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Tesco finest Chilled Prepared Meals

December 13, 2013 by Erica Hughes 2 Comments

This time we’ve been trying out the chilled prepared meals from the Tesco finest range. The idea is that the meals are easy to prepare, but they are made from top quality ingredients and are carefully prepared.

We tried the Chicken Dhansak with Pilau Rice. This has tender pieces of marinated tandoori chicken breast which have been slow cooked in a masoor and urad lentil sauce. At the end the dish is finished with tamarind, lemon and fresh coriander and there is a topping of roasted sweet potatoes. This Parsi dish is the perfect Friday night after work meal to make you feel like the weekend has arrived.

We also tried out the finest a la carte Triple Cooked Chips and the finest Onion Rings. These thick cut potatoes are cooked in goose fat for added flavour. The triple cooking and the use of a floury potato means that you get a crispy outside with a fluffy inside. Turning to the onion rings, the onions have been soaked in buttermilk to give a soft, buttery flavour, before being coated in a polenta and buttermilk batter to give a light, crisp finish. Both these went down very well on a Friday is fish and chips night in.

The Balcony At Selfridges

December 11, 2013 by Erica Hughes 3 Comments

Last night we went to The Balcony in Selfridges, Birmingham. To be honest I hadn’t known that it existed before. It’s hidden away behind the handbag department on one of the upper floors (as the name suggests). They’re recently had a refurb and it has a fresh, but characterful look and it seems much more visible now from the Bull Ring Shopping Centre below. It’s location gives it some great views and there are opportunities for people watching. Rest assured though, if you are scared of heights, there’s plenty of seating away from the edge.

On arrival we were served up some of the most popular cocktails from their range. I tried out the Wooden Blush made from Bombay Sapphire and raspberry liqueur with muddled strawberries,blackberries and pomegranate, topped up with Prosecco. This one seemed designed for me with many of my favourite drinks mixed together and it was delicious. I’d have happily drunk it all night. My husband had the Selfridges Passion: a blend of passion fruit vodka and Passoa with fresh passion fruit,mint, apple juice and a hint of lime. It was very nice, but we both preferred the Wooden Blush. Later on I tried Passion Must, a non-alcoholic cocktail, made with fresh passion fruit with apple, pomegranate and lime. This was light and refreshing and you don’t feel you are missing the alcohol when you are drinking it.

The Balcony aims to provide a stylish menu for Birmingham’s fashionistas, serving quirky food and drinks in a contemporary environment. We were served a wide range of dishes across the menu where the emphasis is on relaxed dining that sits well with the champagne bar. There are boards to share with wonderful cheeses, tasty seafood and aromatic cooked meats paired up with good crusty bread. We enjoyed trying this Searcys club sandwich ‘martini’ which does encapsulate the club sandwich in a martini glass. We also loved the Classic Clam Chowder which had smokey, salty bits of bacon in it to enhance the seafood flavours of the dish.

We loved the Berry Eton Mess that we had for dessert. As you can see from this picture, the chef has a playful touch with the meringue sticks that reminded me of those sweet cigarettes I used to love as a child. There was plenty of fruit to create a real berry taste explosion. The snickerbockerglory was also well received, but for me it was too much, too sweet and it finished me off for the evening: I could eat no more. If you love rich chocolatey desserts with a peanut flavour, it would be hard to beat.

The Balcony can boast of being a 120-cover restaurant which also features the very stylish Moet & Chandon Rosé Champagne Bar. As well as Champagne, you can also drink cocktails here and there is a happy hour, every day from 5pm to 7pm. The Balcony also hopes to become renowned for its Champagne Afternoon Tea, which pairs Moet Rosé with the restaurant’s signature ‘Afternoon Picnic Tea’. The tea has been created by award-winning pastry chef John Grantham, and features quirky cakes and house-made scones.

Tesco Christmas Decorations

December 10, 2013 by Erica Hughes 2 Comments

Tesco’s have a wonderful range of Christmas decorations this year. These Tesco Christmas Decorations look great and they won’t break the budget either.

This Red Flocked Reindeer costs just £6, but he has a presence that belies his low price and smallish size (33cm tall). He instantly adds a little Christmas cheer to a mantelpiece or a shelf. He’s also available in gold if that suits your scheme better.

I’ve teamed him up with these Wooden Stars. They’re intended as hanging decorations really for the Christmas tree and come with slightly rustic, brown strings so they can dangle from your tree. You could easily dot them around your room and have them standing or hanging as suits you. A pack of 6 stars costs £3.

Reindeers are a bit of a theme for us this year and I love these Glitter Reindeer Decorations also from Tesco. There are three lovely, glittery colours available and they cost £2 each, but they are currently 3 for 2.

Decking The Halls With Lights From LED Hut

December 6, 2013 by Erica Hughes 3 Comments

Doesn’t that look pretty? Our living room has been looking a bit neglected as we concentrated our efforts on the dining room this year. There’s more room there for putting up a tree, so that makes it look more festive straight way. So we were keen to make our main living space a bit more seasonal and I think these lights from LED Hut have really done the job.

We’ve been trying out these LED lights that are suitable for both indoor and outdoor use. They’re 10m in length which provides a lot of visual impact. They also have 6 different light effects to choose from. My son loves having lights flashing off and on nice and fast, but we prefer a slower change of colours or even a constant glow in the evening. These lights can cater to all those preferences which is helpful.

These LED Christmas lights not only use up to 90% less energy than traditional lights, they also last around 20 times longer. That’s got to be good news at the expensive time of year. I like the fact that we are doing our bit for the environment too.

As well as being the eco-friendly and budget saving choice, LEDs are safer too. Made of plastic instead of glass, the bulbs emit virtually no heat and are much less likely to shatter or crack. As LEDs are filament-free, they won’t burn out or blow, so searching for that rogue broken bulb can be a thing of Christmases past. LED Hut have got quite a range to choose from too, so you should be able to fit your style of Christmas.

One Man And His Dog

December 3, 2013 by Erica Hughes 6 Comments

Adam the Doodles Man started life as a figure drawing aid, as did his sidekick, Rover the Doodles Dog. Made of stainless steel wire connected at the joints with aluminium rivets, they both boast fully adjustable joints and limbs will hold any pose for as long as you need, making them ideal as drawing models as they never get tired.

Looking at them though you can easily see why they have increasingly become a popular, must-have interior design item. Adam and Rover can be placed around your home in any pose you care to place them in, so creating a sense of fun and movement. They act as a point of interest in their own right. I think it’s because they are so anatomically accurate and so functional that they become almost beautiful.

I love the fact that you can change the focal point of a room just by adding them to an area, maybe by getting them to ‘walk’ towards something or even point in its direction. They are bound to catch the eye in their own right, and then lead it on towards your desired feature item.

As well as being a dynamic element in your interior design scheme, I think they make great desk features for a study or the office. We’ve had great fun putting Adam and Rover into various poses. There are lots of ideas for poses on the back of the packaging that they come in, but it’s easy to create your own too.

So as you can see Adam has been busy doing his yoga, he’s a very bendy guy. Useful too, he’s even lent a hand in the office by holding onto my pencils for me. Both Adam and Rover are a great way of having a little fun in the office and would be a nice Secret Santa gift or a lovely stocking filler.

I love their sculptural quality and the way that they create a human (or animal) shape, but despite their solidity, you can also see through them to the room beyond. Hence, I think they’d look good placed on a room-dividing piece of furniture, like a sideboard or console table, as they’d help provide separation without cutting out light and sight lines.

Win An Weekend Bag With Baylis and Harding

December 2, 2013 by Erica Hughes

Baylis and Harding do have some lovely Christmas gifts this year. They very kindly sent one of these for me to try out and better still they have one available for readers of A Little Luxury For Me to win.

This bag really sets you for the weekend as it’s packed full of French Lavender and Cassis treats. As well as the lovely gift bag itself (which is the perfect size for a weekend away), this gift bag comes with bath cream, shower gel, bath milk, hand and nail cream, body wash, body butter and a nylon body polisher. This would make a lovely present for someone and it’s available for £30 so it won’t break the bank either.

To enter the competition, leave a comment about your weekend essential is. What do you always pack for a weekend away? Extra entries are available for social sharing, please leave a separate comment for each share with the details so I can check your entry. You can also gain extra entries each day by commenting on another post on the blog – if you do this leave me a comment on this post telling me which post you have commented on.
Competition Terms and Conditions
1. No bulk, third party or automated entries.
2. Entrants must be UK residents aged 18 years or older.
3. The winners will be chosen by a random draw.
4. The winner will be notified by email and will have a week to claim their prize. Should they fail to respond within this time, an alternative winner will be selected.
5. Promoter is responsible for fulfilling the prize and full contact details of the winner will be passed onto the promoter.
6. Competition closes on 14 December 2013.

Tesco Finest – Serve Up The Best

November 29, 2013 by Erica Hughes 7 Comments

Tesco Finest suggested to be that I try out some of their 28 day matured steaks for their Serve Up The Best challenge. For great tasting food, it’s important to use good quality ingredients and Tesco Finest has quite a range. The recipe idea was Seared Beef Steak, served with pan-fried wild mushrooms and game chips.

I used the Tesco Finest Rump Steaks which have been dry aged for 28 days and are produced from Aberdeen Angus beef. The steaks were teamed up with the Tesco Finest Elfe Potatoes and some Finest Wild Mushrooms.

A bit in advance get the steaks out and let them come up to room temperature. Then brush each side with oil and season. Thinly slice the Elfe potatoes, wash in cold water to remove start and slowly fry until lightly brown and crisp. I think I sliced mine a bit too thickly. My excuse is that I had it in mind that game chips was a posh name for what we used to call ‘scallops’, which were basically round chips. I think though that game chips are actually supposed to come out more crispy.

I fried up the mushrooms with some butter to accompany my steak and chips. The steak was nice and juicy and there were no tough bits. I don’t usually cook beef at home because my husband complains about tough bits, but he enjoyed this piece of beef. The mushrooms were the perfect accompaniment to the beef and my ‘scallops’ went down very well too, even if they weren’t quite refined enough to be game chips.

Astral Cream

November 28, 2013 by Erica Hughes 2 Comments

When I got an email through asking me to review Astral cream recently I just smiled. I told my husband and he laughed. So what was so funny? Well, I’ve been using Astral ever since I can remember. There were always Astral tubs around in my parents’ house. It was a cream that I grew up with. When I got older and moved away from home, I started buying my own pots. I use it every day, often several times a day.

I mostly use Astral cream to tackle dry skin and frequently use it on my lips, hands, feet, knees and elbows. Sometimes I use it as night cream for my face. It never lets me down, it always works. My whole family use it. The Astral cream has a whipped texture, but is heavier than say a facial or a body moisturiser, but this is its strength as it works so well on dry skin. Price wise it is very reasonable and outperforms many more expensive creams. If I was only allowed one pot of cream on my dressing table, it would Astral, no argument. You can buy some small tubs which are great for travelling and I refill mine from my larger tub.

I have little pots of Astral to take with me pretty much wherever I go. I have a small tub in my swimming bag – I go swimming several times a week and my feet in particular are always in need of a good moisturise after a swimming session. Another pot is in my travel bag, so that I never run the risk of traveling without my ‘go to cream’. I keep a pot by my bedside for my lips and hands. Downstairs I have it in the kitchen for after washing up or other hand unkind activities.

It’s my favourite beauty treatment. It never lets me down and it helps me keep looking young. My skin is healthier for using it. I’m such a big fan.

Do you use Astral Cream too? What do you use it for? What do you think of it? I’d be interested to hear what you think.

Tesco Finest – Cream of the Crop

November 27, 2013 by Erica Hughes 2 Comments

Regular readers will know that we have been putting a lot of the recently relaunched Tesco Finest range through its paces. This week we have been looking at the cream of the crop in the shape of this Parmigiano Reggiano. We always have some Parmigiano Reggiano in the fridge and we use it in many of the dishes that we cook, either as a finishing touch or as an integral part. One of our regular meals is pasta with peas, pancetta and parmigiano reggiano. In this dish, we don’t just put a little bit on top, it needs a very generous handful for every bowl as it is integral to the meal. This seemed like the perfect food to cook to try the cheese out. It was a joy to grate as it easily went through the grater and smelt fantastic. Taste wise it measured up too . I think it is worth spending a little more to get a top quality cheese that has been produced carefully and time has been taken. This one gets to age for 30 months rather than the usual 12 months and you can taste the difference.

Our next product was the Tesco Finest Red Velvet Cake. This is a fine-looking cake and it seemed like just the thing to take to a friend’s house as our contribution towards the meal. It was greeted with much delight as you might expect – I’d certainly be chuffed if someone turned up with this as their pudding offering. There were 6 of us for dinner and we only ate just over half of it with very generous portions, so it goes a long way. It’s a three-tiered red sponge cake with white cream cheese frosting. It’s been hand decorated and finished with a red crumb. It looked fantastic and tasted very fine too with moist, crumbly sponge and unctuous cream cheese.

TinyMe Christmas Wall Stickers Review And Giveaway

November 26, 2013 by Erica Hughes 129 Comments

We were sent the Christmas Tree Combo Pack from TinyMe to try out. We’d previously tried out their fabulous children’s wall stickers out over on 92three30. The TinyMe Christmas wall stickers are just as good too. They are high quality fabric stickers that are easy to apply and can be reused time and again.

The stickers arrived rolled up in a protective, cardboard carton. They were on one long sheet which cleverly makes good use of the whole of the space available to pack in as many stickers as possible. The Christmas Tree Combo Pack has enough baubles to create a reasonably sizeable and very cheerful Christmas tree.

It doesn’t end with the tree either. We got enough stickers to create a nice stack of presents too. The gifts are ‘wrapped’ in complementary wrapping paper with ribbons and stars to adore them. The stickers make a very pretty addition to our annual Christmas decorations and are especially good value at the moment as they are reduced to £32.95. There are other Christmas sets available too.

There’s more good news because a lucky A Little Luxury For Me reader can get their hands on a £30 voucher to spend on the site. Entry is via the rafflecopter.

Competition Terms and Conditions
1. No bulk, third party or automated entries.
2. Entrants must be UK residents aged 18 years or older.
3. The winners will be chosen by a random draw.
4. The winner will be notified by email and will have a week to claim their prize. Should they fail to respond within this time, an alternative winner will be selected.
5. Promoter is responsible for fulfilling the prize and full contact details of the winner will be passed onto the promoter.
6. Competition closes on 5 December 2013.
a Rafflecopter giveaway