Amira's Kitchen - New cocktail bar

I love the new look bar in Amira's Kitchen, it now looks more like a bar than an extension of the restaurant with new stools and tables.  The stools are super comfy too and along with the makeover is a new cocktail menu.  There are five options at the moment but they're planning on expanding this.  They currently offer:- Pina Colada, Cosmopolitan, Mango Daiquiri, English Garden Gin Cocktail and Pomegranate Bellini.

I love the Bellini with a twist and the Mango Daiquiri is made with real mango puree so is lovely and refreshing with the crushed ice and a twist of lime.  My favourite was the English Garden one though, so delicious and I do like a nice gin cocktail served in a big bowl glass.

The cocktails are £7.50 each and we also enjoyed some poppadoms & chutneys (£5) to nibble on as the perfect accompaniment to our tasty drinks.

We had a lovely evening chilling in the bar enjoying a few drinks, the atmosphere was lovely with the bright colours of the bar and others enjoying some drinks before heading up to the main area of the restaurant for dinner.  I took some photos of the bar when I was there with my family recently for dinner.

You don't have to have to be eating there to enjoy the bar area though, just pop in for a few drinks and maybe enjoy some of their delicious street food during the week.

Hemina and I received drinks and nibbles in return for my honest review.  As always, all opinions are my own.

My favourite Bloody Mary cocktail recipe

When Nik and I had a night out in Brighton a couple of months ago, we went for a cocktail at Twisted Lemon and Nik had a Virgin Mary which isn't something either of us would usually order but we both loved it (I had quite a few "sips" and would have ordered one myself if we didn't have to leave for dinner)!  So when I saw a Bloody Mary recipe in the latest Waitrose Food magazine, I decided to give it a try but we've changed a couple of things so it's more to our taste and usually make it without the alcohol which actually makes them pretty healthy and they're super easy and quick to make.  (Waitrose also have this recipe on their website which is a bit different again.)

Cocktail Recipes

We enjoyed quite a few home-made cocktails over the Christmas, birthday and New Year period.  Here are some of the recipes for what you may have seen us enjoying on my social media, they're all very simple short drinks and super quick to make.  Apologies for the poor photos, I was too busy enjoying the day to bother with the big camera so these are all phone snaps ;)

A good old gin martini

Mini adventures

by Bex

As much as I worry about publishing very personal posts, after I do, I tend to feel some kind of relief.  Although I wonder if people want to read about my depressing moments and I'm concerned about seeming like an attention seeker, in the end it boils down to the fact that this is my blog, my wee space in a very large blogosphere and if people don't like it, they don't have to read it.  I write first and foremost for me.  I've been lucky in that whenever I do post anything like this, I have only received love and support.

Anyway, after publishing everything I've been bottling up for the last couple of weeks, I started to feel brighter and Nik had just finished another run of nights.  While I was feeling so down (unfortunately I have a bad habit of dwelling on more bad stuff when I'm sad) I worked out that in the last 40 days (basically since my birthday) Nik has spent 28 of those either working nights, evenings or away on a course and we've had just 2 weekends together out of the last 5.  Normally I can cope with this quite well, I have plenty of things to keep me busy, blogging and crafting for example or seeing friends when they're not busy.  But when we're also dealing with all of this on top it becomes more difficult.  Things should settle down when the new job starts but obviously that doesn't help much in the meantime.

What does help is being able to have little adventures together, be they just nice evenings out in Glasgow or weekends away when we can.  We really want to book a holiday but until Nik's interview is out of the way and we have his rota for the next few weeks we can't make any plans yet.  Friday night really helped though.  We decided to go out for dinner and Nik had heard of yet another new burger place which opened in Glasgow recently, Jacker de Viande.  He'd read a review somewhere, in which the writer thought this was the best of the new bunch, so we decided to check it out for ourselves!  There'll be a proper review coming soon but we loved it!

We then headed out for more cocktails in Grill on the Corner (I wanted another one of those Elderflower Martinis!) and The Living Room.  We were having so much fun I said I didn't want to go home.  Then I thought, why don't we be spontaneous and just not go home?  I suggested we just check into a local hotel and extend our evening of escape for even longer.  Why not, we have no responsibilities - the fish can survive a night alone and it might feel like a mini holiday if we just stayed away from home for a night.  So we did!

I sampled the Elderflower Gin and After Eight Martinis!

I tweeted and Nik searched online for deals and he managed to find a great one for Grand Central Hotel, our wedding hotel!  He found a deal which included breakfast so we could have a nice lazy morning in the hotel.  It was great, it was so exciting to just go and check into a hotel at midnight with no luggage (even if that may cause some amusement/speculation to the hotel staff!).  They asked us if we had stayed there before and we explained it was our wedding hotel and we'd been back for Valentine's day before too.  No free upgrade this time though ;) but our room was lovely and as we prepared to head down to the bar for some Prosecco to take back to our room (we didn't want to pay the room service charge) there was a knock at the door and room service had brought us two glasses of pink fizz to welcome us back to the hotel!  So lovely!

The best thing was the feeling of escape from normal life, even just for one night.  Crisp, white sheets on a big, comfy bed with chocolates and fizz then a lazy morning watching TV in bed (we don't have a TV in our bedroom at home) and bacon and eggs followed by pancakes with numerous cups of tea.  Check out wasn't until 12 so we got back in bed after breakfast and stayed until the very last moment before hopping on a train home.  It was just what we needed.  I can't wait to book a proper break away.

I did miss my toothbrush though, I was relieved to get home and brush my teeth the next day!  ;)

Since the weekend, I've been sleeping a bit better too and that definitely helps with the coping!  I went to my GP today (Monday) and she was wonderful.  Talking to her about it helped as well and she was very sympathetic and supportive.  She looked up my MRI results for me to try to put my mind at rest and although I still need to wait for the specialist appointment next week to find out the next plan, I now know that my cervix is S-shaped with no other abnormalities and not some crazy corkscrew or other impossible passage (which I had in my head) and the GP seemed positive that they might try the operation to straighten it out again.  She is also sorting out a referral for counselling for me and although she said through psychiatry it may take up to a year, she's going to try a different path first to see if I can be seen by someone to get some support a bit sooner as we have so much going on and she agreed I would benefit from talking to a professional.  She also offered some advice regarding anxiety and work, etc. so I'm feeling a bit more in control of that now which helps when so much of the rest of life is currently out of my control.

We've also booked our flights to Bristol on Thursday (although we're still waiting to see if they've managed to get cover for Nik's whole weekend at work so we don't know whether we're coming back Sat or Sun yet!) and I am planning more fun weekends with friends.  I just need some little things to look forward to to keep reminding me of other good things in life.  It's all too easy to become consumed in this vicious IVF world of limbo with no control - what feels like waiting forever while getting no-where, especially in our case when we've come up against so many brick walls at every stage.  I'm grateful that I have so many people to help pull me out of it when I get stuck there.

So basically, thanks again for all the support during my meltdown last week and know that I am on the mend mentally.  (Although no promises about any future meltdowns I'm afraid!  There's still a lot to get through!)  It's amazing how much getting some better sleep and other little things can make everything seem more positive after feeling like I was in such a deep dark hole.

xxx

Grill on the Corner with the girls

by Bex

We recently had a bloggers' night out to take advantage of Grill on the Corner's 50% off food deal in January, organised by Michelle.  It was SO much fun and just what I needed to get me out of the house at the moment.  Sarah picked me up and we met up with Briony in the bar and ordered cocktails while waiting for the others to arrive.  Michelle and Lynsay soon turned up and Vonnie wasn't far behind.

I sampled the elderflower gin martini and although strong (as martinis tend to be) it was very drinkable and absolutely delicious!  I will definitely be going back for one of those again soon!  The cocktails are delicious and pretty reasonable for well made cocktails in the city centre.  The ones I sampled were £7 each.

After transferring through to our table we all decided what to have for dinner before getting on with important catching up chat.  The bread and olives we ordered arrived quickly which was fab as we were all starving after anticipating a lovely big meal all day!

The gorgeous ladies!  (Michelle wouldn't co-operate for a picture!)

I went for the seafood mornay to start which was served in the most gorgeous little shell bowl (I seriously want to find me one of them!) and tasted wonderful.

Everyone else's starters looked pretty good too...

And since Sarah was driving, I had another cheeky cocktail - the Mary Pickford (a favourite of mine).

Most of us chose steak for our main course to take advantage of the amazing savings, four of us actually chose the same thing - the special 'Best of British' meat, and we all had the fillet.  Michelle went for the rib eye and Vonnie had tuna.

Various steaks and Lynsay's fab prince themed nails!

I opted for blue cheese sauce and creamy mash to accompany mine (making my own blue cheese mash as a result - sneaky!)

Happy steak face :)

My steak was absolutely divine.  Cooked to perfection and so tasty.  My blue cheese mash worked well too ;)

After a bit of a rest, we all opted for dessert too.  Well, it was 50% off!  I had trouble deciding as I wanted at least three of them but in the end I couldn't resist trying the fantastic sounding combination of apple pie with a cheese crust!  What a brilliant idea!  It worked so well, there was just a hint of cheesiness in the pastry which went really with the tart apple filling.  I don't really like ice-cream so I'd asked for cream instead and received a huge jug full.  :)  Nothing worse than stingy cream.  (Except maybe stingy gravy with a roast dinner!)

Unfortunately I was much less impressed with my latte which had a horrible mouthful of ground coffee at the bottom!  Yeuch.  Luckily we had some water left for me to rinse it down with.  Not ideal but it didn't spoil my evening.

Anyway, we received excellent service, Callum looked after us very well, and we really enjoyed our surroundings with the pretty chandeliers and twinkly lights (you know I can't resist fairy lights).  We left feeling pretty stuffed but very satisfied.

Due to our expensive taste, our food bill came to £35 per person and with my cocktails added on top, I ended up spending almost £50.  Although that seems like a lot since we got 50% off food, it's actually not bad for 3 courses, drinks, coffee and cocktails!  When you consider that the special fillet was supposed to be £35 alone, we did get good value for money.  I do love the food here but it's really only somewhere I go for a treat if there is an offer on as it does add up to be quite pricey if there's no discount.  Don't get me wrong, it's really good quality and very reasonable when there is a discount, it's just not the place to go if you're on a budget.

Group photo!

A lovely random stranger offered to take one with me in too so I squeezed into the spot where the flash reflected ;)

Orchard cocktail

by Bex

I'd normally save cocktail posts for a Friday but since I haven't been on the computer all weekend, this is the only post this week that is actually finished so here it is.

Ingredients:
75mls pear & apple juice
25 mls peach schnapps
10 mls amaretto
ice
soda water

Method:
Add all ingredients except the soda water into a cocktail shaker.  Shake vigorously then pour through a filter into a glass.  Top up with soda water and serve.  After tasting this, I decided it suited a martini glass best so decanted it and added a little more soda.

The perfect Christmas Day Cocktail!

by Bex

I highly recommend this festive cocktail recipe (another from BBC Good Food Magazine, I LOVE that magazine!) and wanted to post it while you still have time to get the ingredients in case you fancy joining us in making it for a Christmas day tipple!  I guarantee we'll be having this again!  :)

I made this the first time on Monday evening (last night) when my in-laws arrived for the week.  It was pretty quick but very effective and went down a treat before we headed out for dinner!

Lemon & Elderflower Fizz
Ingredients:
75ml gin
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 tsp caster sugar
50ml elderflower cordial (we particularly love bottlegreen)
750ml bottle Prosecco
4 tbsp lemon sorbet

To decorate:
2 tbsp sugar
juice and strips of zest from 1/2 lemon

Method:
First, decorate your glasses with a sugar rim.  Tip the sugar onto a flat plate and put the lemon juice in a small bowl.  Dip the rim of the glasses in the lemon juice followed by the sugar.

Put the gin, lemon juice, sugar and elderflower cordial into a large jug and stir until the sugar dissolves.  Add the Prosecco and then lemon sorbet and give it a good stir.

We were concerned about losing all the fizz and a bit of a head did form but it was still fizzy!  :)

Pour into the prepared glasses and pop in a few strips of twisted lemon zest to serve. (Festive glittery pine cones added by MIL!)  :)

SO GOOD!

Chobani - Recipes and Corinthian Dinner

by Bex

A couple of weeks ago Roz and I were invited along by Chobani to have dinner at The Corinthian.  If you haven't heard of it (I hadn't), Chobani is an American yoghurt brand which specialises in low or zero fat greek style yoghurt.  Our dinner at Corinthian was made using Chobani yoghurt in each of the 3 courses and even in the cocktails!

 The lovely Amy telling us a bit about the company.  

The menu sounded delicious, I opted for the Chobani Risotto with sun-blushed tomatoes, spring onions, broad beans & Parmesan followed by the Rack of Lamb with Chobani dauphinoise potatoes, baby vegetables & Chobani mint sauce and then the Chobani Caramel Creme Brulee with shortbread.

Everything was amazing!  I particularly loved the dauphinoise potatoes and being made with Chobani instead of cream means it's not as naughty as usual either, the same with the creme brulee!  I was surprised that the cocktail made with yoghurt was also very tasty, not something I would think of but it worked, nice and fruity how I like my cocktails!  It was lovely catching up with lots of other Glasgow bloggers too.

At the end of the night we each received a goody bag to take home with some flavoured Chobani yoghurt to try and a few recipes.

I loved the passionfruit flavour and saved the cherry one for Nik as it's his favourite.

A couple of weeks later I received a huge parcel full of more yoghurt to try!  I still haven't tasted all the flavours but Nik liked the plain yoghurt with his curry the other day and I used the rest of it in one of the recipes (see below).  I really want to try the blueberry and pomegranate flavours as they are the kind I would usually buy (along with the passionfruit) but we still haven't found it in any of our local supermarkets!

The first recipe I decided to make was the guacamole as I had a few avocados left over after ODP which were starting to get over ripe!

It was really easy to make, just scoop the flesh of 2 avocados into a bowl, mash them up with a fork, add 225g Chobani plain yoghurt, 1 chopped jalapeno chilli (I didn't have one so added a red chilli), 1 minced clove of garlic, the juice of 1/2 a lime (I used lemon as I had no limes) 1/2 tsp salt (add more to taste) and 2 tbsp of chopped coriander and mix.

We were both really impressed with the result, it was tasty, tangy and creamy.  We decided to make fajitas that night to really enjoy it properly.  Much nicer than shop bought guacamole and creamy enough we felt we didn't need our usual addition of sour cream so again much healthier than usual!

I'll be sharing the other recipe I made this afternoon!  Come back at 1pm to see what I made for baking club ;)