While you generally won’t find me going out to a fancy restaurant for a pre fixe dinner on Valentine’s Day, I still like to mark the occasion in some way at home.

Sometimes I’ll make a special Valentine’s Day dinner of lasagna cottage cheese or my crab-stuffed salmon recipe but other years, it’s just easy Valentine’s dessert shooters after a takeout pizza.

And sometimes I’ll just feel like snacking with fun charcuterie board ideas and following it up with some chocolate creme brulee.

You all know I love an epic snack board, as I’ve already shared everything from my wine and cheese board to a spooky Halloween charcuterie board to a fall-themed Thanksgiving charcuterie board.

Whether you’re hosting a Galentine’s party for the girls, or having a cozy night in with your sweetie, why not put together a Valentine’s Day snack platter of your own this year? I’ll explain it all, including the best way to make heart shaped food, below.

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More and more lately, I’ve been gravitating towards incredibly simple appetizers on restaurant menus. There’s this Spanish tapas place in Detroit that I love, and one of my favorite dishes there is a simple bowl of warmed, roasted olives.

It’s certainly not the flashiest appetizer on the menu, but I know that it will be delicious and satisfying each and every time. It goes to show that when you start with simple, high-quality ingredients, you don’t need to do much to them.

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So lately, it’s become apparent that expanding my list of charcuterie ideas is something of a hobby / passion project for me.

If I have a week where I don’t have much client work going on, my grocery cart is subconsciously navigated to the cheese counter of my store.

Before I know it, I’m brainstorming a breakfast charcuterie board or smoked salmon platter, or even a charcuterie chalet.

They’re so much fun to put together, they’re beautiful to photograph, and let’s face it: eating a big ol’ platter of cheese and goodies for dinner isn’t the worst thing.

So today, we’ve got a Winter Cheese Board with German Beer Cheese Fondue to talk about. Here’s what we have going on:

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Let me just tell you about the greatest sandwich in all the world. It’s at this little deli in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Just kidding – it’s not little.

It’s world famous, and if you’re familiar with Ann Arbor, you know which deli I’m talking about. Anyway, they have this sandwich. It’s a relatively new addition to the menu and it basically makes my taste buds do a ridiculous happy dance.

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Anybody that knows my husband and I knows that we love beer. Our favorite restaurant (a short walk from our house) is really a beer bar that happens to have great food.

Jeff brews his own beer, and is always seeking out new beers to buy and try. We have a fridge in the garage just for beer. That love of beer has inspired this Cheese Board for Beer.

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In this monthly series, I commit to cooking whatever is on the cover of Bon Appetit, Saveur or maybe some other food magazine. There’s a reason these particular dishes are on the cover – they’re usually the best recipes in the magazine.

I guess you could say I cooked the Grandma pizza from the cover of Bon Appetit’s October 2014 issue, if you’re willing to overlook the facts that I didn’t make my own sauce, got lazy and didn’t make homemade crust (even though I know how to now, especially for Detroit style pizza), forgot to buy fresh mozzarella and just used the cheap stuff, and only used one type of soppressata.

I mean, sometimes life just happens. Also, many of Bon Appetit’s recipes are simply too complicated for me. And I’m willing to guess that if they’re too complicated for somebody who spends half her day in the kitchen, then they’re probably too complicated for the average Joe. Regardless, the combination of soppressata and fennel on this Grandma pizza was a winner.

Speaking of The Average Joe, I noticed while I was in Italy that there were A LOT of guys named Fabio around. Most of them were just totally average looking. So, I’m thinking that in Italy, The Average Joe = The Average Fabio?

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