Want to take your game night from good to great? How about adding some flavor with some thematic recipes?

Follow our new series, Cocktails, Cooking, & Cardboard, for an easy guide to epic game nights!

This month, we will be playing Spirit Island^©, eating Key Lime Pie Waffles, and drinking Island Gamers.

In Spirit Island, you play as the spirits of an island fighting back incoming invaders: the colonists. These colonists are filthy, spreading blight and pollution across your beautiful island, and it won’t be long before they start killing the indigenous people that you, the spirits of the island, swore to protect. Your only goals as spirits are to repel the invaders and keep your island safe, fresh, and beautiful.

The crispy zing of our Key Lime Pie Waffles is a tasty tribute to your efforts to all things fresh and natural – the perfect complement to the game! Even better, they’re very easy to make! Add an island-inspired cocktail for a spirited game night!

The Cardboard: Spirit Island

As spirits and guardians of the island, players work to scare off and destroy the invading colonists polluting the land and killing the natives. Each spirit invokes unique powers, and you spirits are be assisted by the Dahan, the friendly natives who inhabit the island.

Throughout the game, different characters and obstacles rise – Explorers, Towns, and Cities – and they must be defeated to cleanse your island.

Fear, generated by destroying towns and cities the invaders build, helps you control the island. Once you’ve generated enough fear to make your enemies tremble, you earn fear cards and take one step closer to victory.

When you fail to fight off the invaders, they damage your beloved island. Once two or more damage points are done to any part of your island, blight is added. Blight has several effects throughout the game. Your island will be destroyed and players lose if too much blight is added to the land. Additionally, spirits’ presence will be removed if they encounter blight, and players can lose if a spirit is left without presence on the island.

As you generate fear, New Terror Levels, which control the complexity of the game, and victory conditions are revealed. Players win by meeting the current victory condition or by scaring off and defeating all the invaders.

Spirit Island has many things that make it fresh and interesting: Bright and unique artwork, an original take on the eurogame genre with an anti-colonialist twist, and a fully-cooperative, challenging puzzle.

The Cooking: Key Lime Pie Waffles

For the Waffle:

The base of your Key Lime Pie Waffle is a sweet waffle. You can also use a waffle mix, such as Krusteaz©.

For a homemade mix, follow this easy recipe:

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups warm milk
6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1 – In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
2 – In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and stir in the milk, melted butter, and vanilla extract.
3 – Combine the wet ingredients with the dry and whisk together*. The batter does not need to be smooth; a few lumps are actually good for this recipe.
4 – Pour the mixture into the hot waffle iron and cook until lightly browned.
5 – Cut into quarters and plate.

*Be careful not to over-whisk your batter. Excessive stirring degasses your batter and flattens it. Additionally, mixing flour with liquids activates the gluten proteins that give baked goods their structure and over-mixing can make your finished product tough and gummy.

For the Toppings:

Key Lime Drizzle

I could eat this stuff straight, it is so dang good! You can use the base of this recipe, leaving out the lime juice, for many recipes. We use it often, with the addition of blueberries, lemons, strawberries, and more!

Ingredients:

4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3-4 tbsp milk
2 tbsp key lime juice
Optional: Green Food Coloring

Directions

1 – In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese until very smooth.
2 – Beat in powdered sugar.
3 – Stir in vanilla and lime juice.
4 – Add milk until desired consistency. Mixture will thicken when chilled.
5 – Add food coloring until mixture is your desired color.

Streusel Topping

This is a great recipe to make in bulk and freeze. You can add it to ice cream, muffins, granola, and more!

Ingredients

9 graham crackers, crushed
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
6 tbsp salted butter, melted

Directions

1 – Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a small baking pan.
2 – In a medium bowl, mix together crumbled graham crackers, brown sugar, and cinnamon.
3 – In another bowl, combine together melted butter and vanilla and add to dry ingredients.
4 – Spread mixture evenly across baking pan and sprinkle white sugar and salt over the top.
5 – Bake in oven for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned, turning the streusel halfway through.

For a “true” streusel, you can add oats to this mixture.

Top your waffle as follows:

1 cup streusel topping

1/2 cup drizzle

Optional limes and mint for garnish

The Cocktail: Island Gamer

Ingredients:

8 ounces cranberry juice
8 ounces vodka
4 ounces ginger ale
2 ounces fresh lime juice

Directions:

1 – Stir together cranberry juice cocktail, vodka, ginger ale, and fresh lime juice in a large pitcher.
2 – Pour into ice-filled glasses.
3 – Garnish with lime wedges or fresh mint.
4 – Makes 4 servings.

The Vodka

Use your favorite vodka for this drink or substitute with a flavored vodka or rum. For our drink, we used Tito’s Vodka^©, which is known for its sweet smoothness. The combination of the subtle sweetness of Tito’s and the tart, yet sweet, cranberry juice makes for a refreshingly light drink.

The Cranberry Juice

Pick your favorite cranberry juice for this drink. Cranberry juice is usually a blend of fruit to cut down on the cranberries tartness. Cranberry juice cocktail is all cranberries with added sweetness in the form of sugar or high-fructose corn syrup. If you don’t want any added sugar in your cranberry juice, there is unsweetened 100% cranberry juice, but it is very tart.

The Ginger Ale

Again, you can choose your favorite ginger ale for this drink. We suggest something that has a nice, ginger bite but is also sweet and fizzy. We used Blue Sky^© for our drink.

The Lime Juice

For a quality drink, fresh lime juice is always best – it gives your drink a lively, fresh taste. If you don’t want to squeeze limes every time you make this drink, you can make a homemade sour mix in bulk and add it as a staple to your bar.

Spirit Island may look intimidating at first, with multiple pieces and a large rulebook. We promise you, once you start this challenging puzzle, you will immediately be drawn in by the artwork, fresh mechanics, and unique theme. Complete your game night with our suggested recipes and protect your island!