Are you serving cheese at your Oscars party this weekend? Do you get annoyed when your guests jab their fingers at your lovely cheese board and say, "What's that one? How about that?"
Are you serving cheese at your Oscars party this weekend? Do you get annoyed when your guests jab their fingers at your lovely cheese board and say, "What's that one? How about that?"
Or heck - when you forget what cheeses you put out altogether?
Enter the slate cheese board. You can write little notes in chalk next to your cheeses and wipe them off later when all the cheese is gone.
The board pictured above is $24.95 from KegWorks. Here are a couple more options:

• VivaTerra has a board set that includes two knives and sells for $69.

• Crate & Barrel sells several sizes of slate cheese boards. They range in price from $9.95 to $24.95.
Here are a few of our favorite party cheeses:
• Nostrale di Elva
• Foglie Bergere
• Bartlett Blue
• Tomme de Chevre
I have the C&B one. Any idea how to "sharpen" the chalk? The line is so thick, writing legibly takes up too much room. Maybe i need to look for a chalk pen or somesuch?
view catlike's profile
Why not use the cheese knife to sharpen the chalk?
view CJL's profile
Just rub the chalk on a piece of paper or paper towel... just like you did on the chalk board at school to create a fine point. (same as rubbing a point on crayons)
Or maybe you kids are from the wipe board generation?
as an aside... as a person with a variety of food allergies... little flags announcing major ingredients of any dish are always appreciated!
It can be disasterous to think you're dipping into plain old dip only to find out it's crab dip and you need to head to the hospital!! (those of us who can't have certain foods aren't around them enough to identify by smell or other senses.... just when the throat starts to close!!)
view clickchick's profile
Thanks for the suggestions. I thought of just rubbing the chalk to a point, but I was hoping there might be a better idea, especially since it's going to wear down really fast. There apparently are chalk pen/pencils, but neither Office Depot nor the school supply store had one.
I also have these handy little clips from C&B for attaching signs indicating what food is on the tray:
http://www.crateandbarrel.com/family.aspx?c=1580&f=5229
view catlike's profile