6 minute read
Chill In
RECIPE
SUMMER-INWINTER CHICKEN
Pining for summer? This simply seasoned chicken fried with beautiful, ripe cherry tomatoes in a creamy sauce is guaranteed to hit the spot. Add a dollop of pesto for an extra layer of nutty flavours. Quick and easy to make - taking only 25 minutes.
INGREDIENTS
(Serves 4) 1 tbsp olive oil 4 boneless chicken breasts 200g pack of cherry tomatoes 3 tbsp of crème fraiche 3 tbsp of pesto (if required) Fresh basil Salt and pepper Rice & salad Broccoli & mash
METHOD
Heat the oil in a frying pan, preferably non-stick. Add the chicken and fry without moving it until it takes on a bit of colour. Turn the chicken and cook on the other side.
Continue cooking for 12-15 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Season all over with a little salt and pepper.
Halve the tomatoes and throw them into the pan, stirring them around for a couple of minutes until they start to soften.
Reduce the heat and stir in the pesto and crème fraîche until it makes a sauce. Scatter with a few basil leaves if you have them.
Then serve with either rice and salad or mash and broccoli.
WINE PAIRING
Chicken can be served so many different ways you might wonder which type of wine makes the best pairing. The truth is there’s no single answer - it depends on your own personal taste and the way it’s cooked - but here’s a simple guide.
Given that chicken is a light meat, it won’t surprise you to learn that white wine is generally a more flexible match with smooth dry whites like chardonnay happily partnering a great many chicken dish. However, for a cherry tomato laden sauce like this month’s recipe, you could always try a medium-bodied southern French or Spanish red like a Côtes du Roussillon - or even a robust Merlot would suit.
MOVIE REVIEW ALBUM REVIEW BOOK REVIEW
AVATAR THE WAY OF WATER
We’ve been waiting a long time for this first sequel and boy was it worth the wait! Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ tells the story of the Sully family consisting of Jake, Neytiri and their kids and the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive and the tragedies they have to endure.
Set almost all underwater, hence the name, Jake has to return to Pandora and fight the humans with drastic results for his family and people. This is the most beautifully shot film and Sony even made a new camera to capture this epic follow up.
It is the first of four sequels to come from director James Cameron and there are big bucks behind the films, almost $1billion collectively, according to IMDB (The Internet Movie Database).
If you were a fan of the first ‘Avatar’ in 2008 you will LOVE this movie. Thinking about getting into it, well watch the Oscar winning first and get down to your local cinema from December 16th. It is rated 12 so you can watch with older children during the holidays. A cinema ‘big screen’ viewing is highly recommended for this one!
STORMZY THIS IS WHAT I MEAN
Croydon born Grime artist Stormzy is back with another belter of an album. This is the star’s third studio album and his first with London based record label 0207 Def Jam, run by music industry stalwarts and twin brothers, Alec and Alex Boateng.
It’s been a long time coming too. Stormzy’s previous album ‘Heavy in the Head’ was released back in 2019 to critical acclaim. This 3-year hiatus has seen Stormzy back in the studio for an intense music camp to make ‘This Is What I Mean.’
Stormzy said of the experience, “When you hear about music camps, they always sound intense and sombre. People saying, ‘We need to make an album.’ ‘We need to make some hit records.’ But this felt beautifully free. We’re all musicians, but we weren’t always doing music. Some days we played football or walked around taking pictures. And the byproduct to that was very beautiful music. Because when you marry that ethos with world-class musicians and the best producers, writers, and artists in the world, and we’re in one space, that’s a recipe for something that no one can really imagine. You can’t even calculate what that’s going to come up with. And it came up with a big chunk of this album.”
The lead album track arrives on the heels of his big comeback track, ‘Mel Made Me Do It’. The song itself comes in at just over seven minutes, while the even longer music video features brilliant cameos from runner Usain Bolt, documentarian Louis Theroux and footballing icon, José Mourinho.
NINE LIARS
Best-selling author Maureen Johnson is back with a new, intriguing and quirky murder mystery book, this time it’s all set in England.
Senior year at Ellingham Academy for lead character Stevie Bell isn’t going well. Her boyfriend, David, is studying in London. Her friends are obsessed with college applications. With the cold case of the century solved, Stevie is adrift. There is nothing to distract her from the questions pinging around her brain - questions about college, love and life in general.
Relief comes when David invites Stevie and her friends to join him for study abroad, and his new friend Izzy introduces her to a double-murder cold case. In 1995, nine friends from Cambridge University went to a country house and played a drunken game of hide-and-seek. Two were found in the woodshed the next day, murdered with an axe.
The case was assumed to be a burglary gone wrong, but one of the remaining seven saw something she can’t explain. This was no breakin. Someone’s lying about what happened in the woodshed.
Seven suspects. Two murders. One killer still playing a deadly game.
This is a thrilling, can’t put down page-turner of a book and as it’s all set in the nineties, fun looking back at the nostalgic references of the time.
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