Pesto Pollo Penne

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.