Not too long ago, shortly before I began this site, we had a pretty chill pray & play night with a larger group, that quickly shrunk to a smaller group. I paired that with a new to me recipe combining some of my favorite things, mint and chocolate! I recently made this recipe again and was reminded how good it was, so I couldn’t go any longer without talking about it!

At a Glance…

Mint Chocolate Brownie Bars

These bars by Minimalist Baker aren’t the easiest, in some respects. Unless you buy it, it calls for making coconut butter, which I’d never done before. I wasn’t sure if my Ninja could handle that much blending all at once and get it smooth enough, but it did surprisingly well! You start with blending up the typical crust things (dates, nuts, cocoa powder), then make the coconut butter and add cashew butter, peppermint, and whatever you can to make it green. Top it with a very rich ganache topping and voila! The first time I made these, they solidified quite nicely into bars. The second time, they were a bit gooier, but still equally delicious and rich! A great treat when you don’t want to warm up the oven or wait too long for something to freeze.

Switch & Signal

Switch & Signal is a logistical, pick up and deliver, cooperative train game. Not many of those out there! This unique game bypasses many of the typical mechanisms of cooperative games. In it, you are trying to transport little cubed goods to different cities using fast, medium, and slow trains without them running into each other or into blocked intersections. You do that by playing your cards to change the switches and signals, and move the trains. Event cards help you a bit, and are also your game timer. It’s a fairly straight forward and approachable one, that can sometimes feel a bit lucky, but overall takes some good planning. It’s a unique one you should check out!

I’ve previously talked about Welcome To…here. You’ll see it pop up many times in our game nights since it’s so well loved in our household and can play so many players. I love all the variety of the maps, and try to play them once a year in their respective seasons. We just played the print-and-play duck scenario with my family that the company made during COVID. This was actually the game we played at our first game night in our first (and current) home we purchased! Seemed appropriate.

Want to buy these games? Check out your friendly local game store (FLGS), Amazon [here], or get a first-order discount at Board Game bliss [here].