love birds [recipe]

We all spoiled each other this Valentine's day.  Here is a quick shot of some of the spoils.  Red roses for mom from dad, carnations from kids to mom (with broken one floating in water), red rose bouquet from dad to baby girl, and two boxes of chocolates for Big E from dad and mom.  Whew! 

The lovefest continued with dinnertime.  Hubs had to work late, so I gave it a go of making a new dish I like to call "love birds."  You might know it by their more common names, cornish game hens or little baby chickens.

It was my first try at roasting any sort of bird, since meat is usually the hub's specialty. I checked out allrecipes.com and found a base recipe, which I modified to fit our tastes and what was in the fridge. I didn't really measure anything, but here's a good guesstimate.

Love Birds

2 cornish game hens

1/2 red pepper, chopped

1/3 yellow onion, chopped

1/2 cup mushrooms, chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 stick butter, melted and divided

2 tsp dried parsley

2 tsp dried oregano

2 tsp dried basil

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 lb golden new potatoes, quartered

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 red wine

1 tsp garlic powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Mix the melted butter, parsley, oregano, basil and black pepper in a small bowl. 

In a medium bowl mix together the red pepper, onion, garlic, mushrooms, garlic and half of the butter and herb mix.  Stuff the little birdies with your veggie mixture.  Place the stuffed hens breast-side-up in a baking dish. (I sprayed mine first with olive oil using my Misto, truly a kitchen necessity.)

Use the second half of the butter and herb mixture to pour over the top of the birds.  Arrange the quartered new potatoes around the hens.  Bake for 1 1/2 hours, basting after 30 minutes.

This part  is the most important.. the secret sauce.  Ok, not so secret that I won't tell you what's in it. While the hens are baking, combine the olive oil, soy sauce, red wine and garlic powder.  Brush it on the chicken and potatoes after about 30 minutes of cooking and then every 15 minutes until done.  YUM!




Voilà, Love Birds :)

Can you see what is wrong with this picture? 

They were almost perfect, but I put them in the oven breast-side-down. Oops. They were still delish, but the breast meat was a little bland. The top part that got all the basting juices was to-die-for though.

Hey look - only one burn this time!

Don't forget about the shrimp cocktail and a flavorful cabernet.

And customized place settings. We had no pretty napkins, so Big E made us some heart napkins. Way better.

And of course.. dessert!  I bought these earlier in the day. It's so obvious which dessert goes with which family member, isn't it? 

What a great meal and a great Valentine's Day!  Lots of love in our house these days!

i prayed for you [update on big e]

It's been a while since I've written an update on Big E. The first half of kindergarten was a challenge adjusting to new schedules and tired kids, but the second half has been glorious.  He's just been the best kid, big brother and friend.  

One day after school he brought home a girl's phone number. Not in his handwriting.  He even knew that the first digit should be a 7, even though she wrote a 1.  So dad let him use his phone and the girl's unexpecting mother picked up on the other end.  The first words out of his mouth: "Nina said I'm supposed to come to your house".  I tried stifle my laughter and whispered "Introduce yourself first!".   He said "I'm in Nina's class" but it was too late.  The mom had hung up on him.  He wanted to call back, but we thought maybe that would be a little much, so he waited until the next day to talk to her at school.  Turns out she was at some sort of practice anyway.  I'll say I'm pretty proud of how brave my little man is!

Seeing my post about this on facebook, his long-time girlfriend's mom wrote me a message, worried that Maddie had been replaced.  I told E about this later and he said "No! Of course not! Why would she think that?!"  Two days later, he's still talking about it to dad "Why would Maddie think I would replace her?" Such a good and loyal friend. He made sure to send her a Valentine.

For a while he was obsessed with wanting a guitar.  I guess someone had come to school to show them how to play one. I just happened to mention this to a vendor I work with who has played music for years.  I didn't realize she taught guitar too. Guess who gets to strum on a borrowed guitar for a while? It's currently one of his favorite things to do.  He quickly got it out of tune, but I guess it doesn't really matter at this point.  I contacted a local college for music lessons, but they won't start until age 8.  Maybe we'll learn a few chords off of YouTube in the meantime.

A few times lately, he has gently laid his hand on his sis and said "I prayed for you."  See, when he was really wanting a little brother or sister, he asked how to get one. I told him that if you ask God in your night-night prayers, he might put one in mommy's belly. And that's what he did for about six months before I got pregnant.  So it just melts my heart now when I hear him tell his baby sis "I prayed for you." Of course, he recently decided he was going to pray for another baby.  I told him he better hold up on that for now. :)

I truly can't imagine a better kid.  I love my cuddle bug so much! He's going to be such a wonderful boyfriend/husband one day for some lucky girl.  For now though, he's all mine.

9 months

What a busy month it's been for our baby girl. She went from sitting to crawling to pulling up in the matter of a week (@ 8 1/2 months). We had to install the "baby trap" as big brother calls it.

Then out popped a tooth! She just had the one for a couple weeks before #2 started making its appearance. It was the cutest little thing. I made it my mission to get a picture of it.

She has also started clapping (with sound!), saying "dada"... as well as tipping over the trash can, dumping the dog bowl and tipping the side table over with a full glass of red wine on it.  Lesson learned on that one. 

One of her fave meals is red pepper and spinach egg scramble.  She cleans it up every time. Actually, she's never met a meal she didn't like, but least fave would have to be green beans.  She's filling out her size 18 month clothes quite well. :)

She continues to be a very happy baby. She enjoys all the interaction at day care, and loves her teachers Ms. Gail and Miss Ashley. Sutton, Elsa and Emily are her friends at school. For a while she would respond with a throaty "gcchh" sound every time you say "Sut-Sut".

Can't believe all the changes this month! It's bittersweet (though mostly sweet.)