Zizzi's! (Take Three)

Food posts are back and they are back with a vengeance! I've got a few from the last few months when I went out to eat but was posting blog posts on 'the 12 days of eyemas'. I went to Zizzi's at the beginning of December when my mum came to visit me in Notts. We had a great day wandering around the Christmas market and doing a spot of shopping which ended with a delicious meal.

For starter we shared the aranchini balls and the calamari. The aranchini are risotto balls with mozzarella and peas breadcrumbed to make it crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. It was served with a chunky tomato dip which was really tasty and went really well with both of the dishes. The balls were delicious and even thinking about this is making me want to eat my laptop screen. They had so much flavour and weren't too heavy considering it's essentially fried balls of creamy rice. I always go for calamari when it's on the menu and it has to be one of my favourite starters. I was very impressed with these beautiful rings of squid. They were crispy on the outside and really soft when I bit into it, not chewy at all. It was served with a garlic and basil aioli and that was really tasty and went well with both the aranchini balls and the calamari. Delicious! Good choices all round.

I wasn't really fancying a pasta dish so I went for chicken with parma ham and sage, tuscan potatoes and green beans in a white wine sauce. I liked this a lot but it didn't blow me away. The chicken had lots of flavour but the ham was a bit something or nothing. The green beans were cooked nicely and the sauce had a nice flavour but I'd have liked it to have been a bit thicker and creamier. I like the edges of the potatoes where they were really crispy but I'm really fussy when it comes to potatoes and I pretty much only like them if they're burnt to a crisp. So I liked the dish but I just didn't love it.

Getting Some Charlotte Tilbury Love

I know, you are looking at products from heaven. I've been lusting over Charlotte Tilbury products for about two years now and I this Christmas I was lucky enough to get my hands on some! I'd say these are my first 'proper high end' products, meaning they are rather expensive, big on quality rather than quantity but totally worth it!

In my first year of uni I'd go onto the Charlotte Tilbury website every few weeks and decide which eyeshadow palette I was one day going to get. There was so much hype over the Dolce Vita palette which made me want to choose something else to be a bit different (I'm a bit strange when it comes to things like that). I felt that The Rebel was quirky and different but something that I wouldn't get much use out of, Fallen Angel was neutral but didn't have the glitter like the other palettes and Uptown Girl would have suited my hair colour, etc, but was a bit wishy washy looking. After swatches, reviews and a lot of research I decided that the Dolce Vita was the best and the palette for me and boy am I glad that I chose it. The shades are buttery and very pigmented without much fallout and the easy to use system means that every eye look looks amazing! At first I couldn't really get the glitter to work properly but now I've got the pat and swipe technique down it adds great sparkle to any eye look. My favourite shade from the quad is reddish brown. I can see myself using this day and night on its own and within the palette.

I'd heard a lot in recent months about the Charlotte Tilbury matte lipsticks, and I want to keep expanding my lipstick collection, so I browsed the website to pick a shade. I'd heard a lot about the reds and the dark colours like Glastonberry but I wanted something that I could wear everyday. Sexy Sienna stood out to me as I colour I would wear a lot but that wasn't anything like something I already had. I cannot explain how much I love these lipsticks. The formula is really creamy so they apply so easily and last for a very long time. I cannot wait to add more of these to my collection, I have my eyes set on Bond Girl (friends, family please take note).