Our Annual Autumn Charcuterie: A Gathering of Friends

For man, autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering together. For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad. ~Edwin Way Teale

Our Annual Autumn Charcuterie: A Gathering of Friends. Oct. 17, 2022. This weekend we resumed what we had started a couple of years back: our annual Autumn Charcuterie. People from all parts of our lives filled our home and enjoyed a European style charcuterie and cocktails. It was a grand time! And even better, my brother’s family was here for the event having recently moved back from Germany after 20 years. We had old friends and new. And we had lots of chatter! It was great to see groups of people animatedly talking while making frequent trips to the charcuterie board. There were not many leftovers!

Our Annual Autumn Charcuterie

A charcuterie is a lot of fun to put together and enjoy. I highly recommend doing one. My daughter and her friends do them often, so she volunteered right away to help with ours. She loves doing the salami roses.

A German deli that is a longtime institution in our area was the source of German meats and other fun things.

My sister-in-law wondered how I pulled it off. It was her first charcuterie. My philosophy is simple: charcuteries should be simple because the idea is that everything is deconstructed. It is up to your guests to assemble their mini sandwiches, appetizers, etc. I don’t make things such as this goat cheese log with spiced cranberries. There plenty of beautiful already-made foods that will make your job a lot easier. Planning in advance and shopping helps tremendously as well.

I ordered gooseberry and currant preserves. And our niece provided us with freshly made fig preserves.

Whole cheeses, scattered nuts and berries, sliced pears and apples, gourmet grapes- it was a wonderful spread!

There is no right or wrong here. You don’t have to be fancy here. There are some gorgeous charcuteries out there to try with fancy folded meats and cheeseballs, but at the end I look at how much work it is going to involve. Simple presentation is easy and approachable and often looks better.

Our garden still had herbs, so I decorated platters with flowering oregano, sage, rosemary, thyme, and basil. You don’t have to be formal about using herbs for decor. I just laid them in various places such as this handful of late thyme shown above.

And plates of veggies of course! Heirloom tomatoes and baby cucumbers were darling and tasty!

Of course, we had an informal cocktail bar with lovely wines and bar staples for drinks. This French wine, Lillet, that I recently found at Costco is now on my buy list. It is a sweet wine with lovely honey, pear/apple notes. I will definitely be trying their other wines as well!

Have a beautiful day!