Make your Own NYE Grazing Platter Food Spread

This New Years cheese and charcuterie cocktail party food spread is one of the easiest and guest (and host) friendly ways to entertain. A lot of the food prep can be done ahead of time and all you have to do is create a display of the food for people to serve themselves! I talk you through timings and presentation ideas. Make your NYE celebration stress free and spectacular!

By the time Christmas and New Year' rolls around you may just want something easy and simple. But if you're a bit "Type A" like me you still visually eye catching and fun. Enter this NYE cocktail party buffet of charcuterie, cheese, crudites, dips and chips. I am a huge fan of making cheese and charcuterie spreads like this as it is much less stressful than making a traditional meal.

Tips For Making A NYE Cheese and Charcuterie Spread

1 The centrepiece was a 1.5kilo/3.3lb wheel of cheese. Try and cut or slice the cheese up so that it is easy for guests to help themselves. The only exception to cutting is a soft and gooey brie that tends to ooze out.

2 Crudites can be washed and trimmed and blanched the night before and kept in the fridge in containers.

3 I had whole salamis that I sliced the night before and put in containers.

4 Use herbs to fill in patches in the display. Curly parsley is very good for this. Candles also add a nice vibe to things (I used LED candles as we had kids around).

5 The only thing that I made fresh was the Bagna Cauda but honestly you can make this a few days ahead of time where the flavours will meld together nicely. That morning I topped a bowl of sour cream with salmon roe which took 2 minutes.

6 On one side of the display I had the savoury side and on the other side I had "Cookie Corner" which is where all of the Christmas cookies, chocolate and fruit sat. We also had some of the beautiful Italian Christmas cookies from my Dear Reader Matilda!

7 In between the savoury and sweet stations I had a large vase of flowers just to add to the look of the display and give it a bit of colour and height.

8 You can start working on this and putting out the display up to 2 hours ahead of time. If it is hot, put the air conditioning on if you have it. This gives you plenty of time to get dressed in between everything. Even Mr NQN commented that it was the easiest festive season gathering we had ever had!

I actually made this NYE spread for Christmas eve as it was perfectly low key and easy. The Elliotts love picnic and nibbly bits and everyone loves helping themselves to their favourite foods. We had the Elliotts over for Christmas Eve dinner and it was a lot of fun and perhaps one of my favourite Christmases. That's even with the high drama that comes from...missing hummus.

Every Elliott gathering is practically sponsored and fuelled by hummus. Not the tiny tubs, we are talking about the giant 1kg/2.2lb tubs. Sometimes we will have two. In the midst of everyone getting food I turned around and looked as Mr NQN's mother Tuulikki had the fridge and freezer doors wide open staring at it all her mouth aghast.

"What are you doing?" I asked her.

"WHERE IS THE HUMMUS?" she shrieked, absolutely panicked in the same tone as the wicked witch says "I'm melting!" in the Wizard of Oz.

Tuulikki was having a mini meltdown. It turned out that her son Mr NQN's brother Manu, who was on his way, had the hummus and after being reassured that the hummus was on its way she finally relaxed! So once the hummus arrived, everyone was relaxed!

So tell me Dear Reader, do you have any tips on relaxed entertaining?

NYE Grazing Platter

Serves up to 8 people

• 1 bunch Dutch carrots, washed and trimmed
• 200g/7ozs Mini Cucumbers, washed
• 200g/7ozs snow peas, blanched (see below)
• 200g/7ozs green beans, blanched (see below)
• 200g/7ozs cherry tomatoes, washed
• 300g/10.6ozs green olives, drained
• 300g/10.6ozs pitted kalamata olives, drained
• Small truffle brie
• 100g/3.5oz box crackers
• 100g/3.5ozs Vegetable chips
• 100g/3.5ozs Potato Chips
• 1.5 kilo/3.3lb wheel Caerphilly cheese
• 200g/7ozs fennel salami, sliced
• 200g/7ozs spicy salami, sliced
• Dips of your choice (I made bagna cauda and sour cream with salmon roe on top)
• Tray of focaccia, sliced into fingers

Step 1 - To blanch snow peas and green beans, place a pot of water onto boil. Have a large bowl filled with ice cubes and water ready and a pair of tongs. Place half of the snow peas in the simmering water and as soon as the green colour begins to change (under 1 minute) remove with the tongs and plunge into the ice water. Repeat with remaining half of snow peas and then repeat with the green beans. Once cold, you can drain and transfer these to a container in the fridge for the following day.

Step 2 - To present the wheel of hard cheese, slice around the top of the wax and remove the wax top of the cheese. Cut a hatch pattern across the top of the cheese going in around an inch deep. Using the knife cut out chunks of cheese until you get a whole layer of cheese chunks.

2 hours ahead of time: Lay out the olives, crudités and any soft cheeses like brie or camembert. Use air conditioning if it is very hot.

1 hour ahead of time: Place the chips in bowls, open the crackers and make the dips.

15 minutes before guests arrive: put out the charcuterie, dips and sliced bread.