A Crispy, Cheesy, Collage. (of goodness)

I have a passion for cold food; creating beautiful trays with edible goodies, scattered throughout. Piling, stacking, and lining little blocks of cheese like perfectly fallen dominos. It makes me so satisfied.. It’s as if it’s in my blood to make collage platters.  You know that feeling you get when you do something you love.. you don’t have to think about it, stress over it, you do it because you love it. It makes you feel something, then the lightbulb goes off in your head, and you say to yourself “this is what I’m meant to do in my life”.  Thats exactly the feeling when I’m creating art with food; mixed with gorgeous dinning decor & design. 

Ugh, that reminds me.. I can shop dinning and entertainment forever! BUT, thats for another time. 

     Let the collaging, commence!! 

 What you must do is start out with a serving tray! It would be up to you.. whichever style you wanted, how many people are going to be munching & picking, or how many different options you’re going to be serving, to determine how big it will be. Then just line the entire bottom using wax paper. It makes for easy cleanup, and keeps the product off the actual tray itself. I used a 12 by 24 in. “breakfast in bed” serving tray.  It’s easiest to carry, and move around! Perfect for some serious living room munching, a get together with friends, or even just to indulge in yourself with all of your favorite textures and flavors. Speaking of flavors and textures, thats exactly the goal of this collage. This night in particular, was a date night at home, snuggled up in front of a movie. Creamy and crunchy is what came to mind when thinking of what to adorn the platter with. My boyfriend and I both agree; they’re our two favorite things when it comes to snacking. 

Building the tray is easy.. deciding what to build it WITH is the hard part. Luckily, this one might make it easier for you! 

Yes, let me get the cat out of the bag. This IS a crispy and crunchy platter, filled with gooey cheesy deliciousness, but hear me out…Either place sliced apples (which is shown in the picture above) pears, or a bundle of grapes in the center of it all. The fruit really rounds out the salty and spicy flavors that might be going on in your mouth; sort of like a palette cleanser. It gives you a chance to experience a sweet and light flavor while also preparing it for another strong one, differing from the last. If you want to put some zip in your snack, you could also use a naval, or blood orange to give the tray even more color. That would really send your taste buds on a journey.

Now for some real goodies! The crunchy! As crunchy as you can get it! And the cheesy.. as creamy and delightful as they will come!

• For the crunch we have: 

1. Honey roasted sesame sticks.
2. Banana chips
3. Sea salt Wheat crackers (the thin kind) (;
4. Pork Rinds.. crazy I know, but it the best way possible!

Pork Rinds, to me have the most interesting mouth feel. If you’ve never had one, you must! It reminds me as if you’re eating a cheese puff, but so so much better. And porkier lol

• For the cheesy we have:

1. A sweet, yet still tangy, blueberry white cheddar.
2. Cajun cheese curds (which you can get a glimpse of in the top right hand corner)
3. Prosciutto and basil, mozzarella roll (shown in the picture below)

I added a few slices of some good homemade Italian bread to switch up the crunchy bites you’re going to take! Also, who doesn’t just love a good piece of bread and butter. Absolutely  no-one! At least whom I know of, anyway! lol In this case though, were not putting butter on our bread.. unless of course, you wanted to do so. I enjoy very much, to take a chunk of the chewy goodness, lay a piece of the mozzarella on top, and YUM!

Last, but for sure not the least, in the left hand corner I added a few hot salami rounds for a nice fatty zap to finish everything off.

As you can see, making a gorgeous tray with snacks and textures that you love is so simple. Yet, you can still have fun with it, by play around with so many different combinations, and realize that snacking doesn’t always have to mean sitting down with a bag of chips… where half the bag is mostly just air anyway HAHA !

I hope you loved diving into my creative side, for catering to friends, parties, or even just yourself. I’m looking forward to posting SO much more. Be sure to stay tuned for many new summer plates to come, diamonds!          xoxo