Cornish Hen, originally uploaded by sweetbo.
It didn’t turn out as good as I’d hope. It looked good. Smelled good. But I wish I had some extra plum sauce in the house. Just seasoning it didn’t really do it for me. Orange, plum, anything would have made it tasty. It was fun to do though. Just to know I could in a pinch. And it only cost me 2.99$ for the bird. Doesn’t the plate look nice against the green table?
the view from here 
Hey– that turned out really pretty! What seasonings did you select? Wish I had a digital camera…
If I end up getting a new one I can give you mine. I was just thinking what your site needed was a few photos. Certainly by the time your flowers are up. Which feels like it should be soon even though it is January. Darn weather.
I used salt and pepper, parsley, basil, and what is called “Italian Seasoning” in a small quantity.
Do you have any rosemary? I’d try that next time if you think you’d like it.
Lovely!! It looks juicy and delicious, and I can imagine that it must have smelled really great, too!
I’m with mumsflowers, I think Rosemary would be a great addition for seasoning. Maybe a little bit of Poultry Seasoning, too, to boost the over all flavour without having it taste too much like one specific spice. Mmmm!! :-)
I made some creamed corn from scratch yesterday, trying to immitate the Creamed Corn served at a BBQ restaurant over here (The BEST creamed corn I have ever eaten, btw) and it turned out pretty darn nice! It was actually even better today when I added more milk, since it had thickened while in the fridge overnight. Do you want to try cooking some up? I don’t know if you like creamed corn!
Poultry Seasoning. What does that taste like? *ignorance*
As for the juicy and delicious part, the dark meat was yummy but the white meat was pretty tasteless. That will have to be resolved before I make another attempt since, well, I have to eat it in the end. Can rosemary and poultry seasoning fix that tired ol’ white meat?
I like creamed corn from a can. I don’t really know how it is made though. Do people do home made creamed corn fancy, or would it be like that?
Poutry seasoning tastes… uhh… well it tastes really yummy!! :-) I looked on the label on the McCormick’s one that we have and the ingredients listed are: THYME, SAGE, MARJORAM, ROSEMARY, BLACK PEPPER, AND NUTMEG. I sometimes see Onion powder on other brands, too.
May I ask how you prepared the rub for the chicken? I’ve used butter as a base and mixed my spices into the butter, and then rubbed that onto the chicken/turkey the day before I intend to cook it so that it has time for the flavors of the rub to soak in. Most of the butter winds up dripping out of the bird as it cooks, so I baste it often to make sure I get as much flavour as possible in the bird while the meat is still cooking. It’s hard to get a good flavor to white meat, but this method seems to work really well for me.
Another fix that I can think of to add even more flavor to the chicken breast would be to melt the butter rub and use a turkey injector to get some of the spices into the white meat before it cooks. :-)
Homemade creamed corn isn’t really *fancy*, but it’s more like what the name implies — it’s a creamy cooked corn, versus the syrupy creamed corn that comes from a can. I burnt my finger tonight when I was making another batch. *laughs* Let me get my recipe for you, I think you’ll really like it.
Here we go!
For Homemade Creamed Corn you will need:
2 cups frozen corn, defrosted
1/8 tsp black pepper
Sugar (added to taste)
White Sauce ingredients:
3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup milk
——————–
First, the white sauce:
3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1. In a small, heavy saucepan, melt 3 tablespoons of butter over low heat.
2. Blend 3 tablespoons of flour and 1/4 teaspoon of salt into the melted butter.
3. Cook over low heat, stirring, for 3 to 4 minutes to minimize the raw taste of the flour.
4. Slowly add 1 cup of milk, stirring constantly. I add the milk 1/8 of a cup at a time, making sure each stage is well-mixed before adding more to prevent lumps in the sauce.
5. Continue cooking slowly until smooth.
****Note: for other recipes, like if you wanted to make your own cream of mushroom, or cream of broccoli, cream of spinach etc, you would cook the white sauce for a longer period until it reaches a pudding like consistency, so that it creates an adequately thickened soup when added to the Chicken Broth + veggie of your choice.****
6. Add 1/8 tsp ground black pepper and a few tablespoons of sugar to white sauce. I use around 4 level tablespoons of sugar, which I find gives a nice flavor, but you can add more or less depending on what tastes sweet enough for you.
6. Add defrosted corn to white sauce and let simmer over low heat for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. If you don’t have the corn defrosted, just heat the corn in the microwave for a couple of minutes before adding it to the white sauce.
7. Serve and eat! Yummy! :-)
That sounds pretty good AND I do have frozen corn. Only glitch is that I’ll have to re-hydrate my milk first. Ha!
You should start a food journal!