I like playing cards.  I’m not sorry for as nerdy as I am about food it shouldn’t be a surprise that I am also into a card focused game night.  I had three of my besties over last week and made a bunch of snacks on snacks.  A couple of bottles of wine later and a victory by me and my teammate I busted out these individual raspberry crisps.  As if winning cards wasn’t enough I got to devour sweetened and buttered fruit as a reward.  The beauty of these crisps is you can assemble them in advance, bake them off when needed and you don’t even need to plate them in their cute individual state they are good to go.

Inspired by Alton Brown.

Mix 1 cup of flour, 2/3 cup of sugar, 1.5 cups of sliced almonds and 1.5 cups of oatmeal in a bowl.  Using your hands mix in 1 stick of cold butter you have cubed up.   This is your carb/butter pile.

In a separate bowl mix 12 ounces of raspberry (yes you can use frozen) 0.25 cups of sugar, 2 teaspoons of cornstarch and 0.5 cups of the carb/butter mixture you just made above. 

Divide into 4 ramekins and top each with the remaining carb/butter pile.

 Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees F.  If they don’t look browned enough for you turn the broiler on for a hot second.  Top with ice cream (I used coffee but you can’t  really lose no matter what flavor you choose).

Madeleines are insanely easy (example here) but you can only eat so many of these sugary treats in a week.  That’s why Parmesan Rosemary Madeleines are a true gift.  This is a cookie vehicle for cheese and carbs in classy way.  Need I say more.

Inspired by Williams-Sonoma

You’ll need:

6 tablespoons of butter, melted plus more for the Madeleine pan

1 cup flour

3 tsp minced fresh rosemary

1 tsp fleur de sel

0.25 tsp pepper

4 eggs

1 tsp sugar

1 cup freshly grated parmesan

Brush the mold of your Madeleine pan with melted butter.

Mix the flour, rosemary, salt and pepper in a mixing bowl.  In a separate bowl beat the eggs on high for about 3 minutes.  Beat in the sugar.  Gently fold in the flour mixture, cheese and 6 tablespoons of butter.  Spoon into prepared pan and bake at 375 for 12 minutes.

These cheesy puffy piles were part of girl’s night and let me tell you they were well received.  Get on this.

I know it doesn’t sound quite right.  Pasta, avocado, gouda…. Weird to do? I’ve done weirder things.  These ingredients might not sound like they go together but this dish is literally insane.  Have you ever had a chocolate covered gummy bear?  Or any other combination you felt weird about until you tasted it and then it felt so right? That’s why you have to make this…

Recipe from Half Baked Harvest

Photos by my amazing friend and OutsideTheCerealBox supporter Bridget.

Cook a pound of fettuccine (I used whole wheat). Keep in mind this pasta won’t have additional cook time in the sauce so cook it like you mean it.  Save some of the pasta water.

Puree two avocados, 1 large garlic clove and the juice from half a lemon in a food processor until smooth.  Add  0.5 cups of milk (I used two percent).  You want this to be as smooth as possible. I had a hard time caring about making it smooth since I was starving and more focused on getting this pasta in my trap but hopefully you are more patient than me.

Add 0.25 cups chopped basil, 0.75 cups of gouda and salt/pep to the sauce in the food processor.  Puree.

Add the sauce to the pasta.  Add pasta water as needed to thin out the sauce.  Mix in 0.5 cup of pine nuts (saving some for garnish). Garnish with red pepper flakes, pine nuts and basil.  This was my little avocado fix on Cinco de Mayo slash I’m always trying to get more green in my life.  Note: this will turn brown from the avocados so serve right away.  This should in no way keep you from eating the leftovers.  It definitely didn’t with me.