It’s not unusual for Heidi and I to blog about the same topic (see her previous blog about making cheese) but we usually do it in a very different way. Here's mine on cheese.

Cheese trays are really one of the quickest appetizers you can make and they cost much less if you make them yourself. Last week, my coworker, Jann and I made a couple of large cheese trays for a retirement paraty. We put six different cheeses on two  slate trays from Crate and Barrel and then added some grapes, dried apricots, two kinds of almonds, rust colored roses and some lemon leaves.

To make each tray look more interesting, we left a couple of the cheeses whole or in big pieces (the blue and triple cream Brie) and then cut some into cubes, sticks and slices. Also think about color: from white to yellow and orange. Aren't the slices of the wine Cheddar beautiful?!

The cheeses we used were: St. Pete’s Select Blue, Carr Valley Cheddar, Cahill Port Elderberry Wine Cheddar, Jarlsberg, Manchego and a triple cream Brie. Next to the platters we filled baskets with crackers sliced breads.