This month I put out a vote to my Recipe Club friends for the theme for our monthly potluck: 5 ingredients or less, tailgating, or a new dish. I wasn’t surprised to see that 5 ingredients or less won the vote by a landslide, especially with school starting up and schedules being busy.

What I didn’t expect was the plethora of desserts! My Lemon Ricotta Pasta was the only savory item on the menu! I had to adjust the recipe to fit the theme though. I eliminated the sausage and used garlic powder in the sauce instead of taking the effort to fry up garlic in olive oil. (Olive oil would not have counted towards my 5 ingredients, though.) I made my pasta dish right before heading out the door and kept it warm in a slow cooker at the event.

Thank goodness for boxed cake mix – we had an incredible apple pie dessert (apple pie filling, yellow cake mix, butter) and a berry crumble type dessert (berries, cake mix, butter), no one would know these desserts were “semi homemade.” And one of my friends turned to our group as guinea pigs to experiment with two different brands of gluten free cake mix for her daughter’s upcoming 1st birthday.

A cheese cake inspired dessert joined the menu because of a broken oven (cream cheese, condensed milk, lemon juice, cool whip, pre-made crust). And to round out the cold sweet offerings, a frozen blueberry dessert (blueberry pie filling, evaporated milk, lemon juice, almond extract, cool whip).

A dinner of pasta, desserts, and great conversation meant we were a happy bunch of ladies!