Game Night
Okay, admit it, everyone loves game night. The easiest party to throw together is simply invite your family around the dinner table and pull out a deck of cards, board game, dominoes, whatever. My current favorite is Ticket to Ride, but I have played it so often that even my kids wouldn’t play it again with me during the most recent Christmas holiday. Oh well, we shared a rousing game of Mexican Train instead.
If family isn’t readily available, you are still just a few phone calls/texts away from hosting a great game night. No formal invitations needed. No decorations to put up and take down. No costumes to dawn. Easy peezy, lemon sqeeezy.
I am a huge game fanatic. Not surprisingly, I was raised in a home that played games and put together puzzles. I remember one summer playing a game of Monopoly that lasted three days. I believe I went bankrupt during day one, being the youngest and most inexperienced. But my sister Stacy and her friend Camille duked it out another day or so.
Favorite game memory: I was playing my Uncle Bob in a game of Master Mind. My dad bet his brother that I could break his code in four or less turns. Uncle Bob took that bet. My dad won big time as I completed the code in two rounds.
The only catch on game night is what to serve. Don’t you hate it when your guests munch down on a handful of salty chips or a slice of greasy pizza then grab a napkin or worse yet, lick their fingers, just before picking up the communal dice or handling the cards? A second really ugly scenario is having food that requires forks, knifes and spoons. They are pretty cumbersome on the game table and can actually slow you down. That is when I pull out these fun bite-sized, mess-free snacks and drinks.
Kitchen Items You Will Need For Game Night
Sometimes the trick is simply in the way you serve up the snacks. By using a different serving method, you can convert many of your favorite snacks into Game Night snacks where you don’t have to use your hands to touch the food. These are my top 4 favorites:
Porcelain Spoons
These are the flat bottomed spoons often used for wonton and other Asian soups. Have as many on hand as you have appetizers. For instance, place a single pig-in-a-blanket in each.
Skewer
Try and keep the skewer to under six inches to better fit on a small plate. An upgrade would be the bamboo picks will little balls on top or the fancy frilly toothpick. If small enough, use toothpicks.
Paper Party Cups
These also come in white, but having the colored ones are so much more fun. You can fill these ahead of time, have ready on a serving plate and let your guests take them at their leisure.
Mini Plastic Forks
When it’s absolutely necessary to use a fork, these are the best. They usually come in a pack of 36 and can be used all night. The fact they are disposable is also a huge bonus.
