I’ve got many years of hosting behind me, so I thought some classic #ThrowbackThursday would be in order! They may not have all the photographic documentation I would like, but it’s still fun to look back at years past and see what worked well and what could have been improved. Back in January 2024, we hosted one of our very first soup & games nights in our new home here in Alberta!

At a Glance…

Dinner

It was time for our monthly soup & games night, so we had one of my favorites, Happy Herbivore’s Tortilla Soup! I love how easy it is to come together, and still has amazing flavor. To keep it gluten free, make sure to get certified gluten-free tortillas and use liquid aminos instead of soy sauce. I often like to add some Fri-Chick or other kind of chicken substitute to give it a little more substance and protein.

For the salad, I chose another classic of ours, a Pear & Candied Pecan Salad from Two Healthy Kitchens. I’m a sucker for sweet salads, so these candied pecans are right up my alley, and so easy to do! Pears can be a bit finicky, so you could swap it for strawberries and it’d be fantastic too. Obviously we don’t do goat cheese anymore, but use whatever kind of soft vegan cheese substitute we can find, like these feta crumbles. Honestly, this has been my go-to salad for years whenever I’m hosting; it’s that delicious and simple.

The cookie recipe is also from before my vegan days, but it is easily made vegan! I just substitute the eggs with flax eggs (3T water mixed with 1T flax, let it sit= 1 egg). Obviously also use vegan butter instead of regular 🙂 I’ll be honest, I’m not a fan of white chocolate chips, and I’m a little bit lazy and pressed for time when cooking, so I don’t think I’ve ever done the white chocolate drizzle the recipe calls for, but knock yourself out! They’re amazingly tasty even without it, but I’m sure more chocolate could be even better. These cookies are so good and often requested by my husband around his birthday. Feel free to make them without the instant coffee or use decaf if you’re worried about late night cookie snacking keeping you up at night.

Games

With a larger group, it was time for some larger games! We hit several of our 7 player favs, ranging slightly in complexity but all very approachable and well-received.

Just One is a modern classic party game that never fails. If you’ve never tried it, ,you really should. It’s great for church game nights, family get-togethers, and large groups of gamers. It’s a simple cooperative game where the ‘it’ person chooses a number 1-5 from a card they draw that they don’t see. Everyone else sees the word that number corresponds to, and is trying to get the ‘it’ person to guess it. They each write just one word on their white boards and the ‘it’ person has just one guess to figure it out. Hence the name of the game. The catch is, before the ‘it’ person can see the clues, the clue givers must secretly compare them, and any duplicates cannot be used. So simple, but so fun.

Bohnanza is ridiculous. How many times can you say the word ‘bean’ in a game? You’re about to find out when you play this silly game of bean farming and trading. You have a hand of cards with crazy artwork of various beans that you cannot reorder. On your turn, you must play the first one, and can play the second one to your fields in front of you. Then you draw two cards from the deck and can either keep them and plant them or try to trade them and any other cards in your hand away. Each type of bean has a certain number it needs to get points, so you’re constantly trying to get to that next level of scoring before you have to uproot your field and plant something else. It’s not something I want to play all the time, but it’s got a certain kind of ridiculous charm.

Between Two Cities is so unique and satisfying! It’s not cooperative, but it feels like it is right up until the end. You are literally sitting between two cities, building one with the person on your left and one with the person on your right. You do this by drafting tiles of parts to the city, trying to score for sets of shops, homes, restaurants, etc. You talk with your partners about what your cities need and how best to build it, but at the end of the game, the person with the best worst city wins! This is such a great way for those just getting into gaming, because you can sit them in between people who know a bit more about the strategy so they don’t feel completely lost. We don’t always pull it out, but I do enjoy the Cities expansion for adding some extra scoring opportunities and beautiful landmarks to build around. PS- There’s also a standalone meatier version called Between Two Castles, which combines the theme of another favorite of mine (Castles of Mad King Ludwig) with the mechanisms of Between Two Cities. Check it out!

Overall, this was a great way to kick off our community here in Canada and has been followed by many a great game night since!

Want to buy these games? Check out your FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store) or Board Game Bliss using my referral!

Or get them on Amazon.com or Amazon.ca! (Just One- US Link, Canada Link, Bohnanza US Link)