Our 3BM Easter Weekend in Pictures...

Hands up who had a fabulous long Easter weekend...

For the vast majority of you I bet it mostly consisted of far too much chocolate, a fair helping of booze, family get togethers and a big dose of R&R. Sound about right?

Not for the Mice. The booze part we can relate to in a big way but apart from that, no similarities whatsoever!!

HK mouse decided to jump ship and escape to Lombok for some much needed sun, sea and quality time with her boyfriend. Not your usual Easter view that's for sure...

Myself and Mini on the other hand decided some serious fun needed to be had and made it our mission to fit in as much as humanly possible. Even when we were having some down time, our bucket-esque wine glasses were firming in grip...

It all started on the Thursday night with the gorgeous Nikki's birthday night. Club of choice - The Box. Which means two thing... rudeness and a long night ahead. The club performances and acts don't actually start until 1am so we decided to have a pre-party at ours. Cue the cocktails - homemade rhubarb and processco glasses of deliciousness...

And mini bites of loveliness to line our stomachs, all homemade of course...

We chatted, gossiped and laughed for hours whilst slowly getting glammed up for the night ahead - secretly my favourite part of an evening. Shhhhhh...

At 11 o'clock our carriages pulled up and we stumpled in - tipsy to say the least! Sadly from here on in I have very little in-club evidence to prove just how tricking fabulous this place is - there is a no camera rule which = BORING! I did manage the following snaps in between the extreme acts of nakedness and naughtiness...

A 4am bedtime called for a next morning food-fest with our favourite girls which if I might add are looking surprisingly fresh-faced and lovely...

We rocked up at recently blogged about Rita's ready to fill our hungover-boots to high heaven... and that we did!

Ham hock hash & egg delight...

Washed down with homemade pink lemonade...

And the earth shattering dulce de leche beignets with foie gras from puds AKA tasty doughnuts with caramel and a touch of salt! Bliss. Heaven. Pure indulgence... 

After that there was no other option but to head home, collapse on the sofa and commit to an afternoon of duvet hogging, comforting food and snooze after snooze after snooze. 

The hours flew by and before we knew it, the evening had rolled in and the 7 o'clock wine itch has set in. Luckily we had an icy chilled bottle of Marlborough Sauvignon to hand so cracked that opened and kicked back for a night of R&R...

A sunny Saturday arrived and the healthy part of my brained kicked in - a morning run around Victoria Park... so off we jogged - in our sunnies...

Exercise done. What's next? An afternoon of pizza and unlimited prosecco. Perfect! Bunga Bunga step up...

Too much! Why not top up with a bit of taxi cab smuggling and espresso martini drinking...

Sunday I have nothing to show for our day. It pretty much consisted for laziness, indecisiveness and unhealthy choices! 

Monday arrived and we decided to pay our good friends Kitty and Kev a visit for an afternoon of good food, giggles and yes, more alcohol...!

Cracking alternative Easter even if I do say so myself! 

This Week The Mice Have Mostly Been...

It's that delicious time of the week again ... so what have we been up to? 

Well to give you the short version, it started off with this sentiment...

But ended like this...

While in the longer version, this week the Mice have mostly been...

Cooking up a storm...with yet another Ottolenghi creation!

This week has been pretty non-stop with very little time spent snuggled at London Towers. However, on the one evening that we were both in together, we decided to pretend it was Sunday night with a yum dinner, a glass of red wine and a catch up session on the new series of Downton Abbey! This time we picked Salmon Steaks with a Spicy Tomato Sauce, only we opted for salmon fillets instead which still worked really well... 

I know we say this EVERY time but it really was amazingly tasty - bursting with spicy flavour peppered with a good kick of chilli! Super quick and easy, we knocked together in 15 minutes flat and not all that bad fat-wise either if you ease up on the oil slightly! We complimented ours with lots of green veg to make up for the wine calories consumed, but it would work equally well with rice or cous cous.

So onto what you need...

1 tablespoon caraway seeds
8 tablespoons sunflower oil

3 tablespoons plain flour
4 salmon steaks (or fillets)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
1 chili (with seeds), chopped
2 teaspoons paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon (generous) cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons tomato puree
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
Lemon wedges

Method...

Toast the caraway seeds in a small dry pan over medium heat for approx 2 mins, until slightly darker in colour and aromatic.

Remove from the pan and once cool grind in a pestle and mortar and set aside.

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a large pan over a medium-high heat.

Season the salmon with salt and pepper. Put all the flour in a shallow dish and cover the fish on both sides. Shake off excess and then cook the salmon in the heated oil until golden, approx 2 minutes per side. Remove the salmon from the pan and set aside.

Wipe out the pan. Put the garlic, chilli, paprika, cumin, cayenne, cinnamon, caraway, and 2 tbsp oil into a food processor to make a thick paste.

Heat remaining 4 tbsp oil in the pan over a medium heat. Add garlic paste and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds (do not burn). Carefully add the tomato puree and 1/2 cup water to the pan and bring to a simmer; continue simmering for 30 seconds. Stir in the lemon juice and sugar and season with salt and pepper.

Return the salmon to the pan and bring to a gentle simmer. Cover and reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until fish is just cooked through, approx 7–11 minutes. Remove pan from heat, uncover, and let cool slightly.

Serve with chopped coriander and a wedge of lemon or in our case load in the veg...

Officially starting the Christmas Countdown... it's just 81 days now argggghhh! And what comes with this... LOTS of fabulously festive pop-ups, screenings and general opportunities to get into the Chrismassy spirit and act like you're ten again! PERFECT!

However what do we do over the coming months to kill time before the Big Day?! Without further ado let me tell you ... Forza Win have thought of the perfect solution - a fortnight of film and food in a cutting edge location of course! For just £10 you get a drink, a delicious snack from the Forza Win chefs and a comfy sofa seat at one of the chicest cinemas in town! Check out all details and programme of films right HERE starting from 8th October.

On that note, get your beautiful self out of the office, round up the girls, get the cocktails flowing and get celebrating because two days of FUN, FUN, FUN await! Happy Weekend!

The Mice x

3BM Kitchen: Wheat-free Pizza

Whether you have boring food allergies, you're trying to be a bit more health-conscious or (like us) you're just trying to find amazing new ways to stuff your face with junk without adding said junk to your trunk, today's recipe is for you - pizza but not as you know it... 

This is a pizza with a base cunningly whipped up without flour, yeast or sugar. Based on a recipe from Cloudy with a Chance of Sprinkles (a lifestyle and Paleo cooking blog), this is the 3BM take on the Coconut Flour Primal Pizza. 

To be perfectly honest, although this recipe does tick all the wheat-free, low-carb boxes we still don't think we've struck skinny junk nirvana just yet. While we've found coconut flour (a by-product of coconut milk production and a great flour substitute) to be great for cooking sweet things, we're not sure it works so well in savoury dishes. Despite being loaded with all our toppings, the coconutty flavour was still discernible and the base was a bit too spongy and cakelike for our taste. Having said that this is still a pretty scrumptious supper and a good one to try on days when you feel like being bad without beng truly terrible...  

You will need:

For the base 

(makes 1 medium sized pizza we used twice these quantities for our two pizzas)

• 1/2 cup of coconut flour
• 2 cloves of garlic (crushed)
• 1/2 tsp of baking soda
• pinch of sea salt
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup of unsweetened almond milk
• Coconut Oil

For the toppings

Courgette, Ricotta, Mint & Lemon

• 2 courgettes (zucchini)
• small tub of ricotta
• handful of mint (chopped)
• zest of one lemon
• salt and pepper
• olive oil

Fig, Parma Ham & Goat's Cheese

• tomato puree
• 2 figs (quartered)
• 4 slices of Parma ham
• log of goat's cheese
• salt and pepper
• scattering of rocket leaves
• olive oil (or truffle oil if you're feeling extra naughty like us)

Directions

First up, get your oven nice and toasty - set it to about 180 C while you prep and make your dough. Next, line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper and lightly brush it with a few dabs of coconut oil.

Now chuck your coconut flour, baking soda, salt and garlic into a big mixing bowl and give it a bit of a stir. Crack in your eggs and fold into the dry ingredients before adding the almond milk and giving the lot a final stir. You should have a sticky dough by this point. spread this on your greaseproof paper in a circular shape.

Pop your base into your pre-warmed oven and have a glass of wine while it cooks for about 20 minutes. At this stage you're supposed to flip your base, I was too scared to give the flipping a go so just pulled my browned base out of the oven and started piling on the toppings.

There's no great art to topping your pizzas, just get everything on them pronto and get those bad boys back in the oven, you're going to be getting pretty peckish by now. For the courgette pizza leave off the mint - you'll sprinkle this on just before you serve it and for the fig and ham pizza keep back half the rocket which you'll also be wanting to scatter post-cook, pre-serve. 

About ten minutes later, or when everything's looking suitably bronzed and bubbly, whip your pizzas out of the oven and onto plates for everyone to gobble while exclaiming how clever you are (and possibly scraping the toppings off the base surreptitiously because they aren't too keen on Hawaiian Tropic flavoured pizza...)

Mice Advice: Birthday Dinner Dilemma...

If you're anything like us, you always like to have a plan on a night out. There's nothing worse than aimless wandering in the freezing cold trying to find somewhere to feed/ water you but when you're in charge you do have the issue of everyone's night out hinges on you...! Usually it isn't too hard as there are a million and one places on our list waiting to be tried out, however the one occasion that always poses a bit more thought and stress is a Birthday night! You need a location convenient enough for everyone, that both boys and girls will enjoy and that is open late enough, or has a second venue just a drunk stumble away that is open into the early hours... it's never an easy task! Every time I thank God that we only have to do this once a year...!

So last week when we received an email from one of our lovely readers asking for some Mice advice on this subject, we felt the Birthday pain and got right on it...

'My 21st Is quickly sneaking up on me, and I want to take the opportunity to treat my closest friends in old London Town! We've booked tickets to Viva Forever, but I'm struggling to decide on a nearby restaurant for dinner. One of my friends only eats chicken, pizza or burgers, but I'm eager to take them to somewhere a bit special that will cater to her tastes. Can you help? I'm Stuck!!'

Mice Advice...

Well as luck would have it for your friend, we are still amid the craze of NYC hitting London with the best of the best burger, chicken and classy 'fast food' type joints popping up everyday! If you missed our recent guest post exploring all these option, look no further and have a peruse here! However as you specify you want something a little bit special for some perfect London birthday celebration, take a look at our shortlist for you below...

Burger and Lobster, Soho, is the answer to all your prayers...not too far from Piccadilly Theatre and with a dual dish menu of burger or lobster, perfect for your food dilemma! For £20 you can pick from a 10 ounce burger, a whole lobster steamed or grilled or a lobster roll! Your friend will be happy with a trusty burger (and I've heard they're pretty tasty!) and everyone else can treat themselves to a luxury lobster dinner!! Plus if there are six or more in your party then you can reserve a table and be seated for your birthday feast without a wait...! If you like the sound then check out our 3BM review of the Mayfair branch here for more details of what to expect!

Burger and Lobster

6 Dean Street

Soho

London

W1D 4PS

020 7432 4800

Little Italy - An oldie but never fails for a drunken fun night of food and dancing! Your friend will be catered for with pizzas on the menu, whilst the rest of you can picks from rich risottos, pastas, seafood...the choices are endless!  However it's after food that the fun begins at little Italy! This should work as a good option if you fancy dinner and drinks after the show, as after the last meal has been served, the tables are cleared away and you can dance the night away to cheesy feel good tunes and sample some of the best espresso martinis London has to offer! 

Image via www.littleitalysoho.co.uk

Little Italy

21 Frith Street

Soho

London

W1D 4RN

020 7734 473

B-Soho pizza and cocktails in a cool venue with a beautiful crowd...sounds like a win win combination for a special birthday night! I haven't been but having researching this one for you, I'm definitely making a reservation ASAP! Located in Soho it is just a hop, skip and jump from The Piccadilly Theatre, and is said to serve authentic pizzas which are cooked for just 90 seconds in a 900 Fahrenheit oven!! You can choose between sitting on the ground floor where you can munch and sip cocktails to live music Tuesday to Saturday, or head downstairs for sharing tables which are ideal for a group booking! Affordable, fun and upbeat...PERFECT!

Image via http://b-soho.co.uk

B-SOHO

21-22 Poland Street

London

W1F 8QG

020 7287 1661

MEATliquor, a 3BM firm fav for super tasty burgers, cool vibe and amazing cocktails! We reviewed it last March and it scored top points for us, in fact I ventured to it's sister MEATmission in Hoxton at the weekend...keep your eyes peeled for the review! Perfect menu for your dilemma revolving around just chicken and burgers, this may sound boring but believe me the sides and sauces are what sets this menu apart from a regular fast food joint! The decor is stripped back, grungy and super cool as is the crowd that is pulled in by the prospect of trying a 'Dead Hippie Burger'! 

Image via www.deletelondon.com

MEATliquor

74 Welbeck Street

London

W1G 0BA

020 7224 4239

So now you just need to work out which one to choose... Good luck! And let us know how the celebrations go!
x

The Mice