This evening’s game night was strange in a couple ways, but delightful in all the ways! First of all we almost never play the same game twice in the same night. We also rarely play the same game within the span of 6 months or even a year, as we want to keep our games fresh and rotate through them all regularly. However, this particularly game has seen its 6th play in less than 3 weeks! 😱We also usually have game nights on Sundays, but because of various schedules, we moved this one to a Friday. The snack I made was one of my favorites that I’ve made in quite a while; read on for more details and check out the At a Glance tables for links and stats.

At a Glance…

Blueberry Danishes

I was a little worried these danishes from The Banana Diaries were going to turn out slightly disasterously, but they actually received rave reviews, including from me! I was most concerned because 1) I wasn’t entirely sure how thin/thick to roll out the puff pastry 2) I seemed to have way more filling, both jam and cream cheese, and than the little pastries could hold. The filling did indeed spill over, so do put a pan under it. Despite how messy they look, the icing covers up a multitude of failures, and the taste is undeniably amazing. They are extremely reminiscent of toaster strudels from Saturday mornings of my childhood! I’m not sure what, if anything, I’d do differently next time, but there will definitely be a next time! I might even be brave one of these days and try The Banana Diaries’ homemade gf puff pastry! That would be a game changer!

Planted

Planted is such a pleasant game! In it, you’re trying to grow houseplants, decorate, and use tools to help you in your endeavors. You do this by drafting resource cards, tools, or decorations. The resources help you fulfill your plants’ desires, as give you these amazingly chunky bits, especially for the price of the game. You can also choose instead to discard a card in your hand to get another plant to make happy. At the end of each round, you spend your resources and try to grow all your little plants, and then at the end of four rounds you see which plants and decorations have given you points. We played it recently with my 75+ year old parents, who loved it so much they bought their own copy! Then we played it at this game night with a bunch of gamers, who are pros at gaming and mechanisms like drafting, and man, I blinked and the game was over! Whether you’re playing it chill and leisurely, or on high speed mode to get in one more game real quick, either way this game is lovely. Phil Walker-Harding (designer) for the win!

I’ve recently talked about Planet Unknown here. This is the game that keeps making it to our table! First we played with Jon’s sister and brother-in-law, then twice with my family, once at last week’s game night, and twice at this game night. It’s just so simple to teach and play, yet so satisfying! The sci-fi fans will love it, the tile placement fans will love it, the track lovers, well- you get the idea. Someone asked if this was just the base game or it included any expansions. The base game comes with crazy content with tons of maps and corporations that we still haven’t fully explored, so base game only for the moment! The corporations and maps add so much variability, and this game always ends up feeling so satisfying. Check it out!

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].