words by Laura Hughes

As we begin to head into the colder months of late-autumn and winter, evening barbeques, weekends in pub gardens, and ÔÇÿpicky-bitsÔÇÖ dinners slowly become obsolete. The darkness and drop in temperature as nights draw-in earlier encourage us to bustle back home after uni, bypassing the coffee shops where weÔÇÖd meet our friends for a post-lecture coffee back in May. The upside to such a gloomy change in seasons, however, is undoubtedly the bright glistening lights of the Cardiff Christmas markets and their Baileys hot chocolates, which leave the streets all astir with festivity. 

Therefore, itÔÇÖs expected that our social lives will experience a little bit of a droop in the winter, when itÔÇÖs much more tempting to sit in front of the telly with a blanket and a cup of tea than leave the house. However, itÔÇÖs more than attainable to get the best of both worlds in these scenarios. Why not opt for a cosy night-in with friends rather than a freezing cold night-out?

WeÔÇÖre so lucky to have so many choices when it comes to takeaways as students in Cardiff with access to food delivery services. Although house-wide burger nights watching Love Actually are super enjoyable, there are certainly cheaper ways to socialise indoors with friends and good food. 

Recently, grazing board trends have been soaring over social media, with different themes and designs to each one. IÔÇÖm partial to a cheeky cheeseboard every now and then, and after years of working in hotel hospitality, IÔÇÖm confident in putting together a fantastic selection of cheeses. The advice I was always given by chefs was to ensure that every singular item on the board has at least one other component to enjoy it with. For example, you canÔÇÖt just load up a board with six different types of cheddar, instead, try out different fruits and chutneys; as well as biscuits and crackers, and even bara brith if you wanted to put a bit of a Welsh spin to your board. 

Over the Christmas holidays last year, a couple of friends and I organised a charcuterie board night, where we each contributed our own special board with a themed twist on it. I put together a sushi board with several mini rolls and cuts of fish, gyozas and bao buns on the side, and little pots of soy sauce and sriracha to dip in. 

One of my friends brought a ÔÇÿBritish boardÔÇÖ that really went down a treat. That included potato smileys, sausage rolls, pork pies, chicken nuggets. and onion rings, with appropriately-sized condiment pots of ketchup and BBQ sauce for dipping. Despite the success of these, and the other savoury boards that were assembled, the dessert board was infinitely the most triumphant. It contained a myriad of little sweet treats like popcorn and brownies with a mini chocolate fountain and fruits on cocktail sticks to accompany it. 

Another novel social media phenomenon seems to be the trend of the butter board. People are choosing to combine butter with various different other ingredients in order to enhance the flavour and make it spreadable. The artistic ways that some of these boards are presented are absolutely beguiling: a number of different butters are messily spread on a board decorated with sundry edible flowers and fruits cut up in endearing little shapes. These are accompanied with artisan breads and pastries, and can be paired with different wines in order to embellish the experience of the butter board as much as possible. Sounds like something IÔÇÖd try, for sure!┬á

Although pictures showing how these grazing boards are plated up and served can make them appear a little on the expensive side, a lot of the contents of the boards can be found in budget supermarkets at affordable prices. This is especially true in the case of the butter board because, as I understand it, all you do is heat up a bit of butter, combine it with garlic, beef dripping, or any other component, let it cool, and serve up. 

Lidl bakery is perfect for any pastry accompaniments for your boards, too, and the wine selection in Aldi could make an ideal pairing for real gourmet-looking charcuterie. 

So, although our days are getting shorter and seeming a bit more miserable, we can still make the most of our evenings. From my perspective, watching a Christmas film with a grazing board and a glass of wine could actually be improved with torrential rain or a thunderstorm outside ÔÇô it just adds to the cosiness!