Easy entertaining with elegant cheese

Make this year’s celebrations memorable! With the holidays approaching, Crosby Jack, associate team leader of Whole Foods Market Greenville, offers simple tips to entertaining with sumptuous cheeses.

Wensleydale: This British sweet, creamy cheese comes in fruity varieties. “If you put it on a graham cracker, it tastes like a pie,” Jack said.

Truffle gouda: Gouda is always popular, and truffles feel extravagant. Plus, cheeses with flecks look more appealing, Jack said.

Fig and nut baked brie: Skip the store-bought brie in pastry and impress your guests with your easy, homemade baked version. Jack suggests buying a round of brie, slathering with fig spread and sprinkling with almonds or pistachios, then warming them in the oven.

Harbison by Jasper Hill Creamery: This unique, cave-aged, soft cheese wrapped in spruce bark provides fun presentation. At room temperature, the cheese becomes a spoonable consistency in a bark bowl.

What about the crackers? Jack says skip the buttery kind because too much oil detracts from the cheese. Herbed crackers complement cheese flavors.