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.
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!
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