Fun + Festive Halloween Cheeseboard

Halloween is just a week away and every year I love to make as many fun recipes as possible leading up to the holiday! So over the next week, I’m bringing you not one, but two, different takes on festive Halloween snack boards! This board is more along the lines of a traditional cheeseboard with the ingredients although I did make a few unexpected sweet additions! I tried to keep the overall color palette Halloween themed with plenty of pops of orange and lots of dark purple, chocolate, and bits of white. The end product is super bright + playful (not to mention tasty) and so perfect for celebrating Halloween! As always, you can easily customize these boards with your own favorite ingredients, but I’ve gone ahead and listed exactly everything I used in this board for you below. Many of the items are from Trader Joe’s (like the fun ghost potato chips!) which is one of my favorite places to shop for cheeseboards, especially with seasonal ingredients. I’ve also included some tips for arranging your board like a pro so that it looks well balanced and beautiful in addition to being super delicious!

xoxo

Emily

ingredients:

below is a list of exactly everything I used for this board!

mandarin oranges
pretzel thins
blackberries
salami
black grapes
2 types of cheese (orange in color! cheddars + goudas work well)
Trader Joe’s ghosts and bats crispy potato snacks
Trader Joe’s pumpkin cranberry crisps
Trader Joe’s Fall Harvest Salsa
blue corn chips
white chocolate or yogurt pretzels
cheesy/cheddar popcorn
caramel corn
salt and pepper pistachios
Trader Joe’s dark chocolate peanut butter cups
Trader Joe’s dark chocolate covered honey grahams with sea salt
baby carrots
baby bell peppers

for the assembly:

I began by placing my mandarin oranges first, evenly spacing a few clusters throughout the board (you could also used baby pumpkins for this as garnish)!
Next I placed my cheeses, also spacing them far enough away from the oranges since they are all orange. Add a knife or spreader for the cheeses if needed or you can go ahead and cut them up into bite sized pieces and pile them on the board.
I placed the salami right in the center and piled bite sized pieces on top of each other, slightly folded over.
Next I added all my fruit in two big bunches, each near one of the orange colored clusters so the dark color would really pop!
I added my salsa to a small dish with a spoon and placed that next wherever I could find a hole.
From here on out, I just filled holes and small spaces with everything I had left. I added multiple clusters of some items (like the blue corn chips) especially to fill in the edges. You can really customize this portion and feature your favorite ingredients more heavily if you choose! Just pay attention to color and try to balance the board as much as possible!