Regardless of whether or not you’re a reality TV show fan, there’s little doubt that you’ve at least heard the name of this classic tension-filled game show before. How to Be a Millionaire is one of the debut ’90s shows that broke big across the international scene and helped define a number of the big reality trivia shows to come.

How it’s played

Like the TV series, the board game version of WWTBAM (as it’s known by its fans) is all about answering the hardest questions around, gaining more money, and strategically using your fellow player’s input to decide on the right answer. It does a great job recreating the vibe of the series, allowing for classic moves like calling on your “Lifeliners” to help remove incorrect answers or checking in with the “audience” (the other players) to see if they have suggestions for you (though there’s nothing to keep them from subtly misdirecting you!).

I’d say this is a fun party game even if you’re not a big fan of the series, simply because the format’s tried and true for trivia experiences, and the questions can be tricky enough to really allow people to show off their miscellaneous knowledge.

I loved Scooby-Doo as a kid and still go back as an adult sometimes for a Saturday morning cartoon fest with cereal to re-watch the old seasons. One of the best things about Scooby-Doo that I think is really awesome is how it provides kids with a fun and light introduction to the horror genre, offering a lot of the aesthetic and using many of the common tropes, but never going for the pure scare. It’s also a great introduction to mysteries for kids, with many of the episodes giving kids the experience of trying to figure out who might be behind the supernatural menace before the big reveal.

How it’s played

This kid’s mass-market Scooby-Doo game is a total blast that fits well with the classic cartoon because it’s a deductive game, which is so cool for kids. Players move their pieces around the board and pick up mystery tickets, which give you the clues you need to begin solving the mysteries. A monster is randomly chosen, and each monster has certain locations on the map where it is hiding. By using a dry-erase marker on the included map, in combination with the cards that are randomly drawn from the mystery ticket deck, players can figure out where the monsters are located.

Young children (the game says it can be for four-year-olds) might have a little difficulty getting into the game without adult help, but six-year-olds and up will be fine. Adults will end up having fun, too, though, because the mystery in the game will always be different. It’s a worthwhile game to pull out for anyone who is either a light game for parties or a fun game for those who really loved Scooby-Doo.

Friends is one of the most iconic TV series of all time, and even if viewer opinion has never completely aligned regarding whether Ross is a terrible person or not, the show as a whole has remained one of the most beloved and often-rewatched series of all time. Its cultural impact was huge, and it helped to launch more than a few big-name careers.

With such a popular series, there just had to be an accompanying board game. In this case, it’s a game of trivia, where players are rewarded for how deep down the fandom rabbit hole they’ve descended.

How it’s played

The game mechanics behind the trivia are simple: players roll dice, move around the board, and answer a different question. Really little more than a vehicle for the questions about the show, there’s not much here to satisfy a hard-core gamer, but conversely, there’s more than enough here to satisfy a hard-core Friends fan.

Sons of Anarchy lost some of my attention when the bike gangs started having full-on wars in the middle of town and nobody in the outside world seemed to notice, but the action-packed seasons certainly kept most viewers glued to their seats. With more than enough drama to satisfy anyone, Sons of Anarchy managed to provide a classical melodrama of Greek proportions and Roman violence, often delivered by a surprisingly superb cast of actors.

The board game takes a top-down view of the series’ premise and gives players a sense of what it’s like to control one of the big gangs vying for control of the town. This one could be fun for someone who’s never seen the show, too, and I think that’s a winner.

How it’s played

Each turn, the players try to gain control of different locations around the board and try to stay on top by managing different resources (including contraband and guns, of course). It’s a very back-stabby game, where success in some instances can only be claimed if two players team up to take down another one — but then the survivors are left facing off themselves. Friends can become enemies in an instant in this game, but, luckily, I think that the friends gathered around the game table will all walk away feeling pretty good about the experience.

Bob’s Burgers is simply hilarious, there’s no way around it. In my home, every time Thanksgiving rolls around, a mighty chorus of “Pass the Turkey” bellows forth (much to the alarm of the neighbors). It provided enough quirky moments where it took life’s drama and offered back something relatable and funny that it couldn’t help but be a big hit.

The board game for the series is just about as quirky, and centers on… a food fight (what else?). This is a really easy game to learn and play and is good for kids (though we don’t recommend letting kids see Bob’s Burgers, it’s on Adult Swim for a reason!).

How it’s played

The mechanics of the game are incredibly simple: players just try to get rid of all the food tokens on their plates as quickly as possible. Special dice are rolled and food is moved either to someone else’s plate or into the center of the table and out of the game. Whoever gets rid of all their food first gets a golden spatula, and the person who gets three spatulas first wins!

King Robert Baratheon has died and, in the wake of his passing, all the lands of Westeros brace for war. Such is the thematic setting of A Game of Thrones: The Board Game, where three to six players take on the roles of the major Houses of Westeros as they vie for dominance and trickery in that most subtle of games, the game of thrones.

This game actually manages to be just as complex as you’d expect an original board game based on this IP to be. Combat alone will not lead a player to victor here, where diplomacy, trickery, and careful planning are really key.

How it’s played

The goal of the game is to control seven territories containing a castle or a stronghold. Each turn has three phases, including a random event phase based on cards drawn. In the planning phase, players give secret orders to their pieces while trying to predict the actions of their opponents. Then, in the action phase, all actions are revealed at the same time (in specific orders of operations). This mechanic is super cool because it goes far in recreating the sense of dramatic tension experienced in the show: you’re never quite sure what move anyone else is going to make and making the wrong tactical choice can cost you the game!

Star Trek is one of the most iconic and influential television series in all of history, and its vision of a socialist future guided by the principles of scientific exploration, peace, and diplomacy, remains just as poignant today as it did during the decades of its inception (perhaps even more so). Between the Star Trek reboot films and the new series, the show continues to capture the imagination of a new generation, boldly going where nobody has gone before.

How it’s played

Star Trek: Five-Year Mission is based on an old-school-flavor, that of the classic Star Trek series and from Star Trek: The Next Generation. It’s an awesome game for three to seven players who, in the role of different crew members from the Enterprise or the Enterprise-D, and work together to cooperatively solve different emergency alert scenarios. It’s a simple game, based on dice-rolling and card drawing, so mechanically there’s not much here, but the combinations of the different alerts can make complicated experiences for the players to solve.

The Big Bang Theory struck a powerful cultural chord, and though it evolved and morphed over time, the core concept of a bunch of socially inept geeky scientists interacting awkwardly with the “normal” world around them never ceased to bring audiences to tears (usually with laughter).

Given that the show features a wide variety of gaming references, it would seem silly for there not to be a unique game based on the series. In this case, we have a party trivia game that derives its humor from moments from the show. The Big Bang Theory: The Party Game is naturally all about answering geeky questions about the series, but it has some fun moments that are certain to make fans of the series happy.

How it’s played

Really this is just a simple trivia game, much in the same style as Cards Against Humanity. Each player takes a turn as the referee and flips over a red card on which there is a phrase that references some aspect of the show, such as, “Often leads to disaster” and the players play blue cards to provide the best or funniest answer, such as “killer robot.”

There are some other mechanics that help mix up the cards and create some random possibility, but it’s definitely a simple set-up. Still, for fans of the series, it has a lot of potential to be a fun way to take your next Big Bang Theory marathon to a whole new level.

Doctor Who is the longest-running series around, and for good reason. In all their various incarnations, Doctor Who has provided viewers with a delightful range of the impossible, the profound, the mysterious, and the heartfelt. I mean, who among us didn’t cry at the end of Rose’s arc? Who doesn’t love the way the fourth Doctor asks, “Would you like a jelly baby?”

The iconic series has been notoriously difficult to capture on the board, however, with some of the Doctor Who board games being ranked so low by fans that you’d have to dig them out with a spade. Into this strange dearth of Doctor Who board games steps Time of the Daleks, which manages to offer a good aesthetic and good game-play mechanics in one great package for two to four players.

How it’s played

Players take on the roles of one of the incarnations of the Doctor, who is up against the Daleks once more as they try to erase the Doctor from all of time and space. The game is semi-cooperative in that players do need to impede the Daleks and aid each other, but the end-game goal of reaching Gallifrey before the Daleks can only be accomplished by a single doctor (so there’s only one “winner” from a mechanics sense). Players collect companions in the form of companion cards, which help them achieve their goals, and use dice pools to overcome different adverse conditions.

This is a pretty average game in terms of difficulty, and players can pick it up quickly. The mechanics of the game are going to be interesting even for players who have never watched Doctor Who before, but this is ultimately a game that will be most enjoyable for those who are long-running fans. The more seasons of Who you’ve seen, the more fun easter eggs you’ll recognize.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was one of the first shows to properly capitalize on the “James Bond Phenomena”, arriving on the scene with only two Bond films released, U.N.C.L.E. immediately became the #1 spy show in the world and a cult favorite. The first two seasons, especially, received critical acclaim, before poor decisions by the producers turned the remaining two seasons into pure camp.

Board games back in the ’60s were, generally speaking, simpler than modern games — except for a few rare diamonds, many of which were firmly entrenched in the wargames genre. But this two to four person tie-in proved good material from which to draw. Though it is still simple in some regards, some nice mechanics allow for more subtle play than might be expected.

The artwork is also well done, providing a solid 1960s spy-noir vibe to the game.

How it’s played

The goal of the game mirrors a theme from the show: capture a Thrush agent and deliver him back to U.N.C.L.E. headquarters. In a pathways-style game, players roll dice to move their character pawn a certain number of spaces along with the network of paths, fighting Thrush agents whenever they land on certain squares. Capturing lesser agents allows players to then capture Chief agents, and each player needs a certain chief agent to win. This adds the competitive factor, as players can also steal captured agents from one another, so trying to hold onto the Chief agent that you need to win can be tricky.

Buck Rogers is one of the oldest pieces of American science fiction, published by Philip Francis Nowlan in 1928. Since then, there have been a number of silver screen explorations of the classically heroic Buck and his adventures, including a 1930s serial film series and a low-budget 1950s TV series. But it was the 1979-1981 TV series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century that most remember, and from that this great board game was born!

How it’s played

Battle for the 25th Century is a territory control game with multiple possibles ways to win, from controlling all territories to having the last leader left alive, to a timed progressive experience where the game ends after one year of in-game time. There are resource control elements, advanced tactical abilities, and strategic modules that allow for different play-through experiences. Honestly, there’s so much to cover in this game that you really have to get into playing it to see it all. This is one retro game that thrives really well among modern audiences.

There is also a 2008 fan-made update of the game which is absolutely wild and makes tracking down a used copy of the original an absolutely vital bit of treasure-hunting.

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation ran from 2000 to 2015, gained a massive cult following of amateur criminologists, and spawned several spin-offs and other series within the crime genre. Taking place in Las Vegas, CSI followed a cast of crime scene investigators who analyzed the clues at crime scenes using forensic techniques and deductive reasoning and offered audiences enough interpersonal drama to keep the tensions high.

How it’s played

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation The Board Game plays on the themes of the show by having players work to track down clues at a crime scene and catch the criminal. Players are competing to be the first to get to Grissom’s office with proof of the criminal behind the crime, so it’s a competitive game (which always feels a bit weird to me when it comes to crime games) but it has some fun easter eggs for fans of the series.

By reading different suspect cards, players gain more information about the different suspects at a crime scene. The more information about these suspects that comes out, the more clues the players gather, and the more likely the choice of criminal becomes. It’s not a bad little mystery game for anyone, but fans of the series will probably have the best time.

The Office started out on the BBC, but it was the American remake that took the world by storm. Starring Steve Carrell, The Office’s acerbic humor and 4th-wall breaking mockumentary shooting style made it the comedy series that everyone could quote with ease. Trying to build a board game off of such an iconic IP is no easy task, but Spin Master Games proved themselves up to the task.

How it’s played

Scheme, sneak, and prank your way to the top of the company chain and gain the position of Assistant to the Regional Manager! Complete challenges, win raffles, and get the most points. Every turn has three turns, the goal of which is to complete challenges (where the players actually compete against one another, say, with an arm-wrestling competition, or by telling three jokes in sixty seconds). Prank cards (like saying the grossest word you can think of aloud and forcing someone else to comment on it) make things even more fun.

Sometimes you just cannot wait around for the big guys to come along with something official. If there’s no official board game for your favorite IP then the only recourse is to make one!

Now, Farscape has long been one of my favorite television series. Gritty, deep, emotional, silly, and bizarre, it’s one of the best (and most frequently overlooked) series in the last thirty years. But, sadly, there was never a good board game set in the Farscape universe. A tie-in card game did get developed, but it didn’t quite meet fan expectations. So that’s where Reddit user wusashicat decided to take matters into their own hands with Farscape: War for the Uncharted Territories, a two to four player game set in the Farscape universe.

How it’s played

In this game, you will control the leader of a powerful faction trying to spread your influence across the Uncharted Territories and crush your opponent. While your influence spreads you are being harassed by the outlaw crew of Moya and their increasingly legendary exploits. Can you conquer the Uncharted Territories before your opponents do?

Players compete through multiple rounds, each with three distinct phases. The game incorporates research, deck building, and area-control (via the game board).

Now, since this is an unlicensed fan creation, you probably won’t ever be able to buy this in stores, but wusashicat hopes to make the rules and materials available for free online so people can print them out and put together their own set. Definitely an awesome DIY project!

Scrabble is one of the most loved classic games around and is the devoted passion hobby of a select group of people who take it pretty darned seriously. But what about specialty Scrabble?

Star Trek has long been considered one of the greatest classic science fiction series, and the show writers’ famously vague use of scientific-sounding words (or “treknobabble”) has been a staple joke of the fan community. So what happens when you take that treknobabble and make it all legal for Scrabble play? A madness that only a true Trekkie could excel at, that’s what.

How it’s played

The game doesn’t differ from classic Scrabble, save that it includes a cool Star Trek-themed mat and a dictionary of legal words from the Star Trek universe. Players can also get bonus points for spelling out “Klingon,” “Khan,” “Andoria,” or “Romulan”.

When a favorite IP has yet to release a board game, sometimes you need to design one yourself… but what if you’re a family that makes and markets board games as a professional hobby? That’s what we have in Master the Elements, a game that is so clearly inspired by Avatar that no fan could miss the connection— but which tastefully avoids any direct connection to the wonderful Avatar: The Last Airbender series.

It’s a very simple game, but for those who love Avatar and always wanted to play a board game set in that universe, it’s a worthy purchase.

How it’s played

This is a token-shifting game, where players attempt to stack their tokens in a specific order and relation to specific locations on the map, all while stealing tokens from other players and trying to defend their own. Element cards add a further dose of randomness to the gameplay.

The best thing about this game is the design and quality of the build, which is frankly quite gorgeous. The gameplay rules can be a little difficult to understand at first play, so looking up a playthrough video is a good idea. Overall, while a simple game, it makes a great addition to any Avatar fan’s collection.

Lost drew fans in with its clever mystery and mythology and led viewers on a wild ride for a total of 121 episodes. Given its premise (survivors of an aircraft crash trying to understand the strange and apparently supernatural mystery at the heart of the island they now call home), it always seemed like a board game tie-in would have plenty of opportunities to draw players into the mystery.

How it’s played

With a modular hex playing board, not unlike the one found in Settlers of Catan, Lost: The Game gives two to eight players the chance to compete with one another as one of 17 Lost characters through exploration, beating encounters, recruiting tribe members, and attempting to neutralize their opponents. Special rules exist for certain characters as well, and the game has plenty of easter eggs for die-hard Lost fans.

The X-Files was a huge part of my childhood, and I was obsessed with all things Mulder and Scully. Now, I happily re-watch my DVD copy of the X-Files Mythology collection (featuring just the core episodes of the alien plot) every couple of years. Getting to play a game in the X-Files world is a total dream, but trying to find one that played well and gave my true inner fan the search for truth he was looking for proved difficult in the face of other sub-standard tie-ins. So, when I discovered that Legendary Encounters had made an X-Files game, I knew I needed to grab it ASAP (after all, Legendary Encounters is responsible for turning another of my favorite IP, Alien, into an amazing game as well).

Gosh, I love deck-building games. There’s something truly wonderful about the huge range of options available to players in a deck-building game, where replay value is massive and the possibility for new tactics and situations appear with every game. I’m also a massive fan of cooperative games, which LE: X-Files also is! Playing with your friends instead of against them is one of the best ways to game, in my opinion.

How it’s played

Players take on the role of one of the classic X-Files characters (Mulder, Scully, Doggett, or Reyes), and investigate the X-Files and the greater conspiracy lurking in the background. Players begin with their own small deck and add cards to it through play. Players then play those cards during their turn, fighting enemies that they draw, uncovering mysteries, and recruiting new allied character cards to their deck for use during the next round of play. All the players need to work together to reach the “end game” and the conspiracy that awaits them there.

Stranger Things did everything right: it is one of those magic television series that had just the right random stuff in it to make a massive splash with audiences around the world. Part nostalgia trip into the ’70s and ’80s aesthetic of classics like E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, and part action-horror masterpiece, Stranger Things continues to deliver seasons that are fun, witty, and delightfully creepy, all with the sort of incredible acting from its young cast that cannot help but cement fan loyalty.

Until the Stranger Things: Eggo Card Game came along, we only had a couple of terrible tie-in games based on Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit. So what about Eggo? Well, unlike the IP that spawned it, this game doesn’t deliver anything especially new, so I can really only suggest it unless you’re a huge fan of the show. If you are a huge fan, however, grab a copy, because it’s a cute tie-in that at least pretends to a bit more originality than the other Stranger Things games out there.

How it’s played

It’s Uno. No, seriously. It’s Uno. There’s a feature that complicates the game wherein players must escape the Upsidedown by playing a certain card… but otherwise, it’s essentially just Uno with a Stranger Things facelift. If you love Uno and you love Stranger Things, this is absolutely the right game for you.

Battlestar Galactica broke the mold in so many ways. A powerful post 9-11 series with dark terrorist-haunted plots and a gritty, U-boat-in-space aesthetic, Battlestar Galactica also featured some incredible acting on the part of its principal cast. By taking the premise of the older and campier original series, the remake created a series that many modern viewers have come to identify with as the quintessential modern science fiction experience.

Given how many great twists and turns there are in the show, and how much range between grand military plots and tight conspiracy storylines, there was a huge amount of content for a game designer to draw from when constructing a tie-in.

How it’s played

One of the coolest factors here is that Battlestar Galactica is a cooperative game, where the players take on the roles of the crew of Battlestar Galactica who are trying to hold the ship together and reach the safety of Kobol in one piece. The complication? Not all of the characters are human! Some are Cylons in disguise and their goal is to stop Battlestar Galactia at any choice.

Nobody knows going in if they are, or are not, a human or a Cylon, which makes the game super fun and massively replayable, and makes great use of one of Battlestar’s most important plot points.

Shirtless men gleam as they spar in a desert arena. “Mmm,” you say, looking on from your leisure balcony while eating peeled grapes. “Mmmmm.”

Spartacus was one of those super-stylized and sorta lower-budget television series that pretended to be a historical show to mainly have a generic Roman aesthetic and lots of drama… but don’t think I’m coming down hard on it! This may have been its goal, but it’s a goal that Spartacus excelled at, gathering a huge cult following and delivering several seasons of bloody, action-packed drama with plenty of steamy sub-plot on the side.

Given the storylines focus on gladiators duking it out in an arena, it doesn’t take much to guess what the game tie-in, Spartacus: A Game of Blood and Treachery, concentrates on.

How it’s played

First off, be aware that the game is rated 17+, given some of the flavor text and the bloody graphics. It’s not actually that terribly over-the-top, but the rating makes sense given the 17+ content of the source material.

The game itself actually managed to break tie-in expectations by being really good. Every player starts with a player board and competes for different coins using a combination of special abilities, assets, and influence. Players take on the role of one of the leading Roman characters from the show and the play revolves around using gladiators to compete with other players, gaining slaves, and defending against the ever-present threat of intrigue. There is resource management in the game, backstabbery, and plenty of room for tactical decision-making. Honestly, it’s a blast.

With its 1920s English setting and an exceptional cast, Peaky Blinders struck gold with its post-WWI crime-drama aesthetic. Focused on the exploits of a Birmingham street gang fighting to survive despite the working class deprivations of the era, the series delivers the sort of gritty morality and harsh drama that fans of crime shows cannot help but fall in love with.

The board game uses not just the aesthetic of the series but also the thematic premise, and players take on the role of different gang members vying for control of the streets of Birmingham.

How it’s played

Players try to manage and expand their gang’s business, control henchmen, collect materials, and attack the turf of opposing games. By completing different missions, players steadily gain control of the town and edge out their opponents. By winning enough of these missions, victory is achieved and one gang survives to rule them all.

The period drama goodness of Call the Midwife grabbed the hearts of viewers as it told the stories of a group of midwives working in London’s East End in the 1950s and ’60s. Pregnancies, births, and the difficulties of human life are explored in all their difficulty… but compassion and hope still manage to burn surprisingly strong.

Given that the series is all about midwifery, it sort of makes sense that the bard game would be as well — but it’s never quite as easy as all that in the series, and the board game tie-in doesn’t make it easy either.

How it’s played

The game’s design is quite simple: a player wins by delivering the most babies. Players take on the roles of one of the four midwives from the show, and they travel around Poplar delivering babies. By drawing a delivery card, players are given instructions on the next address they need to get to for delivery, but things can come up and they might get called away for another more urgent delivery, or some other crisis, that might delay their getting to the original destination.

The game is simple but well thought out, and I’d be surprised if the designer wasn’t a huge fan of the show themselves, since it plays a lot like the episodes of the show’s run. If you’re a fan of Call the Midwife, this is a great buy.

SNL is one of the great cultural treasures of our TV-saturated culture, a powerhouse of comedic silliness and satirical genius, all rolled into one intensely funny package. Since Geroge Carlin hosted the first SNL series in 1975, Saturday Night Live has only grown in popularity, taking on every topic imaginable and launching the careers of many of the most famous comedic actors around today.

There have been a few board game tie-ins for SNL over the years, but this one concentrates on one of the best parts of SNL: the stand-In sketches!

How it’s played

Players play through a series of classic SNL sketches, with everyone in on the sketch except a single-player: the stand-in. The stand-in must try to improvise and keep up with the sketch, figuring it out for themselves and not letting any of the other players know that they’re not in on the joke! This is a great one for groups and small parties and allows players to laugh themselves silly as their friends act out the greatest sketch comedies of all time (or fail to).

Dexter, the dark and darkly-comedic crime drama series featuring everyone’s favorite serial killer-who-only-kills-serial killers, became a cult fan favorite in no time. The constant tension of Dexter’s day-job and “normal person” facade running up against his extracurricular activities (murder) made for a great premise, and as bad as Dexter ever seemed, he was always up against a character who was even worse.

Fans of the show will love this board-game tie-in, which delivers a great Dexter experience even despite some of its mechanical imperfections.

How it’s played

The game objective is to be the first player (or first “Dexter”) to collect a set of particular tools, nab a particular suspect (randomly received from the suspect card’s pile), kill your victim and dump their body in the marina. It’s a very simple roll to move mechanic and it achieves most of its playability from its tie-in nature. Fans of Dexter will absolutely enjoy this for its Dexter aesthetics, and the gameplay is enjoyable enough to keep everyone engaged, but it probably won’t turn the heads of experienced gamers looking for their next deep thrill.

Parks and Recreation is certainly in my top-five comedy series of all-time list, and might even be up in the top ten of all my favorite shows ever. I wasn’t a fan of The Office, so when I first encountered Parks and Rec, I dismissed it as just a repeat of something I wasn’t that interested in. Then I actually watched a few episodes in a row and found myself utterly hooked. Clever, witty, socially introspective, charming, and just plain excellent, Parks and Rec really blew all the comedic competition out of the water. I can’t say that I’ve found as perfect a comedy show since.

But how to take such a great series and gamify it? Well, in this case, the game focuses on the political themes of the series, drawing from Leslie Knope’s bid for a seat on the Pawnee Council as the setting for the action.

How it’s played

Knope for President Party Card Game is designed for three to six players and works a bit like a more complicated version of Apples to Apples. As different scenarios arise, players take quotes from drawn cards to try and form their own improvisational speeches. If you and your friends are fond of acting out scenarios and being way over the top, this game will delight you, but even if you’re just a bit quieter simply playing an Apples to Apples simplified version of the game is certain to make you want to re-watch Parks and Rec right there and then.

The Walking Dead capitalized on the intense drama and complex characterizations of the graphic novel series of the same name and delivered an epic and sprawling horror series that drew in all the tropes of the zombie genre. Despite the numerous spawned spin-off series, the original Walking Dead remains the true fan favorite, and it clearly cemented itself as a staple work in the zombie mythos.

How it’s played

There are plenty of more generic zombie games out there, some of them really excellent, but for fans of The Walking Dead not just any random game will do. That’s why I’ve got to recommend The Walking Dead: All Out War, a one to two person tactical game set in the Georgia countryside where players take on the task of keeping their group of survivors alive from the dangers of zombies and other survivors alike.

Players vie for resources and try not to make noise because noise attracts walkers, and walkers are bad for everyone. There’s a great AI mechanic built into the game to control the walkers, meaning that The Walking Dead: All Out War can be played and enjoyed by a single player, not a commonplace occurrence with tabletop games.

If you’ve yet to realize that I’m a huge Star Trek nerd, then you clearly need to read more of my articles. I love Trek, especially the classic ’90s shows and the films from the first two major incarnations. I even dug the more action-packed reboot films, which were really more akin to Star Wars than Star Trek, don’t get me started!

I’ve already placed a few other Star Trek games on this list, but this one deserves a spot not simply because it’s a Star Trek tie-in, but because it’s a darn fine strategy game with more than enough depth to give even the most seasoned gamers a run for their money.

How it’s played

Star Trek: Fleet Captains incorporates some of the best miniatures ever, so its massive price tag makes sense — the game really is beautifully designed. It takes players through an entire season of a Star Trek series, pulling together deep storylines with exceptional mechanics that make strategic and tactical play take a front seat. Players control several starships and attempt to complete science, influence, or combat missions drawn from a mission deck.

The locations on the deck are formed by placing hexagonal location cards down to form the “board” and there are a large number of such cards, giving each playthrough a huge range of different landscapes to play on. As players explore, they establish bases and solve random events (like Q showing up) and through this gain victory points.

Trust me, this is the ultimate Star Trek game for any fan of the series, and even if you’ve only watched a few episodes but love a really deep gaming experience Star Trek: Fleet Captains has what you desire.

Ah, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the TV show that stole my teenage heart and never gave it back. Joss Whedon’s masterpiece series had everything one could wish for: campiness, friendship, an evolving storyline, complex characters who changed over time, a bit of horror, a bit of action, plenty of romantic tension, and, with some of those episodes, enough feels to crack the toughest heart. Seriously, I haven’t cried so hard ever as I have during an episode of Buffy. If you’re a fan you know the one. Darn you, Joss. Darn, you straight to heck.

Okay, but what does a board game set in the Buffyverse look like?

How it’s played

Tie-In games can be hit or miss, but with Buffy The Vampire Slayer it’s hit all the way. It’s a little like a cross between Arkham Horror and Pandemic, where there are clues to find but a steadily-increasing hoard of monsters arriving to destroy Sunnydale and bring Armageddon to the world. What really gets me the most about this game is how clearly the designers absolutely love Buffy The Vampire Slayer and understand the show, and that passion shines through.

The game is pretty simple, but that simplicity serves the game well. Players take on the role of one of the heroes and fight off three “monsters of the week” that leave clues that lead up to the “big bad”. There are a lot of great secondary game mechanics that complicate things though and alter the town of Sunnydale, making this harder and more interesting as the game progresses.

Seriously, this one is pure magic. Buffy is one of the greats and this is absolutely the game to accompany it.

Firefly, forever in our hearts, your brilliance was snuffed out far too early. Firefly may have only run for a single season (and one film plus some cool graphic novel versions), but it left fans with the taste of something truly magical: a living breathing ‘verse, filled with all the space-cowboy drama that anyone could ever wish for. Seriously. Humor, drama, action, romance, horror, this show had it all.

I think it’s safe to say that I will never fully come to terms with Firefly’s untimely end, but in a certain sense that early demise allowed it to exist as a perfectly imperfect moment in time: it never had time to grow beyond itself or get swept up by bad Producer decisions (mainly because the producers decided to make a whole decade’s worth of bad marketing decisions before the show was even aired). It captured the hearts of its loyal Browncoat fans forever, and can safely be called one of the great masterpiece works of the genre.

Of course, for all that, I could not have imagined a board game that would do Firefly justice. And then my sister introduced me to the humbly named Firefly the Board Game, and a wonderful ‘verse of Firefly-themed play opened up before my very eyes.

How it’s played

Each game has a different set of win conditions as decided by a story card, and each player attempts to complete the goals on this card as the captain of a different smuggling ship floating through the ‘verse. Players assemble crews, add improvements to their ships, fend off reaver attacks, and try to outwit the ever-watchful alliance — all while competing with other players for resources and jobs.

I think that it just happens to be a darn-near perfect tie-in game, and has more than enough mechanical depth to provide players with play-through after play-through.

Player Level: Intermediate

Hack Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ 1/5

If you ever want to add a unique feature to your mine or underground base, consider this hack to create a floating platform in the void. If you’re playing on survival, you’ll need to follow along with realeliteg’s video tutorial on breaking bedrock.

This one is for the most patient of players. I spent twenty minutes trying to get all the boats to float before accepting that I would have only two boats to stand on. It’s relatively easy to set up, but the trickiest part of it all is breaking the slabs. I’d recommend turning on hit boxes with F3 + B. Also, make sure not to fall into the void, set your spawn point in panic, and end up in a death loop.

Player Level: Beginner

Hack Rating: ★★★★☆ 4/5

While many already know that a beacon’s color can be changed, some may not know how creative you can get! H3yimrobby’s TikTok shows how to make a rainbow beacon light (and keep this one in your back pocket for Pride Month)!

This was super quick, easy, and a great inspiration to make your beacon’s light look cool. Try it with gradient coloring too! You’ll thank us later.

Player Level: Intermediate

Hack Rating: ★★★★☆ 4/5

Firstly, I say this is for intermediates because it will cost you enchantment points. Otherwise, this is an easy Minecraft hack to get an organized chest room and I already plan to use this in my survival multiplayer server in the future. Another TikTok by h3yimrobby shows you a new way to organize without pesky signs or item frames.

It’s clean. It’s simple. Marie Kondo would be proud!

Player Level: Intermediate

Hack Rating: ★★☆☆☆ 2/5

Some hacks require more work than others. The main reason I added joey_mebes’ TikTok to my list was to see if it actually worked. I had little hope, but was pleasantly surprised that it managed to duplicate the carpet!

Practicality wise I don’t think this is very efficient since it’s easier to find sheep than slime. I also tested to see if trapdoors or pressure plates worked, however, there was no success. It’s a very specific hack for a specific need.

Player Level: Beginner

Hack Rating: ★★★☆☆ 3/5

Have you ever looked at a Pillager and thought, “I need one in my house” or watched them stand around aimlessly while you lurk behind a tree and wondered, “I want to be their friend”? Do you have at least 10 minutes to AFK in Minecraft?

Then give taming a Pillager a try. Chickenatormc’s TikTok says it takes 10 minutes to break a Pillager’s crossbow, but it took just over 15 minutes for me. Make sure you stay no more or less than 1 block away to avoid getting hit with arrows. There’s little they can do besides walk around making noise, so if you ever want to make a Pillager museum, this hack’s for you!

Player Level: Intermediate

Hack Rating: ★★★☆☆ 3/5

I’m the type of Minecraft builder who likes furniture to have some functionality and not just for decoration. Which is why I was excited to test out justtides’ TikTok on a working bathtub in Minecraft.

I can confidently say I managed to build a working bathtub! Not in the sense of giving a boost or health regeneration, but you pull the lever and water fills up the tub. The best part? If you hit the lever again, the water goes away, ready for use the next time you need a bath!

Player Level: Beginner

Hack Rating: ★★★★☆ 4/5

This Minecraft hack is one that I’m not fully convinced on how practical it is. Does it work? Absolutely! However, it’s hard to justify having a bunch of chests with water on and around them inside your base. I do think this would be a good trick if you need to protect a chest while playing on a competitive multiplayer server like KingdomCraft!

This TikTok features hacks originally created by Skip the Tutorial on YouTube.

Player Level: Beginner

Hack Rating: ★★★★☆ 4/5

One of the most common builds everyone starts off attempting in Minecraft are castles. Even to this day, I always end up making a castle in a new world. Perhaps it’s my dream home, or perhaps it’s simply because I like having the height advantage over my enemies. I must have watched Slazeyt16’s TikTok over 50 times because I was stunned at how simple this was.

This TikTok hack is a super-efficient way to build a castle or other large build if you don’t have any mods installed or just don’t know how to use Minecraft commands. It’s also a safer way to quickly build while high up if you’re playing in survival mode!

Codsworth is a domestic model (a robot butler prior to the fallout) Mister Handy who made its first appearance in Fallout 4. Fallout is an amazing game with killer graphics, fun gameplay, and thoughtful writers. Everything from creating the protagonist (Sole Survivor), to collecting resources, to killing enemies is nothing short of epic. When I first started playing, I played because of Codsworth. Yes, he is literally the reason I started playing. I wanted to play the game with the cute robot companion and retro soundtrack. Big mistake. Huge. While he starts out useful at the beginning of the game, Codsworth is one of the most annoying companions I’ve ever had the displeasure of playing alongside.

Why Codsworth is an annoyance

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There are many reasons why Fallout fans find Codsworth annoying. Here is just a few of them:

1. He is a smug robot butler. Can robots be smug? He has a know-it-all attitude that is intolerable. He knows everything, and you, Sole Survivor, know nothing.
2. His jokes are like robot-dad jokes and they are never very funny.
3. Like many characters on this list, his voice is annoying.

Minecraft is oddly satisfying. The sounds. The digging and chopping and searching for resources. The different terrains and the way everything changes at night. I spent days building the biggest treehouse with the longest spiral staircase of all time one winter; it was a blast. There is a reason Minecraft is such a fun game for all ages and backgrounds. It’s so creatively driven and the pigs are basically the cutest thing on the planet. However, this is one Minecraft mob that is annoying and always comes out of nowhere to ruin your peace: skeleton mobs. While there are a few creatures on Minecraft that can be sources of frustration and annoyance (spiders make the most annoying noises in Minecraft), skeleton mobs seem to be the most universally hated among the bunch.

Why skeleton mobs are an annoyance

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So, skeletons tend to be useful, because they drop resources that can be used in-game, but that doesn’t make them any less annoying when they decide to show up in a mob with all their dead skeleton friends. When they travel in mobs, they tend to all be shooting arrows at once and it seems impossible to dodge them and fight them off or run away at the same time. It’s always arrows from every foreseeable direction possible and it’s, you guessed it, annoying!

Sarah Palmer, a Spartan commander, had to make this list because she is maybe one of the most talked-about characters in the Haloverse simply for being annoying and even hated. Halo is one of the most played and most loved video games of all time, by far. People either love it, or they respect it for being a great game that just isn’t their style (for the most part). I’ve never heard of anyone hating Halo. Do you hate Halo? I’d actually love to test this theory out! Regardless, even those who love Halo, who play the game religiously, hate Sarah Palmer. I didn’t find her as annoying as most did, but I get it. She has some personality traits that can be annoying in-game.

Why Sarah Palmer is an annoyance

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Sarah Palmer is kind of awesome. She’s a female Spartan commander who has climbed her way to the top. At first glance, she’s amazing, or I thought so at least. However, there are a few key aspects to her characterization that make her annoying. The main reasoning behind her annoyance is that she doesn’t have much of a personality. She’s bland and a bit boring as a character, especially considering she is this woman and a commander who really had the potential to be an awesome character. I think the unreached potential behind the character is what makes her a real annoyance for me.

As a big, huge, totally giant fan of CRPGs, I had to add Noober from Baldur’s Gate, in 1998, to the list. Baldur’s Gate was a fantasy lover’s dream, set in the Forgotten Realms and using Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules in gameplay. Most people don’t remember his name, but they remember him in all his annoying glory: Noober. Noober was widely considered one of the most annoying NPCs in the game and is still considered one of the most annoying characters in the gaming sphere. Even if most gamers can’t remember who he was, if they played Baldur’s Gate they remember a few choice things about him they wish they didn’t have to remember in the first place.

Why Noober was an annoyance

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Did Noober ever stop talking? Did he ever stop saying redundant, meaningless, stupid things that seemed to play on an endless loop? Did he bother you endlessly like he did me? While he was only a brief part of the game, I have to say: I remember very few things about Baldur’s Gate, but I remember Noober. He is still annoying me by taking up space in my brain. Tell me I’m not alone!

If you are a lover of strategy games with cute champions, you have probably played, or want to play, League of Legends There are some ridiculously cute enemies and champions and the game itself is chock-full of great battles and challenging gameplay. There are a few characters throughout the game that, though completely and utterly adorable in every sense of the word, are beyond annoying. If you’ve played League of Legends, you know Teemo, the fuzzy yordle, is one of them.

Why Teemo is an annoyance

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He’s fuzzy. His outfit is cute. His face is cute. Even his deadly mushroom is cute. Everything about him, head to toe, it completely adorable, and yet I had the responsibility of adding him to this list. Teemo is annoying. He is a trickster, who can go invisible, blind you, and poison you. If you try to chase him or escape his deadly clutches, you end up stepping on his mushroom and die. His skills are impressive and deadly behind that cute exterior. To top it off, his laugh is annoying. If he wasn’t so cute, I might dislike him even more than I already do.

The Witcher was first a popular and well-written book series, then a great game, and now a TV series on Netflix. The Witcherverse is expansive and every little detail is beloved by its fans. The Witcher game series doesn’t stay completely true to the books, taking some creative liberties, but still stays true to Geralt and The Witcherverse. Having read the books after playing the games, I think I saved myself from any complaints on accuracy. Either way, I loved The Witcher and The Witcherverse. There was, however, one character that really bothered me during gameplay and that was Phillippa Eilhart.

Why Phillippa Eilhart is an annoyance

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Phillippa has been through some serious stuff. She had her eyes gouged out, and I cannot imagine that it gets any worse than that. I feel for her and admire her determination and strength, but the way she treats Geralt, Yennifer, and Fringilla is annoying and frustrating. Here are the reasons why many The Witcher fans find her one of the most annoying characters of all time:

1. She treats Geralt and the other characters badly, especially Geralt.
2. She is untrustworthy and dangerous. She is not dependable.
3. She is extremely conceited, which I find an annoying trait in anyone, characters included.

I love a good story-based adventure game. It’s part movie, part game, like those decision-making storybooks I used to get at the library as a kid. I downloaded Life is Strange on mobile, because I am a huge fan of being able to move from room to room to room while gaming (just my style). Here’s the thing, the game has some great writers behind it. There are some clichés regarding the characters and the main villain in the series, but there are also many beautiful moments throughout the series and the gameplay is enjoyable and creative.

I loved Life is Strange. I loved being able to rethink my decisions and quickly rewind. However, I am not a fan of Maxine Caulfield. She took me out of the story several times throughout the series and I didn’t enjoy her as a protagonist.

Why Maxine Caulfield was an annoyance

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Maxine Caulfield is annoying for many, many reasons. Here are my top three reasons for her annoyance level:

1. She is clueless. Maxine Caulfield has a very low level of personal awareness. She needs a serious wake-up call on how to be a good friend and how to pay attention to her surroundings.
2. Though she is generally a kind person who wants to help others, she tends to be fairly selfish and makes a lot of selfish decisions while also saying she wants to help. Maybe, Max needs some help on how to help.
3. She’s has a very low-energy, distant, disconnected personality. She’s pretty bland.

The Elder Scrolls series is my favorite gaming series of all time. It’s open-world. The story and back story are amazing. The gameplay is unbeatable. I don’t know that there are many games that can rival it, but that’s just one girl’s opinion. The point is, it’s an amazing series. Many Elder Scrolls fans believe that The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind is the best of the series. It isn’t my favorite of the series, but I can understand why Morrowind is a fan favorite. However, if you played the game, you know that in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind there was one particular Elder Scrolls beast that made its first appearance in Morrowind at Stonefalls that was very difficult to beat: cliff racers.

Why cliff racers are an annoyance

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Cliff racers are evil, borderline possessed beasts that made their appearance in Morrowind and have been part of The Elder Scrolls series ever since. They are aggressive, persistent, and hard to beat. Their enthusiastic aggression is annoying. The difficulty of beating them is annoying. I may or may not be guilty of yelling at my computer monitor on several occasions because of these guys. The Elder Scrolls fans know what I mean.

Mortal Kombat was the game to play in the ’90s and early ’00s and is still one of the most popular video games of all time because of its playable characters and incredible gameplay. Beating my brother as Kitana will never slip my memory (He was so good at the game that I never beat him again). Hsu Hao made his first appearance in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance in 2002, quickly became one of the most hated video game characters of all time, and is still known by most as one of the worst, if not the worst, Mortal Kombat character in the series.

Why Hsu Hao was an annoyance

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There’s no mystery here. Hsu Hao was bad. It’s rumored that even the creators of Mortal Kombat disliked Hsu Hao. The overall design, in comparison with the other characters, is bad. His outfit is bad, he has a chest laser, and he’s a boring character. While he has a lot of decent skills they don’t make for great gameplay. He’s been considered the blandest character in Mortal Kombat and it’s pretty clear why.

Borderlands is one of my favorite first-person shooters. Though first-person shooters aren’t my favorite, I gave Borderlands a chance and never looked back. Claptrap, a CL4P-TP robot, makes his first appearance in Borderlands in 2009. Borderlands fans either loved or hated him pretty instantaneously. At first glance, I thought he was cute. Animated robots are generally cute, aren’t they? While Claptrap is a little beat up, he’s still cute, but he is still annoying. The personality he is programmed with really cramped my style while playing Borderlands.

Why Claptrap was an annoyance

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The definition of claptrap, according to Oxford Languages, is, “absurd or nonsensical talk or ideas.” This definition sums up the annoyance that is Claptrap. Unlike Codsworth from Fallout 4, Claptrap is known for his overenthusiastic, attention-seeking, and lonely. While he talks and brags a lot, he’s not quite as smug as Codsworth (though he’s only slightly less annoying). I really felt bad for the lonely robot, programmed with this annoying personality, but not enough so that he didn’t drive me nuts.

If you haven’t played Genshin Impact, you should. Beautiful art, elemental magic, a massive open-world, and diverse characters make it one of the best RPGs I’ve played. If you like anime or RPGs and enjoy a variety of side-quests, Genshin Impact is for you. I started playing this game on mobile and loved the world Teyvat. I’ve lost hours and hours of my life playing this game, and regret nothing. However, the companion in Genshin Impact, Paimon, is annoying.

Paimon acts as a guide and a companion in Genshin Impact, while the protagonist (that’s you!) adjusts to the world of Teyvat. At first, I found her super cute, but eventually, she became annoying. Many Genshin Impact fans and active players also consider her an annoyance even refer to her as “emergency food,” and there are also many interactions within gameplay where you can refer to her as “emergency food.”

Why Paimon is an annoyance

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Paimon always refers to herself in the third person, never stops talking, and has a very grating, high-pitched voice. She always seems to be right there next to you, telling you what to do when you have other things in mind. She just never stops and it’s annoying. As cute as she is, she’s still emergency food to me.

Navi, who made her first appearance in Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in 1998, is simultaneously one of the most iconic and one of the most annoying characters of all time. I hesitated to add Navi to this list, because, if I am being honest, I loved Navi. I know every other Zelda fan in the nation, continent, and the world seems to have found her annoying, but I thought she was an adorable addition to Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask. I always considered her the Tinkerbell of Zelda.

Who doesn’t want a sweet, little sidekick helping out, while they run around saving the world? Even in The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, the cut-scene at the opening of the game insinuates that Navi is Link’s “beloved and invaluable friend.” Navi, maybe nobody else appreciated your good intentions, but Link and I sure did.

Why Navi was an annoyance

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So, there are a few reasons why Navi was annoying, but there were a few core reasons most Zelda fans found her annoying. Check them out:

1. Her voice. Her very, very high-pitched voice. This was the main reasoning behind Zelda fan’s clear hatred of the cute, fairy side-kick.
2. She was constantly talking. She was a bossy, talkative little fairy. The chatter was very consistent during gameplay.
3. Her dialogue. The dialogue in conjunction with the high-pitched voice and constant talking is what deemed her annoying. “Hey!” “Hello!” “Watch out!” “Listen!” were exclaimed a little too frequently throughout gameplay.

The Sims is very nostalgic for us millennials. We played The Sims in our pajamas, on the family computer (before the time when everyone had laptops), and lost days of our lives giving our sim the life we dreamed of. We learned the rosebud cheat code that gave us money and decked out our houses with the best that The Sims had to offer.

As The Sims evolved and fans started buying expansions, the addictiveness of the nostalgic game only grew and grew. However, I have a big, but tiny and annoying caveat when it comes to The Sims 4: Cats & Dogs. The cats are annoying.

Why the cats are an annoyance

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As a Sims and cat fan, I was excited when this expansion came out. I have cats, two beautiful but naughty three-year-old cats that I love to death, but the cats in The Sims 4: Cats & Dogs are the most annoying video game animals of all time. The meowing is constant. It never seems to stop. If you are anything like me and have way too many cats in your decked-out sim house, you regretted it after experiencing the continuous meowing. It is worse when you fast forward because the meowing is high and accelerated.

Slippy Toad is a toad and mechanic that made his appearance in Star Fox in 1993. Like many characters on this list, Slippy Toad is nearly universally hated, though there are some that bear the unpopular opinion that he wasn’t so bad after all. The Star Fox series was a ridiculously fun third-person spaceship shooter during a time when spaceship shooters were the highlight of the gaming sphere. Slippy Toad was a huge part of the series, and my theory is that part of why players found him so annoying was that he was so integral to the series as a good friend of Fox’s. Had he been a smaller part of the series, Star Fox fans might have gone easier on him.

Why Slippy Toad was an annoyance

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Slippy Toad was an annoyance for a few distinct reasons, even though I kind of have a soft spot for the helpless toad. Here they are:

1. He needed a lot of help. He really was helpless. He always needed help with something, and players tend to find him inadequate as a character.
2. His voice is a bit annoying (voice acting done by Lyssa Browne). It’s not quite as annoying as some character’s voices, but it’s up there.

Baby Mario made his first appearance in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island and remind an integral part of the Yoshi’s Island series. I miss Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island. I played Yoshi’s Island on our big, heavy box TV in the living room and loved every second of it. The graphics were fun and lively, Yoshi finally got his due as a protagonist, and there was so much exploring to be done.

Baby Mario and Yoshi searched for Mario’s brother, Luigi in hopes of rescuing him (kidnapped by Kamek). Yoshi’s island is one of the best games of all time with iconic characters and legendary bosses. However, Baby Mario made this game unbearable to play at times. While he was notoriously cute, he came with a big, unavoidable annoyance.

Why Baby Mario was an annoyance

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Baby Mario had a serious annoyance factor that is undeniable. There is not a human alive who played Yoshi’s Island and doesn’t know where I’m going with this. Crying and more crying.

I know babies cry. We all know this small bit of human knowledge. It’s universal, but this game took it to a whole new level. Baby Mario’s crying was jarring, loud, and repetitive. Everytime Baby Mario was kidnapped, the tears came and it was enough to turn the volume down (or off all together).

Sharp knives are crucial for any cook. Dull or blunt knives can be extremely dangerous. The amount of physical strength you need to cut with a dull knife is not just tiring, it’s also what makes cutting with dull knives dangerous. There are many reasons to consider keeping a set of sharper knives in your kitchen.

Why you should own sharp knives

• Fine cuts: Using sharp knives means being able to get fine, accurate cuts. Mincing is much easier and more accurate with a sharp knife.
• Cooking and cutting: When your knives are sharp, you will get more accurate cut vegetables and proteins, which means more evenly cooked food. The more evenly cooked your food, the better the textures and flavors of your dish.
• Longevity- Sharper knives that are maintained and sharpened can last years and years. That means no wasting money on a new pair of knives every few years.

Sharp knives don’t have to be expensive. They can be affordable staples in your home. However, if you want to invest in an expensive set of chef’s knives that you can keep and sharpen for most of your lifetime, go for it!

Knife skills are a real asset in the kitchen. Knowing how to cut things properly and being able to do it quickly and efficiently makes cooking big meals less intimidating, but it’s also an enjoyable part of the process. I love prep work. There’s something soothing and methodical about peeling and cutting potatoes for a stew. Cutting and chopping properly is a bigger part of the finished dish than most people realize. Hone your knife skills to work faster, more efficiently, and end up with dishes that are cooked evenly.

Essential knife skills

• Fingertips- Curl your fingertips under while holding the item you’re cutting to avoid cutting yourself.
• Knives- Make sure you are using the right knife for the right task. For example, a chef’s knife is best for vegetables and proteins. A serrated knife should be used to cut bread. A paring knife also works for most vegetables, though it isn’t ideal for tomatoes or bigger vegetables.
• Rock- Rock your knife in a back and forth motion like a boat might rock instead of an up and down motion.
• Paper towel- Put a damp paper towel under your cutting board if it is moving around. The paper towel will keep it stable.
• Onion- Cutting an onion properly for stews, soups, and other dishes, will cut down on the tears and help you avoid unevenly cut onions. Gordon Ramsay’s onion cutting tutorial is my favorite!

I’m a huge multitasker, so there have been many times that I’ve been cooking pasta, took a break to do some laundry, and came back into the kitchen to overflowing pasta water. While this trick isn’t the most impressive, it has been one of the most used cooking tricks in my kitchen. To avoid a volcano of overflowing pasta water on your stovetop try the wooden spoon hack.

How to use the wooden spoon hack

• Fill your pot with water and bring it to a boil.
• Add your pasta.
• Lay a wooden spoon across the top of your pot.

There are some arguments about whether this hack works, but keep in mind it isn’t intended to prevent boiling over if your pot is on the highest heat possible. Remember, if you bring your water to boil on the highest heat, that you need to turn down the heat to medium or medium-high after adding the pasta.

I used to hate cooking bacon, though I loved eating it. It was such a messy process, no matter what I did, my cooktop was splattered in grease every time. Even using a splatter screen was never full-proof. Baking bacon is an easier, hands-off option for cooking bacon and the result is always the same: crisp, evenly cooked bacon and clean cooktops.

How to bake bacon

• Preheat your oven to 400°F (204°C).
• Line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper.
• Bake for 15 minutes.
• Flip the bacon and bake for another 5 minutes.

Deglazing sounds fancy, but it’s just a fancy word for adding broth (or stock), water, or wine to a hot pan to dissolve or release the stuck bits of food at the bottom of a pan. When sauteing vegetables and proteins, the carmelized food particles that are left behind in the pan are extremely flavorful. If you have ever watched The Worst Cooks in America then you’ve heard Anne Burrell say, “Brown food is good!” Brown food is definitely good. Deglazing embraces brown food to add a depth of flavor in sauces and soups.

How to Deglaze

• After cooking your vegetables or proteins, put them aside.
• Add your broth (or stock), water, or wine to the pan.
• Stir and lightly scrape away the browned bits at the bottom of the pan as the liquid softens them.
• Cook on medium or medium-high heat until everything is incorporated.
• If you are making a sauce, and not a soup, add your thickening agents or slurry.
• Add the vegetables and/or proteins back to the pan.
• Finish your dish.

“En papillote” is a French cooking technique that dates back to the 17th century meaning cooked in paper or foil. By cooking meat, vegetables, and adding oil and acid, you’re able to steam your dish and keep all the flavor and aroma within the packet. It’s also extremely easy and mess-free with minimal dishes or cleanup. Fish en papillote is the most commonly known use of this French method, but there are many other ways to use the en papillote method. You can bake chicken en papillote, tofu en papillote, or even pork en papillote.

Salmon en papillote recipe

• Preheat your oven to 425°F (218°C).
• Lay down a piece of parchment big enough to hold your salmon and asparagus.
• Snap the tough ends of your asparagus off.
• At the bottom of your parchment, lay down a few spears of fresh asparagus.
• Add a salmon fillet on top.
• Season with salt and fresh cracked pepper.
• Finely slice a lemon and lay two to three slices over the salmon.
• Drizzle with oil or tabs of butter (about a tablespoon).
• Fold over the parchment paper and bake for 10-15 minutes.

If you’ve never wrapped en papillote, try using the method below!

One of the most common mistakes at-home cooks make is overcrowding the pan. When you overcrowd a pan, the food inside it isn’t able to cook evenly, the food won’t brown (brown food is good, remember?), the pan cannot regulate the heat as well, and your vegetables and meat will tend to be soggier than they are crunchy. If your pan is overcrowded, you won’t get a good, golden sear on your proteins.

How to avoid overcrowding

• Make sure there is enough room in the pan. For example, if you are cooking chicken breast, make sure there is space between each breast.
• If you have to, cook your proteins in batches. It’s better to cook it in batches, and end up with delicious food, then try to rush through and end up with soggy, bland food.
• Use a pan or skillet big enough to accommodate your food. If you have a bigger skillet, use it.

Are you cooking your rice correctly? Rinsing and properly cooking rice is crucial to getting restaurant-quality rice at home. While there are many ways to cook rice, not all of them will give you that restaurant-quality rice that makes the rice taste so much better than yours does at home.

How to make restaurant-quality rice

• Rinse your rice! Gently rinse rice before cooking.
• Add the rice to your rice cooker. Using a rice cooker will get you perfectly cooked rice and consistent results every time.
• Add two parts water to your one parts rice. If you have one cup of rice, add about 2 cups of water.
• Turn on your rice cooker depending on its settings and cook times.
• Do not interrupt the cooking process. Let your rice cooker do the work.

Have you ever had a serious craving for buttermilk pancakes or waffles, but you didn’t have any buttermilk on hand? You can make a creamy buttermilk substitute by added a bit of vinegar to your milk. This trick sounds a bit odd, but the vinegar and milk together create a bit of simple chemistry with amazing results. You can even do this trick with vegan milk substitutes like almond milk.

How to make a buttermilk substitute

Make sure to use white distilled vinegar. If you don’t have white vinegar you can try lemon juice!

• Measure out the amount of buttermilk needed for your recipe and put it into a cup or saucer.
• Add 1 tsp. per cup of milk. If you have 3 cups of milk, add 1 1/2 tsp. of vinegar.

Knowing the correct flavor pairings and how to make them work for you could be the difference between edible food and a food experience. Have you ever ate a meal that felt balanced? All the flavors were just right. The perfect amount of salty and sweet or sweet and spicy? That balance is what makes the perfect entree or dessert.

The universal flavor profiles are: sweet, salty, spicy, bitter, and umami. Certain flavor combinations enhance or balance each other. Here’s how you can use them to your advantage:

Common flavor combinations

• Sweet and salty- Think french fries and chocolate milkshakes or chocolate-covered pretzels. Sweet and salty can work great in big dishes too. Try apple slices with brie or in a grilled cheese, pair apples with pork chops or bacon, or eat the classic Italian appetizer, melon and prosciutto.
• Sweet and sour- Sweet and sour chicken is a good example of sweet and sour, but that example barely skims the surface. My favorite sweet and sour combo is strawberry and balsamic chicken.
• Sweet and bitter- Adding sugar to your coffee is a small, everyday example of how sweetness balances bitterness. The same practice is used when sugar is sprinkled over grapefruit. Endives, a leafy vegetable known for their bitterness, are commonly cooked in butter and a dash of sugar to balance their bitterness.
• Sour and salty- While it doesn’t sound like a common match, sour and salty flavors are in salad dressings, sauces, and marinades. Even sour cream with salty tortilla chips is an example of sour and salty. Italian dressings that use parmesan cheese or anchovies in Ceaser dressing are typical, everyday examples of how well sour and salty work together to enhance and achieve balance.
• Sweet and umami- An orange and soy glaze for chicken or tofu is the perfect example of sweet and umami. The sweetness of the orange and the umami of the soy create a perfectly balanced sauce for chicken and rice. Another example of sweet and umami is when cooks put sugar in their tomato-based sauces. Tomatoes are typically considered umami, and the sugar balances and enhances their flavor.
• Sweet and spicy- Sweet chili sauces in stir fry, honey and jalapeno cornbread, and spicy pepper jelly are delicious ways to combine sweet and spicy. The sweetness balances the spicy.

The easiest hack of the bunch, deciding against draining your beans when putting them into stews, soups, and chillis, is worth real consideration. While the liquid that comes with beans tends to include a lot of sodium, it also contains a lot of flavors from the beans. When adding the liquid along with your beans, consider the salt content and adjust your seasoning to prevent an oversalted dish, or buy sodium-free beans.

Why you should consider adding the entire can

• Have you ever made a soup or dish that is better the next day, after the flavors had a real chance to marry? The liquid the beans are preserved in also contains tons of flavor.
• Adding the liquid can help marry the flavors of the beans into the sauce or soup you are cooking them in.
• The liquid can also help with the consistency of stews and chillis by thickening them.

Adding salt to your garlic while mincing is one of my favorite, simple hacks for a few reasons. First, by adding a sprinkle of salt to the garlic, you break down the garlic making it much easier to mince finely. If you are trying to achieve minced garlic that borders on a paste (the finer the mince the more flavorful the dish), adding garlic helps in the breakdown process so that you have less work to do. However, adding salt also stops the garlic from sticking so much to your knife.

Mincing garlic with salt

• Carefully crush the cloves with the flat of your knife.
• Peel the cloves.
• Cut off the root ends of the garlic.
• Cut the garlic into slices.
• Add a dash of salt.
• Mince the garlic in a rocking motion.

If you want to take it one step further and make garlic paste, try the tutorial below!

One of the biggest mistakes at-home cooks make is not seasoning as they go. Many cooks season in the beginning, taste their food at the end, and add whatever seasoning they feel is lacking before garnishing. This method isn’t necessarily bad, but if you get to the end of your cook time and find your dish is lacking in a particular seasoning, it may be too late for the seasoning to get truly incorporated. If you forgot a seasoning, and you wait to taste until the end of your cook time, it will be too late.

While salt and pepper can be added at the end of cook time, even salt and pepper should be added as you go so they have a chance to incorporate into your dish.

How to season as you go

• Follow your recipe by adding the necessary seasonings needed at the beginning of cooking
• About halfway through the needed cook-time, check your dish to make sure it has enough salt, pepper, or other seasonings. If you need more dried basil or oregano, you know in plenty of time to fix the issue. Adding dried herbs or other seasonings too late in the cooking process will not give them enough time to flavor the dish.
• When you have about 5-minutes of cook time left, check your dish again. If a little salt, pepper, acid (squeeze of lemon or lime) is needed, you can add it during the last five minutes. Doing this while the heat is still being applied means the seasonings can dissolve and get incorporated properly.

Garbage bowls are used by the likes of Gordon Ramsay and Rachel Ray. Rachel Ray even sells a replication of her own garbage bowl that you can add to your kitchen. However, any spare bowl big enough for your use is perfect to use as a garbage bowl. It doesn’t have to be pretty or new, as long as it can hold your garbage, it can be made a garbage bowl.

Using a garbage bowl is easy. Put out your garbage bowl while you do your prep work, and as you go add any items you need to throw away to the bowl.

Why use a garbage bowl

• Save yourself many trips to the garbage can. Once you are done, dump your garbage bowl in the trash and wash it.
• Be better about composting. If you compost, garbage bowls are a helpful way to make sure you don’t throw away anything you intend to compost.

Many at-home cooks that are still learning tend to either burn things or are afraid of turning the heat up on their stovetop. Don’t be afraid of heat. While there are times you absolutely don’t want to cook on high heat (when caramelizing onions for one), there are many times that food should be cooked on medium-high to high heat. Cooking on low heat in instances when high heat is necessary can result in soggy or bland food.

When you should crank up the heat

• For crispy, salty fish skin, cook skin side down first on medium-high to high heat. Three-fourths of the cooking time should be on the skin side down. Just before flipping, turn the heat down to medium. Feel free to check the edges of the fish skin to avoid burning, and trust your knowledge of the temperature of your stove.
• For perfectly seared steak, sear on medium-high to high heat depending on your range and preferred doneness. For a medium-rare steak, try four minutes per side.
• Using medium-high to high heat is ideal for stirfrying. It allows you to avoid soft, soggy vegetables in your stirfry.

Remember, not every stove’s temperature range is the same. I tend to sear my fish on medium-high, because my stovetop runs hot, while my oven has average heat. Figure out your stovetop’s heat first.

Asparagus is by far my favorite vegetable, but the fibrous ends are completely inedible. Knowing where the fibrous part of the stalk ends, and where to cut, can be tricky since each stalk is different. The best way to test your asparagus stalk is to let the asparagus tell you where the soft, tasty part ends and the woody, inedible part begins. By bending the asparagus, the asparagus will naturally break and you can toss the ends or use them for other purposes.

How to break asparagus

• Hold the stalk of asparagus at both ends.
• Slide the hand that is holding the top, buttery part of the asparagus closer to the woody part.
• Gently bend until the asparagus breaks.

Keep in mind that asparagus can break anywhere, so making sure you guide your hands closer to where the fibrous part and soft part of the asparagus meet. This helps you to avoid waste.

Trusted your taste and judgment as a cook is important. Have you ever read a recipe and an ingredient or suggestion within the recipe had you itching your head in confusion? Something about it felt off? Too much sugar or water or an odd ingredient that you have an inkling is off? Trust your instincts. While you don’t want to avoid every unique combination you see, often many unique or odd combinations are balancing or enhancing combinations, you should still go with your gut!

How to better trust your judgment in the kitchen

• Taste your food. A recipe might not call for a splash of lemon, but if it’s too greasy or needs a dash of acid, give it a go. Trust your tastebuds when they are happy or tell you there is something missing.
• Use your nose. Does something smell off? Does it smell so good you can hardly wait another minute? Trust that instinct.
• If an element of a recipe feels off but you aren’t sure, do some research. Cinnamon doesn’t sound like a good pairing with chili, but it’s often used in chili recipes as the ingredient that takes the chili to another level. If you doubt it, google it. If you google cinnamon in chili, you will find many recipes that boast of adding it. However, if a recipe calls for an ingredient and you do some research and find the addition won’t add to your dish like you thought, strike it out.

Most restaurants warm their plates. Warm plates help to keep your food warm and prevent it from getting cold too quickly. With warm plates, you can take your time enjoying each bite without worrying that it will get cold before you can finish. Warm food is also more aromatic. So, why don’t most people warm their plates at home? Maybe the problem is they don’t know which method is best?

How to warm your plates

• Run your plates under hot water on both sides until they are warm.
• Gently dry them with a towel.
• Use them as soon as you can to make use of their heat.

Monter au beurre, also known as mounting, is French for “mount with butter.” While this french technique sounds fancy, and has equally fancy, decedent results, mounting is one of the easiest tricks in the book. To mount a sauce, you finish a sauce with butter to impart it with buttery flavor, make the sauce creamy in texture, and add some shine to the sauce as well.

How to mount with butter

• Once your sauce is done, turn off the heat.
• Keep the sauce in the hot pan you’ve cooked it in and on the same, still-hot burner.
• Add a couple of tabs of cold butter.
• Stir the cold butter into the cause until it is incorporated and the sauce is glossy.

The goal is to emulsify the butter in quickly. The sauce will be hot enough to heat it, so don’t be tempted to cook the sauce after adding the butter.

If you worry about having dry proteins, specifically pork chops or chicken, give them a nice brine. If you’ve never heard of brining before, brining meat is the process of putting meat into a brine usually made of water, salt, herbs, and often lemon. Brining meat is an easy process that does most of the work on its own while sitting in the fridge. Many cooks chose to let their meat brine overnight so that it’s ready for lunch or dinner the next day.

Don’t be intimidating by brining. I like to think of brining like marinating, but instead of imparting a lot of flavor into the meat, I’m adding mostly moisture.

How to make a basic brine

• Add about 6 cups of water to a pot, glass bowl, baking dish, or metal bowl.
• Add about a tablespoon of peppercorns.
• Add 1/2 cup of salt.
• Add desired herbs (fresh herbs are preferable).
• Place your meat of choice in the brine, pop it in the fridge, and let it sit for at least one hour (I would recommend several hours or overnight depending on the weight of the meat).

For bigger meats like whole chickens, double or triple the recipe to your needs.

Broth and stock is a great addition to most recipes. Broth is a staple I always keep on hand. For making stews, adding flavor to grains, deglazing pans, or making soups, broth is my go-to. It’s affordable and effective. Broth has so much flavor. If you are vegan or vegetarian, you can use vegetable broths. If you eat meat there is bone broth, beef broth, chicken broth, or even fish broth.

How to use broth in your recipes

• If a recipe calls for water, but you can use broth or stock, do it. The flavor payoff will be worth it.
• Make your own broth or stock.
• Use broth or stock to cook beans in.
• Add a splash of broth or stock to your greens as you cook them down. I add broth to spinach and kale when cooking.

Vanilla extract is so commonly used that other extracts and essences are often overlooked. Vanilla extract is a great addition to cakes, icecreams, and cream-filled pastries, but almond extract is a much better pairing with chocolate-based recipes, and it takes no more effort than adding vanilla extract. You might even choose to split the recipe with half almond extract and half vanilla extract.

Recipes to use almond essence

• Chocolate mug cake– I always use almond extract in chocolate cake, and mug cakes are no different. Almond essence will add a pleasant aroma and enhance the chocolaty flavor of your cake.
• Recipes that include raspberries. Almond essence also pairs well with raspberries.
• Recipes that include cherries.
• Almond meltaway cookies. If you have never had almond meltaway cookies, you are missing out.

Wine is another ingredient that is often overlooked or avoided in the kitchen. I avoided cooking with wine for too long, before I decided to conquer it and found it to be much easier than I anticipated. Adding wine to dishes is just another step in the cooking process. It takes a very small amount of wine and only a few more minutes of cooking for a big flavor pay off.

The biggest rule when adding wine, is to add it before other liquids (preferably during the deglazing process) and let it cook long enough to cook out the alcohol. You’ll know the alcohol has cooked out of the wine when it begins to thicken (reduce) and the smell becomes more aromatic. Once the alcohol has cooked out of the wine, you can add your other liquids and ingredients.

Common dishes to use wine in

• Stew
• Roasts
• Soup
• Sauces

If you are still feeling a bit unsure, watch this tutorial and see it in action.

Some of the foods we love most have been browned: seared vegetables, seared steak, grilled chicken, braised beef, roasted potatoes, and caramelized onions, to name a few. Not only is the golden crust of skin on a salmon fillet beautiful and appetizing, but the crispy skin is the best part of a salmon fillet. The skin is just the right amount of salty and bitter and umami. The flavors and beauty of properly seared, caramelized, or charred foods are appetizing to the eye and the palette.

Ways to brown your food

• Sear steak, scallops, fish, and other proteins.
• Char vegetables and remove their skins. Use them in salsas and soups to enhance the flavor.
• Cook on medium-high to high heat to avoid soggy proteins.
• When making caramelized onions, cook low and slow.

There’s nothing like trying to cut and dice and chop while cooking at the same time. Mise en place is French for “putting in place” or “everything in its place.” Mise en place is about getting organized, preparing, and having everything in its place, so that when you go to cook the process has been simplified for you and you are properly prepared.

How to practice mise en place

• Grab everything you need for your dish.
• Clean all your vegetables.
• Cut all your vegetables and put them in bowls or on a cutting board.
• Measure out the spices you need and put them into a bowl.
• Have any liquids you need out and measured or ready to be quickly added to your dish.

That’s the practice of mise en place!

Butter burns easily, and there is no worse flavor than burnt butter or burnt garlic. So, searing meat, cooking proteins, or cooking vegetables on high heat in butter is a no-go. However, there are ways to include the flavor of butter in all your dishes without risking burnt butter or the burnt flavor due to butter’s high smoking point. My favorite way is to include butter and oil in the same pan. This method allows you to enjoy the flavor of butter while raising your butter’s smoking point.

How to add oil to butter

• Bring your pan to heat.
• Add one part oil.
• Add one part butter.

While this trick still shouldn’t be used for meat, it’s ideal for sauces or stirfry.

Adding a bit of pasta water to sauce has been a trick passed down from generation to generation. While it’s a fairly well-known trick, it’s also one that gets overlooked because people don’t understand its purpose. I didn’t use the pasta water trick for a long time for that same reason, but I don’t make sauce without pasta water now.

Why use the pasta water in sauce

• Pasta water can help thicken sauce.
• Pasta water adds salt and starch to the sauce giving it more flavor.
• Pasta water helps the pasta and sauce marry better.

When I learned how to roast garlic, I went a little roasted garlic crazy. Roasted garlic is incredibly versatile and it takes the flavor and aroma of garlic to an entirely new level. It can be spread on toast, added to mashed potatoes, added to potato soup, used in sauces or gravies, and added to hummus. If you’ve never roasted garlic, I highly recommend you do so as soon as possible.

How to roast garlic

• Preheat the oven to 350°F (176°C).
• Cut the top of the garlic bulb so that you can see the tops of each clove of garlic.
• Set the bulb on a piece of foil.
• Drizzle the garlic with olive oil.
• Season with salt and pepper.
• Wrap the garlic up and bake for 50 minutes to an hour.

Greens like spinach and kale go bad so quickly, I often don’t get to use them all up. Taking the time to blanch your greens before freezing them can be intimidating, but it isn’t always necessary. You can freeze greens without blanching and it’s a huge time saver and food saver.

How to use frozen greens

• Warm them in sauces for pasta.
• Cook them in a pan with lemon juice and olive oil as a side with your choice of protein.
• Add them to soup or stew.
• Toss them into smoothies.

If you want to know the easiest way to freeze kale, watch the tutorial below!

Lemons aren’t just tasty additions to water or tea. Lemons add flavor to almost any dish, can help cut the fattiness of fried or greasy foods, can be used to make salad dressings, can be the basis of a sauce for pasta or chicken, and can even be added to soups.

Ways to use lemons

• If your dish is a bit bland, add a squeeze of lemon and give it a stir. Lemon can be just as effective as finishing with salt.
• Add the juice of half a lemon to lentil, black bean, or orzo soup.
• Use lemon to tenderize meat.
• Squeeze a bit of lemon over fruit like pears, plums, or berries.
• Squeeze lemon over fried foods like fried fish or mushrooms.