Happy (belated) First Contact Day! As a Trekkie since birth and for life, (my mom actually went into labor with my older brother while watching The Next Generation), I always up for an excuse to celebrate anything Star Trek related. The food was a bit tricky to figure, as I had a celiac attending, as well as someone allergic to peanuts and not currently eating any refined sugar. And someone who can’t do cinnamon. Time to scour the internet for fresh recipe ideas!

At a Glance…

The Muffins

I decided to go with these blueberry muffins from My Darling Vegan because 1) they did not require me to go to the stores 🤭(I always have frozen blueberries on hand), and were easily made or modified to fit all the dietary needs attending that night.

I had never tried soaking oats before to make a baked good fluffier, but it did seem to make a difference as the muffins turned out nice and fluffy! I swapped out the regular flour for my all purpose Cloud 9 gf blend that I get from Costco and it worked well! No weird texture or taste. I love that the recipe called for hemp hearts to get more protein into them! I left off the cinnamon for my MCAS friend. Honestly, I have mixed feelings about these muffins. Pros: they were easy to make, easily adaptable to various needs, and low sugar for those who like that kinda thing. Cons: they needed something…perhaps more sugar? haha. Or maybe some lemon juice and lemon zest? I know I left off the cinnamon, but I think if it had been there it still needed a bit more something. Worth trying again for sure, and they got gobbled up!

The Missions

We began with a game of Picture Perfect, including the 5-6 player expansion and the Movie Star expansion. It’s such a unique game! There’s bidding, memory, auction, deduction, and more, all with a great table presence and fun photo finish. I’m glad we hvae the 5-6 player expansion, but it can get a tad long, so you might pick and choose your event cards carefully to mitigate that. In the game, you’re trying to place people at a dinner table for a family photo, but everyone has different wants and needs of where they want to be in the picture to make them happy. On a turn, you’ll draw an event card that tells you how to see more envelopes of people’s desires, like an auction, or passing them, etc. Then you look in the envelopes you have and place your people, and hope by the end of the game everyone is happy! It’s not one I want to play all the time, but it’s a fun one every once in a while.

Then on to the main event- Star Trek! Time to save the Enterprise from destruction! This is a cooperative, ‘tower defense’ kinda game where bad guys are coming at you (Romulans, Klingons, etc.) and you have to defend the ship, all while trying to complete classic missions from episodes of the original series. On your turn, you’ll draw cards, trade cards, play them to defend against attacks or complete the mission, and then the bad guys move and attack. It’s so fun to play as the characters from the show, laugh about the cheesy story lines and special effects, all while your ship goes up in flames. But, we did win our missions! If your a fellow Trekkie, I highly recommend Star Trek Panic!

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

Or find Picture Perfect on Amazon.com here.