Gourmet game night Bite-sized, mess-free eating for board-game parties, bridge clubs, poker nights, book groups, and more

While many types of entertainment have suffered during the recession, the popularity of board games is on the rise. And with more game nights at home, there of course is the need for more hors d'oeuvres. Nims (Memorable Suppers) comes to the rescue and applies several different snack strategies in an effort to eliminate such social dilemmas as sticky playing cards, greasy dice, and stained Monopoly money. Skewers make for a perfect hands-off approach to treats like lamb and olive kebabs and herb-marinated shrimp. Sandwiches are a time-honored way to stay dainty. Among the 10 offered are chicken salad with orange and walnuts and petits croque monsieurs with Gruyere and plum tomatoes. And if it is a food that cannot be stabbed or placed between slices of bread, it can probably be miniaturized and self-contained. Witness the baby baja tacos, where seafood, cilantro, and sour cream are wrapped tight in a six-inch tortilla, or the stuffed large pasta shells with kale-ricotta filling. Nims also includes tiny desserts, such as mocha cheesecake bars, and large drinks, like lava lounge punch, with rum and Chambord, to help placate sore losers. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

INTRODUCTION   Are you game?   I bet you are.   Board games have been gaining time in the spotlight in this first slice of the 21st century--independent game stores opening, board games popping up in pop culture and mainstream media, department and home stores showcasing classic games. In fact, just as I was putting finishing touches on this book, Fortune magazine reported online that board game sales had seen a nearly 25 percent jump the previous year, with more growth expected for the coming year. That makes it likely that you, dear reader, have found yourself around a table playing a game with some friends not too long ago.   And because most game playing--if you're doing it right--is a leisurely activity that lasts a few hours, food will come into play at some point. All that dice tossing, brain teasing, and creative energy spent bluffing your friends . . . a person needs sustenance to get through it.   This is where the logistical challenge comes in: when game play meets good food. Sticky, greasy fingers can mess up game pieces (not to mention mark cards!). Table space needed for the board, cards, chips, and other game accoutrements makes large dinner plates unreasonable. And the manual element of play makes knife-and-fork eating inconvenient and distracting. Game-friendly treats come to the rescue.   Casual game playing is one thing. A rainy Saturday afternoon spent playing Scrabble, with a plate of chocolate chip cookies and a pot of tea nearby? No problem there. Or an after-dinner game of Pictionary, when all is cleared but the wine glasses, and guests play for an hour before meandering home--that's a scenario that doesn't necessarily need the help this book offers, though recipes here will certainly make those afternoon snacks or after-dinner sweets more interesting.   This book focuses instead on occasions when game playing is the core of the evening. You'll find eighty recipes that make eating well a neat and tidy prospect, keeping hands clean and unencumbered. Guests can easily flip dominoes, handle their Monopoly riches, shuffle cards, and sculpt a masterpiece out of brilliantly purple Cranium clay while eating just as well as they would at any dinner party.   Many factors are bringing tabletop games back into our lives, but I see two key motivators behind the trend. One is a general backlash against the realities of contemporary life. The more our daily existence requires us to be plugged in and electrified--from the first check of email in the morning to the last tweet of the day--the more appealing it is that our downtime come "no batteries required" (excepting perhaps the AA battery needed to light the patient's nose in Operation). And with the economy taking so many dramatic twists and turns in recent years, sticking close to the hearth for homespun entertaining becomes an increasingly attractive prospect.   Having grown up in an avid game-playing family, I took particular note a few years ago when I began reading in national press about the new wave of interest in board games. A December 2003 New York Times holiday shopping piece pointed out that "Board games are much in evidence this holiday season . . . pleasingly corrective, it seems, to high-tech gadgets and video games." A month later, I read in the Wall Street Journal of the "Canasta Comeback," the article saying that "from San Francisco to Tampa, the hip crowd is embracing the pastimes of a quieter era--starting dominoes clubs, pulling out the backgammon board after dinner parties and installing backyard shuffleboard courts." And one national magazine even became part of the trend with the release of the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Game in 2006.   One of my favorite bedtime reads, Vanity Fair magazine, has Excerpted from Game Night Food: Bite-Sized, Mess-Free Eating for Board-Game Parties, Bridge Clubs, Poker Nights, Book Groups, and More by Cynthia Nims All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.