word. Anyway. There’s a bit of a formula I’ve fallen into, but enjoy as a result, and feel like I’ll share. May this inspire your own cheese boards!
· Cheese- A cheese. ONE cheese. There’s a whole formula for making cheese boards where they need to have a soft, a goat, a hard, a semihard, and a blue. That’s all well and good for when you’re entertaining, but this cheese board is for you. Get a cheese you like, get it in a portion you can handle, and run wild. Doesn’t have to be fancy, but make sure you enjoy it alone, so it can be more fun to mix the other things! Important step- leave it out for half an hour to an hour before you actually will begin eating the board. Tempered cheese is a must.
· Bread- Crusty bread. A baguette preferably. Texture’s important here for cheese, so make sure the bread has at least some crust, but that it’s not hard the whole way through. This is essential.
· Crackers- Same reason, texture, and have fun with this! Plain crackers are great, sure, but why not herb-y ones, or salty ones, or buttery ones? Some cheese work better with bread, some work better with crackers, but keep both on hand either way. You won’t know until you try. There’s a lot of crackers out there, so go wild.
· Dried Fruit- An important imparter of sweetness, and excuse to say this thing is healthy, and more shelf-stable than regular fruit. If there’s a regular fruit you like and have on hand, use that, don’t listen to me, sometimes I do it too. I like dried fruit’s more concentrated flavors and it’s usually already portioned.
· Jam- Cheese and fruity things are delicious, we’ve established this. I try to broadly pair like-with-like on dried fruit and jam selection, especially depending on what I’m drinking (or not) with the board. Like orange marmalade and dried apricots, or red currant jam and dried cranberries. Go for color similarities.
· Nuts- Crunch, salt, nuttiness. What else do you need? My favorite’s almonds but you do you.
· Honey- Also sweet, also healthy, and just that extra little bit of interesting flavor. There’s fancy honeys, too, so explore this category a lot.
From there it’s up to you! Mix it up. Drizzle some honey, toss on a piece of dried apricot, stick it all on a cracker. The cheese on its own? Great! With some jam on bread? Wonderful! Just the bread and honey with a couple almonds? Why not? Sips of whatever your drinking with every one of your combinations? The world’s your cheese board.
That joke lands, right?
Honorable Mention Additions:
· Charcuterie- Maybe you want to make this cheese board more of a meal. Add some salami, prosciutto, or something! It’s a fine addition. I recommend adding mustard if you’re adding meat though. Trust me.
· Olives- Same(ish) category as nuts for me, unless you feel strongly about olives. I do, and therefore usually leave them off.
· Pickles- More in demand if there’s a meat element, but like little cornichons are a welcome pop of acidity through a cheese board experience.
· Chocolate- High-quality chocolate, not a Hershey bar. Actually pretty good with cheese, but also a surprise treat for when all the other ostensibly healthy things run low.