The Art of the Board: Fun & Fancy Snack Boards, Recipes & Ideas for Entertaining All Year

Charcuterie maven Carney debuts with an inviting take on serving boards, using them as staging tableaux for snacks and full-on meals. She offers extensive instructions for building a board (position cheese before carbs) with bonus “Hopeless Hostess Tips” (such as sourcing mismatched utensils at thrift stores for a quirky tablescape), and labels recipes according to difficulty, budget, and dietary restrictions. The highlight, of course, is the food design, which is inspired by the seasons and showcases ingredients including cured meats, cheese, and seasonal fruit, as well as treats such as chocolate bars and graham crackers, which show up in the cleverly titled “S’more, Please” board. Other delights include cracker-crusted baked mac with Brie or showpiece drinks like an elderflower gin sour. Each board is a dynamic interplay of shapes—from fanning, folding, and twisting ingredients into such decorative edibles as a salami rose, as seen in the “So Very Fondue You” board. With its S-shape ribbon of prosciutto tucked among chunky slices of double-crème Brie, fruit, and honey, the Winery Tour to-Go Box is a gift-worthy display that can be wrapped up. Fuel for “likes” when the inevitable snapshot gets shared, this foolproof guide’s for anyone who wants to play and have fun with their food. (Oct.)