H is also for Hens and Honey

Hello again.

While I get dinner ready, how about I share what I have been doing besides cooking for the blog.
The Mrs and I worked a wedding. I did the food for lunch, and the Mrs coordinated. Pictured here is me getting one of the canopies ready. It is a feta stuffed black olive on top of a sun dried tomato and a whole wheat crostini. A big thank you to Bob, my pops who's birthday is this week, for stuffing all of the olives

It was such a beautiful ceremony and really fun reception. I thought that my food went over well, and the bride and her mother loved the Mrs. They wanted to adopt her.

The next week, we went to the beach.

Sorry I'm not sorry.

Best grilled cheeses (grilled cheesi?) that I have had in a long time. It was too short of a vacation!

Now that you are jealous and Hate me, dinner is ready.

Have some with me?

Herb Roasted Cornish Hens

• 2 Cornish Hens
• 2 bundles of thyme
  
• 3 lemons, sliced in wedges
  
• 3 cloves of garlic, halved
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 6 red potatoes, halved
• 6T melted butter
• 2T olive oil
• 1 1/2T dried basil
• 1T salt
• 2T black pepper

Wash and pat hens dry. Stuff the birds with garlic cloves, lemon wedges, thyme bundles, and onions.

Depending on the flavors that you like, you can add more or less of one of these ingredients, for example the Mrs likes the flavor of onions more where as I like lemons. Hence her hen had more onions and mine more lemons.

Next melt the butter and combine with olive oil and basil. Massage the hen with the butter mixture. Your hands will get dirty, but remember you can wash your hands after.

Wash. Your. Hands.In a large roasting pan, place the remaining lemons, onions and all of the potatoes. Sprinkle over 1t of salt and 1T of black pepper. Place the hens on top of the veggies breast side down, and sprinkle the remaining salt and pepper (1t salt and 1 1/2t black pepper per bird)
Place in the oven at 325 degrees for 1 1/2 hours, basting the hens every 25 minutes.


To accompany my birds, and for a hint of green, I roasted hasparagus spears. The h is silent.

Also to accompany the meal I made these.

Honey Buttermilk Biscuits

• 1 1/2 cups of self rising flour
• 1/4 cup of shortening
  
• 1/2 cup of buttermilk
• 1/3 cup of honey

Cut the shortening into the flour. Stir in the buttermilk, and then stir in the honey. On a floured surface roll out the dough 1/2" thick and cut out biscuits. Bake until golden brown in a 350 degree oven (~12-15 minutes)



Honestly, after this meal we were too full for dessert. The Honey Buttermilk biscuits had just the hint of sweetness that was able to finish as a final course to dinner.

Therefore dessert was postponed, thus you must come back to see what the alphaBITE came up with for dessert.

I will give you a hint: It is Heavenly!

-J

C is for Corn and Cookies

Craving anything corny?

This week, we have had a lot to Celebrate:
1. I have a job at Gigi's Cupcakes, but more importantly I really enjoy it.
2. St. Patrick's Day
3. Me and the Mrs. have been married three months!

Before we get to this week's recipes, I would just like to say that I appreciate all you readers out there. We are only three letters of the alphaBITE in, and I have had several of you send me very helpful articles and ideas to prepare for the rest of this project. Thank you very much, and keep them coming! And of course keep reading. Now on to the food; I'm hungry!

Corn Chowder

• 5 large ears of Corn


• 2 slices of bacon


• 1T butter


• 2T olive oil


• 1 cup of onions, large dice


• 1 1/2 cup white mushrooms


• 2T flour


• 1T salt


• 1T black pepper


• 2 carrots


• 3 cups milk


• 1 cup heavy cream


• 1 1/2t Chili powder


• 1/2t garlic powder


• 4 scallions

Clean, wash, and dry your corn. Cut the corn kernels off into a large bowl. Take care to not cover your kitchen counter in corn (like I did) get the corn IN the bowl and set it aside.

In a large pot, brown the bacon. Once it is crispy, remove bacon bits onto a paper towel. In the same pot, heat butter and olive oil, and add diced onions, mushrooms, and flour. While the onions and mushrooms cook, peel carrots and cut them into 2" lengths. You will use them in the chowder for flavor, but will not serve them. Also roughly chop scallions.

When the onions are transparent and the mushrooms are darker add in the carrots, corn, chili powder, and garlic powder. Stir until the spices are evenly distributed. Pour in milk and cream. On medium high heat, bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer and thicken. (30-45 minutes) Toss in the scallions and let simmer for five more minutes.
Serve with bacon pieces on top.
If you don't like bacon, dont add them on top of your chowder.

Clover Chocolate Cookies

Before I share this recipe with you, I have to admit I did not come up with any of this one. In my research for the project I came across these cookies on a blog called LilaLoa. With the claim that this is the "The End-All for Chocolate Cookies Recipe" I had to try it, and then I found on the same blog this awesome way to decorate them. Since our friends decided to have a St. Patrick's Day dinner, I had to bring them.

The recipe for the cookies is here. One thing to note, the recipe calls for 1 CUP of butter, NOT 1 pound of butter. That doubles the recipe. (good thing that I had enough stuff to double the recipe in the pantry...) For the icing:

Mint Icing

• 1 cup of powder sugar


• 1T butter


• 1/2t peppermint extract


• 1-3T milk


• 1-2 drops of green food coloring

Stir in soften butter and peppermint extract into powder sugar. Add milk one tablespoon at a time to sugar until the icing is thick, but still fluid. Separate 1/4 of the icing and add in food coloring until it is the desired color green. Once you have your icing mixed, decorate cookies. LilaLoa has very detailed instructions with illustrations that you can find here. They are really fantastic cookies.

I hope you all had a great week, and I hope that you are as excited for "D" as I am.

-J

A is for Almonds and Apples

And so it begins.

Almond Crusted Chicken atop Angel Hair Pasta

• 3 chicken breasts


• 3/4 cups chopped almonds


• 1 1/2t paprika


• 2 egg whites


• 1T butter


• 4T olive oil


• 5T Apple jelly


• 1/2t garlic powder


• 1t salt


• 1 1/2t black pepper


• 2T Apple cider vinegar


• Angel hair pasta


• 4T fresh chopped flat leaf parsley

Place chopped almonds on a baking sheet and roast in the oven at 300 degrees for five minutes. After they roast, set them aside to cool. Wash the chicken breasts and pat dry with a paper towel. Combine chopped almonds and paprika. Dip the chicken breasts in the egg whites and then in almond mixture until all sides of the chicken are coated. Lay the chicken back on a baking sheet and place them in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. This allows the coating to set.

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large skillet, place the butter and 2T olive oil and heat the pan to medium high heat. Crisp the chicken for five minutes on each side. While the chicken is crisping, add apple jelly, garlic powder, salt and pepper in a small sauce pan on low heat. After both sides are done, place in a casserole dish with 2T of olive oil and pour apple jelly glaze over the chicken, but hold about a tablespoon in the sauce pan.

While the chicken bakes, cook the angel hair pasta. In the sauce pan with the reserve glaze, add apple cider vinegar. Reduce the sauce on medium low heat. Toss the cooked pasta with the sauce and chopped parsley.

Then you eat.

For dessert, Apple Pie. I followed this recipe from foodnetwork.com, and it is delicious.

It's so Appetizing.

-J