Maegan Brown - Beautiful Boards: 50 Amazing Snack Boards for Any Occasion

50 Amazing Snack Boards for Any Occasion

Maegan Brown

The BakerMama

Text 2019 by Maegan Brown

First published in 2019 by Rock Point, an imprint of The Quarto Group,

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Digital edition: 978-0-76036-637-0
Softcover edition: 978-1-63106-647-4

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019943781

Publisher: Rage Kindelsperger

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Photography: Jerrelle Guy

Cover and Interior Design: Lauren Vajda

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To Brandon,

I love you. Im so lucky to get to do life with you. Thank you for your incredible love and support always. Youre my forever favorite person to share a board and bottle (or two!) of wine with.

To Baker, Bryce, Barrett, and Brookie,

You are my reason. You give me the energy and enthusiasm to live this crazy life to its fullest. Raising you is such a privilege. I hope you always feel my love and know that Im here for you first and foremost.

To my mom and dad,

Thanks to you, I love great food and entertaining. My passion for building boards all started with the wooden lazy Susan we ate from for every meal while I was growing up. You raised me so well, and Im so thankful for that. I love you!

To our dear friends,

Many of these boards were created with and for you. Enjoying them with you brings us the utmost joy. Our home is always open to you. Come on in and gather round, and we will toast to this beautiful life we get to support each other through.

To my dedicated followers,

Thank you for letting me inspire you. I love sharing my creations with you and connecting with you over a shared passion for feeding our loved ones well.

If you board it, they will come! Thats my motto. I strongly believe that serving food on a board truly brings people together in a special way.

I learned early on that food is an important part of our lives, from how we enjoy it to the way it nourishes us. My life has been filled with memories of wonderful meals enjoyed with family and friends. My hope is to fill our home with these same memories and raise a family who appreciates the deliciousness and the joy that food brings us.

When I was growing up, my mom would place all our meals on a wooden lazy Susan in the middle of our dining table. She still has it on her table today! We were encouraged to fill our own plates with a variety of foods and to try new things, even if we thought we wouldnt like them. Doing this made mealtimes exciting, fulfilling, and memorable. My husband, Brandon, and I have adapted the same meal concept in our home now that our kids are old enough to serve and feed themselves.

Were teaching our kids to share and make choices and have a healthy relationship with and appreciation for food. Our kids eat so much better, with little to no complaining, when they can see all their options and have the freedom to fill their own plates. Watching our kids fall in love with fruits and vegetables and spices and get excited about combining different flavors and textures is what its all about.

They all eat salad now because of the that we eat for snack time, dinnertime, or anytime!

Food boards have also proven to be a great way to eat and entertain for us. I think its amazing how something as simple as how we serve our food can have such an impact on how we eat and what we eat. Its a way of serving that gives people options and awareness for what theyre eating.

Our friends and family get so excited when I create a beautiful board for us to enjoy together on a casual Friday night or for a holiday celebration. When we gather around one of these boards, I notice how the experience is much different from sitting down to a more formal plated meal. People are smiling and sharing and trying everything. Theyre talking about the food and where it comes from and how it was made. Theyre truly appreciating the experience.

Assembling boards with foods people will actually eat is very important to me. I stick to my other motto of No fluff, just the good stuff! when it comes to building boards. The foods on the boards I create are tried and tasty. I wont put something on a board just for looks. I dont want people to have to think whether its there to eat or not. I love seeing everyone enjoy whats on the board as well as talking about how delicious it all is to eat.

We love opening our home and providing a place for our loved ones to gather and celebrate a special occasion or just life, and theres almost always a board involved. Whether it is an appetizer board, a dessert board, or the main meal, I truly believe that if you board it, they will come. Big or small, simple or extravagant, its the effort spent preparing it and, more importantly, the time spent enjoying it, that matters most.

Oh, and if you invite us to your house, you better believe Im bringing a board of some sort with me. One of my favorite gestures is to buy a reasonably priced board to build the board on that Im bringing, and then I will leave the board, with a little note taped to the bottom of it, with the hosts as a hosting gift. Its a simple and special way to thank them for having us.

My dream for Beautiful Boards is to encourage you to get in the kitchen and make something memorable for your family and friends to enjoy together. Assembling a board can be overwhelming, but it shouldnt be. Im here to inspire you to build with confidence, knowing that there are no rules when building a great board. Allow yourself to make it easy and fun so that you can relax and be present with your friends and family as everyone digs in to your amazing creation. Anything goes, and just the effort will excite everyone lucky enough to enjoy it with you.