A Sweet Holiday Tradition

Every year, since I was about 4 or 5 years old, we’ve decorated gingerbread houses. It started with a tiny graham cracker house in kindergarten and grew through the years to a mid-sized gingerbread chalet and later into a full blown gingerbread manor. My brother Graeme and I were always able to invite friends over to participate, and my mom would assemble the houses and be on standby when we inevitably ran out of icing in the final stretch. It’s a labor of love and I’m so thankful that we’ve been able to keep the tradition going for so many years.

I’m now 36 years old, and having decorated so many houses (31 prior to this year!), I’m finding it harder to get creative and think outside the box with each new year. I was wondering through the aisles of Central Market feeling totally uninspired, when I spotted these beautiful, deep red beet crackers. All of a sudden, the light bulb went off. One of my favorite things to eat, and make, is a charcuterie board, so I thought that would be a fun challenge for a gingerbread house.

I still wanted to keep it sweet whenever possible, so I made chocolate salami to emulate real meat, and found candy-coated almonds that look just like green olives stuffed with pimientos. I used a variety of pretty dried fruits, chilis, nuts, crackers and breadsticks, and fresh rosemary.

It turned out to be very colorful and one of my favorites I’ve ever done! Now I just need to throw a cocktail party so I can use it as a centerpiece to build a real charcuterie board around.