Spring Appetizer Board with Pearls® Specialties

With spring celebrations and holidays coming up quick (Easter is right around the corner!), it’s time to start thinking about deciding what food to either put out for guests or bring to a gathering.

For some of us, this is a total breeze and we love cooking and prepping food for a bunch of people. For others, it’s practically a nightmare to have to step foot into a store, decide what to buy, think of what to make, and how to present it. In fact, it’s a source of anxiety for a lot of us, even those who love to entertain and have people over often.

When you have the right tools and a good plan, you can come up with an amazing spread of food where it looks like you spent so much time putting everything together, but in reality only spent a fraction of the time an energy everyone thinks you did.

It’s all about working smart, not working hard, right?!

The appetizer board you see pictured is the result of good planning. I put together this board for a small gathering and wanted to make sure it was adorned with fresh, colorful vegetables and fruits as well as classic cheeseboard items like bread, charcuterie, cheese, and olives.

Since it’s (almost) spring, it felt right to start bringing out more fresh vegetables and less comfort items like heavy cheese and bread, so that’s what I was thinking of when I put everything on the board.

As you might have guessed, the appetizer board was a hit and everyone absolutely devoured the olives!

These are not your everyday canned olives–no, no no. No one could stop reaching for these Pearls® Specialties.

What’s so special about them, you say? Well they’re jalapeño stuffed olives.

These Pearls® Specialties are hand-picked and hand-stuffed with spicy, pickled jalapeño, and then carefully placed into jars. Because they put so much care into these olives, it’s easy to see how the flavor and quality of the olives stand out compared to other brands.

If Stuffed Jalapeño isn’t your style, don’t fret–you can try out Garlic Stuffed, Martini with Vermouth, Blue Cheese Stuffed, or other classics like Pitted Kalamata, Pitted Medley, and Sliced Kalamata.

They say Life is Better With Pearls® and I believe it! I want to try all of them.

You can find Pearls® Specialties on the shelves of your local grocery store or purchase them from Amazon which is super convenient!

And remember–you don’t have to just enjoy Pearls® Specialties on their own. You could always add them to a salad, bake them into a quiche, put some into your favorite pasta dish, or serve them up with your favorite drink.

Putting together this board of fruit, vegetables, cured meats, and nuts together was so much easier than it looks. I know it looks like I spent time at the grocery store, carefully deciding which items to arrange on an appetizer board, but it’s so far from the truth that I can’t keep that from you!

Here’s how I did it:

This simple arrangement just required a visit to the fresh-prepped food section in the produce area of the grocery store. By the baby carrots and other fresh “snack packs” were plastic boxes of cheese cut into blocks, cherry tomatoes, grapes, cucumbers, almonds, sweet peas, and more. Basically, anything you would put on a vegetable platter could have been found in those square plastic boxes.

Then I went to one of the deli meat areas of the store and picked up two of my favorite salamis! I personally feel like salami always deserves a place as an appetizer, but that’s just because I love it so much.

Finally, I rounded the corner to the bakery and picked up a small loaf of bread with seeds and garlic baked into the top.

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That’s it! Then, I was on my merry way home. It took maybe 15 minutes to get everything I needed.

I can’t wait to put together another board like this for the next gathering I have or attend as a guest!

I’ll definitely be trying out the other varieties of Pearls® Specialties!

Which flavor would you want to try? I’m thinking of trying the Garlic Stuffed olives next!