Roasted Cornish Game Hens for Dinner

Last night I made the mistake of asking My Pirate what he wanted for dinner.  He asked for Cornish Game Hens.  Who craves Cornish Game Hens?  I never have in my entire life, except for a brief moment during a recent episode of Jaque Pepin’s latest cooking show on OPB where he pan fries boneless Cornish game hens.  I knew without a doubt that trying to debone a game hen would land me in the ER having a Dan Akroyd/Julia Child moment with blood spurting all over the kitchen.  Bad idea.  

I threw that idea out and checked the new Jacques Pepin’s, Essential Pepin, which Charlie game me for my birthday and I simply didn’t have the ingredients for his suggested recipes or a sharp enough knife.  So, I took my little game hens and seasoned the inner cavity with salt and pepper and then I decided to go pick some rosemary and bronze fennel out of my front garden.  But once I snipped the rosemary I looked up to find my retired neighbor cradling my mailbox in his arms like a newborn.  And I just tilted my head in a question and he yelled across the street, “I’ll fix it!” 

Bill, his brother and roommate chortled at him while grasping his walker,  “he hit the mailbox while backing in!”

“I’ll get it fixed…by tomorrow,” his brother repeated.

I walked across the street and said, “Can I at least paint it first?  It’s a lovely shade of rust.”  And I looked at Bill and his walker and asked, “What did you do to yourself?  Did you fall off the roof or go spelunking? “

And he lifted up his right short leg to show me a big rectangular bandage and he said, “I got a new knee last Friday.”

“Congratulations!”  I said, just like a cheerleader, minus the handclap.

And he looked at me and shook his head with a smile.  I crossed back over the street feeling very much like the frog in Frogger cradling my rusty mailbox in my arms with a bouquet of herbs sticking out of my hands.  Then I finished making dinner. 

My Pirate was very happy.  And I made a nice gravy by reducing the juices in the pan and whisking in some Wondra.  Voila!  Dinner was served.  And I was grateful for My Pirate’s craving.

Roasted Cornish Game Hens with Herbs and Lemon

By Laura Heldreth

2 Cornish Game Hens—1 ½ pounds each

4 T. Very Dry Vermouth

¼ lemon cut in half

Bronze fennel foliage

2 springs rosemary

3 T. olive oil

2 frozen homemade chicken stock cubes (optional)

Salt and pepper

Heat oven to 450 degrees with your cast iron skillet inside.

Rinse and dry the game hens.  Salt and pepper inside the cavity of the hens.  Then fill the cavity with fennel, rosemary, and a wedge of lemon.  Pour approximately 1 tablespoon of dry vermouth into each cavity.  Then rub 1 tablespoon of olive oil into the skin of each game hen.  Season with salt and pepper. 

Carefully pull the hot cast iron skillet out of the oven.  Pour 1 tablespoon of oil into the skillet and place the two game hens into the skillet.  Slide into the oven.  Bake for 25 minutes at 450 degrees.

Then turn the temperature down to 350 degrees.  Add two chicken stock cubes and approximately 2 tablespoons of vermouth into the skillet.  Close the oven.  Bake the game hens for 20 more minutes.  Baste once while they cook. 

Remove the game hens onto a plate and tent with foil.  And use the sauce as is, or thicken. Then serve.   

Julie and Julia Inspiration

I just finished watching Julie and Julia and that movie always makes me want to cook. And it’s a different meal each time.  The last time I watched it with My Pirate, we hit pause, and made poached eggs and sipped white wine.

Tonight, I toasted baguette slices in a skillet with a mix of olive oil and butter with a smashed garlic clove.  And I topped my toast with a tomato salad made from basil and a mix of Green Zebra, Indigo Rose, and Early Girl tomatoes fresh from my garden.  And I added a splash of white balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and topped it off with Fleur De Sel and a tiny pinch of cayenne.

I took a quick shot of it on Instagram and dug in.  It tasted fantastically good; bright and fresh like summer itself.  Watching Julie and Julia always leads to good things in the kitchen.

Bouquet of the Week

I picked this bouquet for my friend Vicki who is lovely and elegant. She hosted the last fire pit evening of the summer and I wanted this bouquet to be something that would hold it's own on a table in her stylish home.

I started with a round vase that I found at a garage sale for twenty five cents that had colored stones in the bottom.  And I added deep purple Castor Bean Plant*, weigela, cape fuchsia, bears breeches, bronze fennel, and white Japanese Anemone. And right before we left, I added some grasses which aren't shown here and I removed the castor bean leaf on the far left of the vase.  And I felt happy with it.   And the best part was giving it to her!

* Castor Bean Plant is highly toxic, so don't use it in bouquets in homes with small children or pets that like to sample foliage.  I grow mine in my front yard away from pets and pedestrians.  

A Spice Cake to Remember

August is my favorite month.  It is a month of late summer where lounging on my patio and sipping a Corona becomes high art.  August is the month of my birthday and our wedding anniversary.  And harvesting fresh produce out of the garden.  I relish my birthday the way five year olds do, which may change when I turn forty next year, but I hope not.

Two days before my birthday I decided to bake myself a cake.  Not just any cake, but the Faulknerian Family Spice Cake,with Caramel Icing, which I found on Food52.com which is a fabulous foodie online haven.  When I was five, my Mom baked me a spice cake with a Barbie doll in the center with the Bundt cake frosted as her ball gown.  I loved that cake and how my Mom made me chicken noodle soup with her homemade egg noodles on an afternoon that reached over 100 degrees.  Our guests cooled themselves in the wading pool and my Mom never again made me whatever I wanted for my birthday dinner.  To this day, soup is my favorite food.  But, I wanted spice cake.  And this recipe that I found was decadent.  It called for too much butter, eggs, and Crisco and topped with caramel icing, so I had to make it. 

I pulled out my favorite spatula and started baking.  I enjoyed the fragrance of fresh ground nutmeg and all the other spices.  I took pictures of the batter as it mixed. 

And in the pan.  I deliberately dropped the pan on the counter to pop an air bubbles in the batter, which I won’t do next time to see if the cake rises higher.

And it baked into a nice dense loaf.  After the cake had cooled, I started melting the butter for the caramel frosting.  I reached up to grab the powdered sugar from the highest shelf and I accidentally bumped the 16 ounce bottle of red food dye and it flew down and exploded in front of me on the kitchen floor.  

I looked like a gunshot victim and the kitchen was spattered in red droplets all the way up to the ceiling.  My Pirate rushed into the kitchen and paused in shock.  And I laughed until I cried as I cleaned up the kitchen with his help.  And he just glowered and silently shook his head at me.  At one point he said, “You’re talking to me?  You better not be talking to me.”  Which only made me laugh harder.

The red dye easily wiped off the cabinets, but the ceiling is permanently stained.  And I’m still finding red spatters.  The grout will need to be repeatedly bleached.  And I have learned a valuable lesson.  Store the messiest ingredients close to floor not up in the corner on the highest shelf.  And when you buy a huge bottle of red food dye for the red velvet cake testing, wrap it in multiple Ziploc bags or better yet, put it in the garage. 

Once the kitchen was scrubbed and reeked of bleach, I iced the spice cake and gave My Pirate a slice with a glass of milk.  And he forgave me on the spot; which means that this is one magical spice cake.  It’s everything that a spice cake should be it’s aromatic, spicy, complex, rich and dense and the caramel icing makes it decadently sweet.  And it slices nicely into thin slices.  My cake was spattered with red food dye but that only made us laugh and cringe.  And it only took a couple of days for the red dye to wash off the soles of our feet.     

Faulknerian Family Spice Cake, with Caramel Icing

This recipe serves 10-12

           

1/2 pound butter, softened

            1/2 cup shortening (yes, shortening)

            3 cups sugar

            5 eggs

            3 cups flour

            2 teaspoons cinnamon

            1/2 teaspoon mace (don't leave this out)

            1/2 teaspoon allspice

            1/4 teaspoon nutmeg—fresh ground

            1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

            1/2 teaspoon salt

            1/2 teaspoon baking powder

            1 cup plus 2 TB milk

            1 teaspoon vanilla

            In your electric mixer cream the butter, shortening, and sugar until it's fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time.  

         
           Whisk together the dry ingredients then add to the butter mixture, alternating with the milk and vanilla. Bake at 325 for approximately 1 hour and fifteen minutes in a greased floured tube pan.  Top with caramel icing.

           Caramel icing
            Melt 1/2 cup butter in a saucepan then stir in 1 cup packed brown sugar and 1/3 cup cream. Remove from heat and stir until smooth. Return to heat and bring to boil for 1 minute. Let it cool for a moment. Then beat in 2 cups confectioners sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla.

Bouquet of the Week

This week I decided to pick a bouquet for me.  And this one made me giggle.  It's like the pink flamingo of bouquets and it celebrates two of my favorite plants.   Last year, I fell in love with the Rice Paper Plant, Tetrapanax Papyrifer 'Steroidal Giant' and Othello Ligularia.  I found the indigo blue vase for 25 cents at a garage sale in SE Portland. What do you think of this bouquet?