4 slices French bread, thickly sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil or butter
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon garlic powder

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees while preparing the bread.
2. Spread oil or butter onto individual slices of bread and season with oregano and garlic powder.
3. Bake until bread begins to toast, about 8 minutes.

Makes 4 servings

2 cups dry penne
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
1 clove garlic, sliced
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons parmesan cheese
1/4 cup pesto
water
salt and pepper

1 cup fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons pine nuts
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
1/4 cup Olive oil

1. To make pesto, gradually blend together basil, parmesan, pine nuts and garlic in a food processor, adding oil and scraping the sides down as necessary. Continue pulsing with the food processor as you add the remaining oil to form a thick, smooth paste. Alternatively, just use store bought.
2. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and add penne noodles. Cook until al dente.
3. Meanwhile, melt butter and olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat and saute the garlic under tender.
4. Add the shredded chicken and coat it with the butter and oil.
5. Reduce the heat and add in the cream and pesto.
6. Stir in cooked pasta and about a tablespoon of pasta water into the pan.
7. Cover with parmesan and serve.

Makes 4 servings

2 ounces crab meat, minced
2 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 teaspoons mayonnaise
1/4 teaspoon whole grain mustard
1/4 teaspoon lemon juice
1 clove garlic, minced
8 large button mushrooms, stems removed
salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees while preparing mushrooms.
2. Combine all ingredients, except mushrooms, in a bowl. Mix well and season with salt and pepper.
3. Eventually distribute the mixture into the mushroom caps.
4. Arrange mushroom caps on an oven proof dish and bake until tender, about 20 minutes.

Makes 8 mushroom caps

Pesto and penne are great together. Pesto and chicken are great together. Therefore, Pesto Chicken Penne can't go wrong. I would recommend making your own pesto because the freshness of the basil really comes through and the consistency is usually more like a sauce. If you're trying to conserve time the store bought stuff would work (I did the same, because fresh basil isn't readily available anywhere right now), but you may need to add more cream or oil to thin out the sauce.

Speaking of saving time, we used the breasts from one of those store bought rotisserie chickens and it was no worse for the wear. You could easily throw a combination of toasted pine nuts, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, peas, bacon, capers and anchovies in there if you're looking to add a bit more flare.

The Crab Stuffed Mushrooms are a take on something that you'd find as an appetizer at a lot of restaurants. We picked up discounted imitation crab for about a buck because Shannon is allergic to the real thing. Unfortunately she was also allergic to this imitation kind as well. Unless you live somewhere that fresh crab is accessible, I don't think it really hurts the recipe any. That crab flavored, cream cheesy goodness is great. They're really more satisfying than tantalizing, but that's just
like most appetizers. The only real appetizer is starvation, in my opinion. The rest are just small portions of food.

We got another loaf of free French bread and figured we might as well make Garlic Toast. I guess that means we're going to have to make breadsticks or something when the spaghetti Bolognese dinner rolls around. For dessert I had a big swig of Buckley's cough syrup because I'm still sick as a dog. I would recommend something fruitier, but the choice is yours.