I recently had the joy of going to a Halloween party! I decide to create a fun Jack-o-Lantern inspired charcuterie board, because I truly love a theme. The best part about this recipe-it's completely customizable to what you like!

Supplies

For my Jack-o-Lantern charcuterie board I used orange bell peppers, baby carrots, and gooseberries-found at the local Trader Joe's. Any orange food would work for this like oranges, dried mandarins, cheddar cheese, or even Cheetos. It's completely up to you. I also grabbed blackberries and grapes for the eyes, nose, and smile. You will also need a circular shaped tray-you can generally find these in the party section at Walmart.

Grocery List:

Oranges
Orange Bell Pepper
Baby Carrots (or normal carrots if you'd like to chop them yourself.)
Gooseberries
Dried Mandarins
Cheddar Cheese
Cheetos
Blackberries
Oreos
Purple Grapes
Celery-for the stem

Again, don't feel compelled to buy all of these ingredients just the ones that you like.

Step 1: Cut Up Vegetables

First you're going to slice the bell peppers or other vegetables, fruits, or cheeses into uniform slices. For the bell peppers I would recommend a matchstick cut as shown in the picture. For cheese, cubes works best so I would buy the block of cheddar cheese or the precut cubes if you prefer. :)

Step 2: Assemble Eyes/nose

First you will set out whichever food you decided to use for the eyes and nose. In my case, I used blackberries. I set them on a circular tray first in the closest triangle shape I was able to get, as you can see by my picture it wasn't perfect! It was about having fun.

Step 3: Assemble Smile

For the smile I used Moon Drop Grapes, these grapes were longer shaped than your average purple grape. The average shape of the purple grape is likely ideal for creating that classic Jack-o-Lantern smile but I used what I already had on hand.

Step 4: Fill Pumpkin Shape

For this step, I took baby carrots, my sliced orange bell peppers, and gooseberries to fill the plate. As I've mentioned this is totally customizable to you so I will include pictures that helped inspire my Jack-o-Lantern Charcuterie board. Don't forget to add your stem of choice to the top of your Jack-o-Lantern. I used the stem from my orange bell pepper.

Step 5: Serve and Enjoy!

This Jack-o-Lantern charcuterie board was a huge hit at the party. Everyone enjoyed the cute Jack-o-Lantern just as much as they enjoyed the foods I prepared it with.