Celebrate at Home: Charcuterie & Dessert Bar Tutorial!

June 15, 2020April 13, 2021 0 Comments

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This post is sponsored by BJ’s Wholesale. All thoughts are my own.

It’s no secret that the past few months have been different! Finding ways to make the regular routines of daily life more fun and exciting for the family has been interesting! One way we’ve incorporated this fun is letting the kids help with making dinner. I’ve found that when they get to participate in the preparation and cooking, they end up eating more because they enjoy the fruits of their own labor! Since I recently celebrated my 35th birthday in quarantine, I wanted to think of a fun dinner idea that we could do at home that would still feel like a party! One of my favorite “meals” is to put together a charcuterie board and let everyone serve themselves! This is a special occasion activity we have done during holidays, so it was the perfect way to do dinner at home in a fun way for my birthday!

I decided to mix things up a bit and we moved the table into the living room to the couch to enjoy lunch with a movie. Instead of spending time in the kitchen, we spent time around the table enjoying yummy food and a movie during our at-home dinner theater!

I got most of the items from BJ’s Wholesale Club that were not only perfect for our spread, but took a lot of the prep work out! They have an amazing selection of meats, cheeses, and snacks! Many of the items can come pre-sliced so you just have to arrange them on your board and it’s ready in minutes! This is definitely something I’ll keep in mind for future group events to make the prep work much easier!

We enjoyed some of our favorites from Wellsley Farms and other brands BJ’s carries. The family-sized items at BJ’s mean you can lay out the perfect spread and have plenty left over to enjoy throughout the week–no more cooking! Just good snacking fun!

Here’s the full spread!

Meat & Cheeses:

For the meat, I chose the Artisan Collection of meats which included a variety of salami precut, fresh pepperoni from Bridgford, and more! For the cheese, I chose pre-sliced cheeses and goat cheese spread from Wellsley Farms, blocks of cheese that we cut up, and Muenster Cheese from Green Bay Cheese. These were so yummy!

Dips:

I selected a Ranch dip (the kids favorite), Tzatziki, and Spinach dip from Wellsley Farms (my favorite). BJ’s Wholesale has SO many dips to choose from!

Chips and Crackers:

I went with a combination of savory and sweet: Veggie Straws, Popcorners, Club Crackers, and a new plant-based chip that I haven’t tried called Cauliflower tortilla chips made by From the Ground Up (by the way, these are my new favorite! SO yummy!).

Appetizers:

We chose a variety of easy finger appetizers including Bagel Bites, Taquitoes, Egg Rolls, and bite-sized pastry bites!

Veggies:

A simple tray of fresh broccoli, peppers, and cucumber added a nice colorful touch to the spread and paired perfectly with the Ranch dip. We also had a bowl of baby carrots.

Extras:

A few little extras like artichoke hearts and pickles (both pictured above) added the perfect savory flavors.

What do you think of our spread?

This was SO much fun to put together and even more fun to eat! I love how everything turned out and how easy it was to grab the items from BJ’s Wholesale and style it all together with boards and serving trays to make a fun little party at home!

Dessert Bar:

Our mini dessert bar featured kid-friendly favorites like fresh fruit and Bauducco wafer cookies, churro bites, fruit dip topped with sprinkles and Nutella! I found the BEST strawberries at BJ’s that were HUGE and SO yummy!

Make it a Party!

I had some leftover party cups we filled with colorful watermelon juice and soda. We had so much fun watching a movie while we ate. It was a big deal for the kids to eat in the living room since I usually don’t allow that, so it made for one of those fun experiences that I hope they’ll always remember! I can’t wait to do it again!

Customer Experience and Safety Updates:

I love the convenience of shopping at BJ’s for bulk items! Items are the perfect size for families and in many cases, you also save money! It’s great to get everything in one stop and they’ve made the current shopping process a great experience with customers. They offer same day delivery to select zip codes as well as an Instacart option for customers who prefer to stay at home. In store you can expect the following: All employees are wearing masks. Carts are pre-sanitized for customers. Hand Sanitizer is available at the entry. The floors in the customer service area are marked for social distancing spacing. The customer service area, each checkout, and the receipt checking area are all fitted with clear plastic shields to protect employees and customers from germs. This was my first time out shopping since this all started with the exception of a one time pick-up trip to another store, and I felt very safe throughout my experience. It also gives me peace of mind to know I got many necessary items in bulk that will save extra trips to the store for a couple weeks!