Cornish Game Hens with Garlic, Lemon & Rosemary

Brian and I were so excited to host our very first Thanksgiving this year!  It was far from our first Thanksgiving "together," but it was our first together in our house. My very good friend, Jean, accepted our invitation for dinner and we were on our way to a party!

Because there were only three of us, and because Brian doesn't love turkey, we weren't sure what to make for dinner. I'd been wanting to try Cornish game hens, found what sounded like an easy, tasty recipe, and had a successful "dry run" of them with Brian's mom and aunt - game hens it was.

I wasn't even sure what a Cornish game hen was, so Jean looked it up after dinner. They are actually domestic to America; are chickens who's "growing spans" (otherwise known as "life spans") are about 28 days vs.the traditional 42 days for a regular chicken; and can be either female or male. In other words, they are neither Cornish, game, or necessarily hens...but they are delicious!

In addition to reading others' comments on a recipe, I also check to see how many times a recipe has been reviewed and its average rating. This recipe had nearly 600 reviews with an average rating of 4.5 stars out of 5 - and they were right on. The first time, we served the sauce as instructed in the original recipe. We prefer a more traditional gravy, though, so that's what I did on Thanksgiving - I've included that here, too.

Cornish Game Hens with Garlic, Lemon & Rosemary

Ingredients:

• 4 Cornish game hens
• 1 lemon, quartered
• 4 sprigs rosemary
• 24 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 T butter, room temperature
• 2/3 C white wine
• 2/3 C low sodium chicken stock
• salt and pepper

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 450.
2. Remove giblets from hens, wash and pat dry. Season the inside of cavity with salt and pepper. Stuff each hen with 1/4 lemon, a sprig of rosemary, and a clove of garlic.
3. Arrange hens in heavy roasting pan. Smear each with a 1/4 of the butter and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Scatter remaining garlic cloves around hens in pan.
4. Roast for 25 minutes.
5. Reduce heat to 350. Add wine and chicken stock to roasting pan. Roast for an additional 25 minutes or  until juices run clear and hens register 165 degrees in thickest part of meat. Baste every 10 minutes with pan juices.
6. Remove hens from pan and let rest 10 minutes.
7. When ready to serve, split hens evenly along backbone and arrange on platter. Garnish with additonal lemon wedges and rosemary sprigs, if desired.

Garlic, Lemon & Rosemary Gravy

Ingredients:

• Strained liquid from roasting pan
• 4 T butter, room temperature
• 4 T flour
• salt and pepper

Method:

1. Strain liquid from roasting pan into large measure cup - you should have about 2 C of liquid.  Discard solids.
2. Melt butter in heavy saucepan over medium high heat. Whisk in flour, a tablespoon at a time, until a golden rue forms.
3. Slowly whisk in reserved liquid, whisking constantly, until gravy thickens.
4. Reduce heat to low and simmer. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add additional liquid to desired consistency. I started with about a cup and added an additional 3/4 C, for a total of 1 3/4 C.
5. Serve hot with roasted hens.

Steakhouse Steaks

We celebrated an early Valentine's Day last night by staying in and making a fabulous meal together.

Brian was in charge of appetizers and made these Spicy Chipotle Grilled Shrimp from Allrecipes. They were so good that we ate them before we had a chance to take a picture!  He updated the original recipe for just two servings, so some of the ingredient measurements were a little weird, but he rounded up or down on those and the end result was perfect.

The shrimp were so good I could imagine using them as a main dish over some rice or pasta, or on a pizza...so many options...!

Neither of us had worked with canned chipotles in adobe sauce, but I'll be looking for other ways to use them. They have a creamy, smokey heat that was just delicious.

For dinner, I wanted to try filets mignons. I decided to make Ina Garten's Steakhouse Steaks from her new cookbook, "How Easy is That?" - a Christmas gift from Brian's mom and dad.

Surprisingly, I made them almost exactly as the recipe directed - there aren't many editing options with only five ingredients.  My notes:

• The filets I used (from Arnold's, of course) were about 8 oz. each, and measured 1.5" thick. I adjusted the cooking time accordingly and roasted them for nine minutes, let them rest for 10. The larger of the two came out perfectly rare for Brian, and mine was a little firmer - still fully reddish pink but warm throughout.
• A tablespoon of salt seemed like a lot, so I just sprinkled them with kosher salt before searing.
• Again, a full tablespoon of butter seemed excessive, so I used about 1/2 T for each.

I made a simply pan gravy to put on top:

• Melt 2T butter in a saute pan. Add 1 large onion and 8 oz. of cremini mushrooms, both sliced, and saute over medium high heat until juices start to evaporate.
• Add salt and pepper to taste, 1 T finely chopped fresh rosemary, and 1/2 T fresh thyme. Stir to combine and cook 2 minutes.
• Sprinkle with 2T flour. Stir to combine and cook 2 - 3 minutes to cook out the raw flour flavor.
• Add 2 C beef stock. Stir or whisk well to combine. Bring just to a boil then reduce heat to medium low and cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened.

Simple mashed Yukon gold potatoes and steamed asparagus, along with a nice glass of Merlot, rounded out our "steakhouse" dinner. We enjoyed it so much that Brian declared it's what he wants for his birthday dinner from now on - success!!