Waste not...

One of my book clubs recently read this book on food waste. I knew that ridiculous amounts of food get wasted everyday but I was not aware of the environmental effects that come along with food waste. Long story very short, food releases methane as it decomposes and methane is bad. Plus it is just wrong to throw away perfectly good food. This book changed me. After reading it I am much better about composting and trying to use all the food that I have in the house before I buy more. I can hear the book whispering as I'm about to wash food scraps down the sink. I see it on my shoulder as I am about to throw a banana peel in the trash. I feel it judging me when I think about going out to eat instead of eating what is in my fridge. I guess haunts me would be a more accurate description. This book haunts me.

The ghostly form of the book popped up while I was canning raspberry rosewater syrup yesterday. I found myself with a whole lot of raspberry pulp. The juice went to the syrup but the meat was left behind. I tried it and it was delicious, I couldn't just throw it away. Eating it plain didn't seem like a great plan. Mixing it into yogurt seemed boring. I decided to bake it into bars.

First I made a simple crust of sugar, butter, flour and salt. I pressed the crust into an 8x8 square glass dish and baked it for 15 minutes. Then I smoothed the raspberry bits over the top and baked again for about 15 minutes. When I pulled it out of the oven I spread dark chocolate chips over the top. Once they were melty I smoothed them out and VIOLA! Dark chocolate raspberry bars!

Thank you book ghost for helping me create this delicious dessert.