Meats & Madness

Build Your Own March Madness Hosting Platters

When you’re hosting a march madness watch party the last thing you want to do is spend all your time in the kitchen trying to feed all your guests. On the other hand, you don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars ordering enough food for everyone, hoping they pay you back. Thankfully, there is another option that takes very little time and costs significantly less than ordering out – DIY party platters!

With the right ingredients (that don’t require cooking) and strategic plating, a party platter will appear far from simple to guests while being the easiest and prettiest way to keep everyone fed.

Checkout our two favorite party platters that have saved our hosting cred more than a few times.

Charcuterie Board

The key to a good charcuterie board is balance. You want a creamy cheese, a funky blue, and fruits to balance out the heavy meats and cheeses.

Ingredients

• Boursin Cheese
• Stilton Cheese
• Brie
• salami
• prosciutto
• olives
• sliced pears
• dried apricots
• raspberries
• nut mix
• honey
• variety of crackers

Directions

1. Group, layer and arrange each ingredient in piles.

Greek Antipasto Platter

Typically, an antipasto platter is made of heavy thinly sliced Italian deli meats, veggies and mozzarella cheese, but we found that blending Greek and Italian culinary cultures is a guaranteed win.

Ingredients

• goat cheese stuffed sweet cherry peppers
• assorted sliced meats
• marinated artichokes
• roasted red bell peppers
• sun-dried tomatoes
• marinated feta cheese
• marinated olives
• hummus
• fresh fruits + veggies
• fresh pitas, pita chips, and breadstick

Directions

1. Take the sweet cherry peppers and gently stuff them with the goat cheese.
2. Arrange all the ingredients on a large platter or wood cutting board. Drizzle a little olive oil over the hummus. Serve with assorted breads and crackers so people can mix and match their bites.

Marinated Olives

1. Add the olive oil and garlic to a small saucepan and set over medium low heat. Bring the oil to a simmer and then reduce the heat to LOW. Simmer, for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until fragrant.
2. Remove from the heat, stir in olives. Add crushed red pepper to taste. Can be served warm or chilled. Olives can be stored in a glass jar in the fridge for up to 1 week.