Reviewed by annieb123 on
Big Boards for Families is a fun and plainly written tutorial/entertaining guide with recipes and serving suggestions by Sandy Coughlin. Released 2nd Nov 2021 by Quarto on their Fair Winds Press imprint, it's 176 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats.
The introduction covers the basics of building a board including the board itself (not necessarily wooden), bowls, serving utensils, and food considerations. There are a lot of good tips scattered throughout, such as choosing boards which have a lip/well so food doesn't slide off and create unnecessary mess as well as choosing utensils and food for making boards (including *big* boards).
The board setups are arranged thematically: breakfast & brunch boards, grazing at home, meal boards, and desserts. The highlighted recipes used in the boards are listed right with the boards to which they belong, saving readers searching or bookmarking and having to flip back and forth. Recipe ingredients are listed in a bullet-style sidebar. Measurements are in American standard with most metric measures in parentheses (yay!) followed by step by step instructions. The book doesn't include nutritional information or portion sizes. The recipes are pictured with the finished boards and the pictures are beautifully clear and colorful. Many of the recipes do use pre-packaged ingredients and condiments for convenience.
The dishes and boards here aren't *fancy* but they really *feel* special because of the presentation. I liked everything about this book, from the varied dishes, to the presentation, the clearly written recipes, and the beautiful photography and food styling. Five stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 10 November, 2021: Finished reading
- 10 November, 2021: Reviewed