I get asked about feeding people a lot. It can be daunting if you over analyze, worry and doubt yourself but there’s NO REASON to go down those roads!

Opening your home and welcoming people into your life should be joyful. You should be able to have fun and enjoy yourself and those around you. I’m going to share with you a few tips and tricks I’ve learned over the years to encourage you to try entertaining.

Having guests in your home shouldn’t be stressful. I think maybe we have this idea that people want high-end foods or really extravagant and elaborate dishes, but really what people want is connection and conversation. Probably some laughter thrown in, too, which will naturally flow out with connection and conversation. (Trust me. I’ve been studying this for a long time.)

We are afraid people will judge us for any shortcomings we see in ourselves but they won’t. Surely you’ve already weeded those folks out of your life! (You have, haven’t you?? No one needs that kind of judgment and negativity in their lives.) If we’ve learned nothing else in adulthood surely we’ve learned that we need connection with people who love us, root for us, celebrate with us and walk through good and bad with us. If you don’t have it come and hang out with my friends. They’re awesome!

The point I’m making is that the people you want to and should host in your home aren’t gonna judge you. They’re gonna come in, bring the good wine, sit, laugh, talk and hug on they’re way out the door. They’re gonna be too busy being fabulous with you to look for any shortcomings. (That aren’t there anyway. That’s just you being hard on yourself.)

Okay. So. Here are some tips and tricks:

1. Grab a charcuterie board or two. Some utensils for cutting, slicing and serving. Toothpicks or little tiny forks. Napkins.
2. Make/buy three cheese varieties (1-2 ounces per person). I always have white cheddar pimento cheese on hand plus two more. Barry is really into aged cheddar and smoked Gouda. (If you want to check out the white cheddar pimento cheese recipe it’s in our cookbook that Garden and Gun named as one of their favorites from 2021!)
3. Have a meat or two (1-1.5 ounces per person). I generally put salami, pancetta or sopresatta. Slice them thin (if not already sliced).
4. Grab something with a little twang. Pickled veggies, pickles and/or olives do the trick. (Pickled red onions or radishes are so easy and beautiful as well as delish.)
5. Grab something sweet. Dried or fresh fruit, honey and/or chocolate covered almonds are perfect.
6. Now grab something with a crunch. Crusty bread, crackers, chips and/or fresh veggies work great for this.
7. Almost there! Grab a spread or two. Barry loves mustard (it’s so easy to make and people lose their minds when they find out you’ve made your own mustard). I generally have fig jam in the fridge, too. Marshall loves hummus. Anything will do nicely.
8. Now a little flash. Something to garnish. I always use fresh herbs here (rosemary is always a hit). I also think in the winter cranberries dusted in sugar are beautiful. I use flowers in the spring and summer. There are some beautiful pots of honey on the market that I’ve used on boards just because they’re unique.
9. Okay! Build your board! Use all these ingredients and arrange them together on a board to entice your guests to gather and graze. To sit and stay awhile. To connect through food.

You can see that these steps were super simple. If you don’t want to make a thing you don’t have to! Of course you can whip up all kinds of things from cheese to pickles, hummus, etc, but you don’t have to if you don’t want. I realize not everyone loves to cook. And that’s the great thing here! You don’t have to! You can buy a board, grab some cheese, meats, crackers, fruit and veggies at the store and you’re basically there. There’s no real rhyme or reason to charcuterie boards. You can’t mess it up (unless you drop it on the floor).

I want to encourage you that entertaining - opening your home - isn’t stressful. It’s not hard. It doesn’t have to be formal. You don’t even have to turn your oven or stove on, and if you go to the right grocer you probably don’t even have to use a knife! I hope you see that you can host. You can bring people in and love them well with very little effort. And people connect over and through food.

Entertaining this way can be enjoyable, even stress free. I hope you’ll try it because we all need connection right now. We are craving relationships. So I hope you’ll open your doors and bring your people in.

When you do, please tag us in your pictures! I wanna see all the connection, laughter and fun.

Aliceson