We recently had a friend give us blueberries, another give us peaches, and two more give us raspberries; they know the way to our hearts! So of course we had to put all those things to good use.

At a Glance…

Brown Sugar Blueberry Peach Fritter Cake!

The raspberries went on our waffles and in our cereal, but the peaches and blueberries went into this fantastic Brown Sugar Peach Blueberry Fritter Cake from The Banana Diaries! Fritter cake is such an apt name since it is very moist and not the typical cake texture, which I love. It’s super easy to make gluten free and is outlined as such in the recipe, just using a 1:1 swap. It’s super simple with the cake batter, fruit, and brown sugar-y goo layered together, and then topped with a delightful icing. Don’t be like me though, if you use an 8×8, put a pan under it as it might spill over a tad! All part of the process, haha. This was so good and I’m pretty sure everyone at game night went back for seconds. I want more now.

The Reckoners

The Reckoners is based on Brandon Sanderson’s books by the same name. I think these books were my first introduction to Sanderson, and I’ve been hooked ever since! The plot is that suddenly, some people start having super powers, and of course it’s all the bad guys. So the good guys (Reckoners), the normal ones without superpowers, have to figure out their weaknesses and take them down.

Mechanically, it’s a cooperative, simultaneous dice rolling game. You are moving around Newcago, trying to stop the epics by fighting and researching them, but also more importantly trying to research the biggest baddie of them all- Steelheart. You can’t even start attacking him till you’ve researched him fully. You can also contain their powers, fight enforcers, buy cool gear, and more. This is such a fun one, especially at full player count, since it you can discuss with each other the best way to strategize and take baddies down together. We played this at a game cafe when we first moved here and loved it so much it immediately went on a wishlist. My kind and generous mother went all in for us, and now we have all the lovely things. If you like cooperative games, especially ones that can go up to 6, have some strategy and some dice, and based on a fun IP, check this one out! It’s not talked about enough!

We finished the evening with Cascadia, previously talked about here. What a nice chill way to end the evening! I love a good nature game, and the Landmarks expansion adds an interesting puzzle about getting more scoring conditions but also limiting your options. This game will always make me think of late night evenings coming home cold and wet from canvassing all day in Seattle and wanting to play something, but nothing too long or brain burn-y. This was our go-to.

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].