Goat Cheese Mac & Cheese

Goat Cheese Mac & Cheese

1 cup pitted Mediterranean olives
3-4 garlic cloves, chopped
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
6 oz goat cheese, crumbled
1/2 tsp thyme
12 oz penne pasta

1. Chop olives in food processor until finely chopped.
2. Place in large bowl and add garlic, olive oil, goat cheese and thyme.
3. Cook pasta until al dente, saving some of the cooking water.
4. Toss pasta with cheese mixture, adding pasta water for desired consistency.
5. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Notes: I don't care for olives, so I made half with and half without. It's still good without the olives. The recipe can easily be split in half to feed 2 people, too.

Recipe Origination: Shannon Downey sent this one from a Mac and Cheese book.

Chicken Wellington

Chicken Wellington

1 sheet puffed pastry dough, thawed, rolled out and cut in half
1 large boneless, skinless chicken breast, cooked and diced
4 oz goat cheese
1/2 cup marinara or other red sauce
1/2 pepper (any color) finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spread half of each ingredient on each puffed pastry sheet.
3. Fold puffed pastry sheet over and seal each open side by folding over and indenting with a fork. (This makes it look like a hot pocket.)
4. Put on foil lined baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown on top.

Notes: You can really put anything inside the pastry dough. This is just a combination that we happen to enjoy. If the pastry dough sticks to the counter, use a little flour or don't let it thaw out quite so long. This recipe makes two wellingtons.

Recipe Origination: Erin made us veggie wellingtons once, so this is a version of that.