Yup: Fisher & Donaldson have done it again! A massive hollow chocolate cupcake. Fantastic.
We got ours for Christmas, and it didn’t last long…
I almost think I could have a go at making one of these…
Just before Christmas, we had dinner at Vita in Perth with friends and were pleased with this new venue. It’s very central, the interior is fresh and trendy and the food and drinks menus look great.
The menu had plenty to choose from.
Hubby and I had one of their sharing platters to start with, and we were surprised at how big it was! It would have been ideal for four, but we made short shrift of it! It included: wee burgers; haggis balls; delicious meatballs; breads; and dipping vinegar & oil.
For our main we both had the magnificent Highland burger: a burger topped with haggis, cheese and an egg. It was immense, and extremely good.
The service was OK: mostly good, bad in parts, but they redeemed themselves. We ordered wine, which didn’t arrive – when we pointed this out we were comped a couple of glasses.
After we’d had our coffee we felt the service disappeared somewhat – we were left to our own devices for a good 45 minutes before we had to ask for the bill. We weren’t complaining about not being rushed! But it was an opportunity for the staff to ask if we wanted to order more drinks, which we would have.
I think the continuity of service is something they can work on! And, having visited again for drinks later in the week, I hope they can do so soon.
The cocktail menu looked superb, and the staff seemed enthusiastic and knowledgeable about it. And we were excited to try it. We weren’t disappointed – the cocktails were delicious and innovative.
The service in the bar area was fine until other customers started to arrive: from then on, we had to physically go up to staff to place an order – no service was forthcoming. Our last round of drinks took 15 minutes to arrive, and we’d only ordered a pint and a vodka & coke. I realise that, by this point in the evening, the bar and restaurant were getting busy. But having customers wait that long for their order shows bad management of the bar rather than anything else.
Apparently it was International Pizza Week last week, or something. No need for an excuse in this house, so I made pizza for dinner on Friday – Slimming World pizza, of course!
This time I used turkey steaks, instead of chicken breast – it worked just as well, and it’s easy to get turkey at this time of year.
I topped the cooked breast steak (see recipe for instruction about battering and cooking) with passata with basil in lieu of a tomato sauce. Toppings included: chopped red onion; sliced mushrooms; spinach; ham; and rocket.
I used regular mozzarella (grated) rather than pre-grated pizza mozzarella, which seemed to have more calories and fat. Remember to count Syns for all the cheese you use – and you need less than you think you do!
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Slimming World Syns: this recipe is Syn FREE, apart from the cheese. You get about 28g cheese as your Healthy Extra (and depending on the cheese), or count the Syns.
This was the first time I’d eaten at the Bothy, Perth, though I’d been for drinks on plenty of occasions (at their Famous Grouse Bar). I’ve also eaten at some of the other restaurants in the same corporation (like Mitchell’s), and enjoyed them thoroughly, so expectations were high.
Everything was good: the service was fine; the interior is nice; the menu looked like it had potential; and the wine list was promising.
I was disappointed there weren’t any mussels, and opted for the crab and avocado crostini to start. It was fine, but a bit bland. The crab/avocado came in a wee pot, separate from the corstini, and there was a red sauce i wasn’t sure what to do with. But it was fine. However, the rest of the starters looked tasty.
I had smoked haddock fishcakes as my main, which were very tasty. It came with a very good coleslaw salad – a fusion of the two. It didn’t come with any carbs, and I had to get chips on the side.
The dessert I chose was a very nice creme brulee with delicious shortbread. It claimed to be a Bailey’s creme brulee, though I couldn’t taste any hint of it. But it was very good.
The wine we had was very nice, though they kept bringing the wrong one (and I didn’t notice til it was too late the second time…). Actually, we had a few issues when ordering drinks (forgotten orders etc). But aside from that the service was cheery and efficient.
After dinner we stayed for a few drinks and had a chance to sample more of the excellent cocktail menu. I had a Rusty Bellini, which was rather fun: peach puree; Drambuie; topped with sparkling wine. It was excellent to see the waitress make up the drink, which had the wine layered on top of the Drambuie on top of the peach – very clever!
Well, since the New Year my blog stats have soared – in no small part due to lots of people looking for Slimming World recipes! It’s that time of year to be thinking about eating healthily and dropping a few lbs after the Festive season. A big Sunday fry-up is one of my favourite meals – to cook and to eat – and it doesn’t have to be laden with calories. The keys to my Slimming World breakfast are:
A fry-up also needs:
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Slimming World Syns: this meal is Syn FREE.
Remember to count Syns for: any condiments; milk in your tea or coffee; toast or other bread product you might add on the side; butter or milk added to your eggs.
We got a 5pm.co.uk voucher for Esca and tried it out the other week. The deal was a good one: a glass of bubbly upon arrival: three courses; a bottle of house wine; and coffee or tea.
The surroundings were well-appointed, and the service was very friendly and efficient (even when it started to get busy).
All three courses were delicious. I had calamari to start, and it was battered and friend to perfection. My main of chicken Florentine (pictured) was also very good, and I can be funny about chicken. The dessert was tasty, but not the expected pannacotta!
The bubbly and house red were fine too, particularly after a glass or so! And the coffee was, of course, excellent.
Deal or no deal, we’ll pop back to Esca for a good Italian meal again.
We have a tradition in our family that left over curry gets made in to curry puffs; it’s essentially curry wrapped in puff pastry. And leftover turkey makes a good curry.
The curry was very simple: chopped onion, fried; chopped leftover turkey; tinned chopped tomatoes; mild curry powder – cooked until the flavours develop.
These puffs were a bit more interpretive in their shape than normal! The curry was warm and started to melt the pastry. But they looked interesting and still tasted great.
In honour of the fact that my Slimming World roast potatoes post has had over 150 hits in the past two days we had them for dinner tonight… Yum!
We had some dear friends over for lunch the other day nad this gave me a chance to do what I love best – cooking! We had a yummy warming soup to start, followed by Malcolm Allan’s Steak Mince and Haggis Pie (superb!) with potato Dauphinoise and green vege, finished off with bread & butter pudding.
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We had alot of cream leftover after Christmas and potato Dauphinoise seemed like a great way to use it up. I couldn’t believe I’d never blogged about it before! I distinctly remember making a delicious version of potato Dauphinoise in honour of the late great Keith Floyd; I recall I made coq au vin too. But this must have been in the days before this blog.
This BBC recipe is very good. My variation of this recipe doesn’t have garlic – Father is intolerant. I used thinly sliced red onion, sprinkled between the layers of potato, and this worked well.
I made two large gratins, and kept one for planned overs – and why not!?
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Ingredients
Waxy potatoes, very thinly sliced (use a mandolin or food processor if you can)
Double cream
Red onion, thinly sliced
Butter or spread for greasing
Seasoning
Method
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Bread and butter pudding
Mum suggested we use Carnation milk (see their website for the recipe) instead of cream in the bread & butter pudding – this is the way it was always done in her family! We used cranberry loaf for the bread, which added a wee Festive twist. It was a very simple recipe, but I prefer the flavour and texture of bread & butter pudding made with a creme Anglaise – which is easier to make than one might think!
It’s a bit of a treat to have friends round for dinner and have dessert provided by one of the guests – who also happens to be an internationally renowned food writer and cook. Nichola Fletcher is a woman of many talents, but game is the one she’s most loved for in our house! For dessert she brought mince pies and a hart mousse, both using the venison her family farm is known for.
The pies contained a traditional mince meat with a mix of meats: venison, squirrel and rabbit. The addition of the meat was excellent – the pie filing had a more rounded texture and flavour. If you fancy making a traditional mince meat mixture, see the recipe below.
Nicky’s other dessert was a raspberry hart mousse, made with gelatine extracted from venison bones. I was very impressed with this recipe! One day I will try this myself – it’s one way of making use of all the parts of the animal.
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Mince meat recipe
Ingredients
2 lbs raisins
3 lbs currants
1½ lbs lean beef (or you could experiment with game)
3 lbs beef suet
2 lbs moist sugar
2 oz citron
2 oz candied lemon peel
2 oz candied orange peel
1 small nutmeg
1 pottle of apples
the rind of two lemons, the juice of one
1/2 pint brandy
Method
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