The Monthly Friday Night Supper Club

Last week, I had a couple of girlfriends over for dinner. Once a month, we get together on a Friday night and either try a new restaurant we haven't been to before here in St. John's, or one of us cooks a meal for the other two, while someone else brings a bottle of wine and the other a dessert. We call it our Monthly Friday Night Supper Club. (I like to name things. It's a thing.)

This past week, I made my favourite pasta dish for them. I've written about this dish before - infact, it was the first Transatlantic Tastes dish N and I did. This simple cherry tomato, balsamic vinegar pasta dish is so delicious and so easy, it's my go-to meal when I'm tired of stir fry and still want to have something nice and home cooked that's an upgrade from Kraft Dinner or Chef Boyardee Ravioli. (Don't get me wrong, I like a bitta KD every once in a while, but....come on. And as for Ravioli...well, it brings me back to my childhood. I eat it once in a blue moon.)

Anyway, this really is a simple dish, and it's great for a weeknight when you don't want to have to put a lot of effort into dinner, but on the flip side, if you want to have something tasty and impressive looking for a little dinner party, it works really well. You can find the recipe here in Jamie Oliver's cookbook, or you can take a look at my earlier Transatlantic Tastes post about it, so can try this dish for yourself!

I always have a good time when I get together with these two ladies - we met in university at different points; one I studied abroad with and the other I did several English and Religious Studies courses with, until the three of us were all in the same English grammar course. We formed a study group and from that came a real friendship. We lost touch over the last few years, with travelling and studying abroad in different places, but we reconnected this past January and have had a great time catching up. I've said it before numerous times, but one of my favourite things is catching up with an old friend and finding how what's been happening in their life.

I'm looking forward to our next Friday Night Supper Club, and I know the girls are as well. Here's to food and friendship!

Mmmmm, pasta. :)

The Return of Transatlantic Tastes!

Transatlantic Tastes has been on hiatus for a few months due to life getting busy for myself and my cooking partner, but a couple of Sundays ago, we managed to set aside a few hours to try a new dish and catch up on all our news. Our chosen recipe? "Parmesan Chicken Breasts with Crispy Posh Ham". 

This is a recipe that I've wanted to try for a long time, (like, for a couple of years long time) but for some reason, I just never did. To start up our cooking sessions again, I thought this would be a great dish to get us going!

If you've ever seen Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food television series on the Food Network, this dish is one that Jamie cooks for a group of men who have never cooked before in their lives, and I figure if they could do it, so can I. Sure, I didn't have Jamie Oliver standing next to me, giving me a demonstration before I started, but I figured N and I would do just fine.

The list of ingredients were pretty easy - some I had in my pantry already, others I had to make a trip to the grocery store for. I don't usually have things like fresh thyme or prosciutto on hand regularly. The ingredients included:

• 2 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 2 small skinless chicken breast fillets
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 lemon
• 4 slices of prosciutto
• olive oil

Recipe? Check!

The ingredients all ready to go!

Chicken breast sprinkled with fresh thyme, freshly ground pepper and lemon zest

Let's see how this turns out...

Not the prettiest presentation, but it sure tasted good! N gives the thumbs up!

This was a fairly easy recipe to make, and it really was a delicious meal. The next time I try it, I'll be sure to flatten the chicken breasts a bit more, to give them a more even cook through. If this recipe is something you'd be interested in trying, I recommend you check out Jamie Oliver's website, or pick up his book, Jamie's Food Revolution.We'll be back again soon with more Transatlantic Tastes recipes!