Charcuterie

On Christmas Day, everyone is arriving and you are getting the kitchen going and staged for the dinner.  To keep everyone fed and happy until dinner is ready I try to keep the Afternoon Snacks and Appetizers super simple with a Charcuterie Plate, some Cheese Stuffed Dates, and a old family recipe from Sweden for potato dumplings with bacon and onions called KruppKakker (Kruppkakker is a traditional Swedish dish, that in my family we save special for Christmas because a) it’s a lot of work and b) it’s not the healthiest. It's peasant food, and it's delicious. So it gets its own separate post later.)

A Charcuterie Plate  is always a crowd pleaser, and I will select the cheeses based on the what I know my guests like, along with some local cheeses, nice deli meats, local honey and some seasonal fruit like figs. And definitely an assortment of olives – my favorite.