Cornish Game Hen with Garlic & Rosemary

As promised, here are my Christmas meal pictures! We made Cornish Hens for the first time. These pictures were taken by Jason's sister, Kate Redfern. I'm so glad she was in the kitchen to snap theses. Cooking and taking pictures is a messy combination and there's no way I would have taken such great photos. 

 

(Ready to go into the oven)

 

(Coming out halfway through to get basted)

 

(All lined up and ready to eat... so cute!)

 Cornish Game Hen with Garlic & Rosemary

Ingredients
4 Cornish game hens
salt and pepper to taste
1 lemon, quartered
4 sprigs fresh rosemary
3 tablespoons olive oil
24 cloves garlic
1/3 cup white wine
1/3 cup low-sodium chicken broth
4 sprigs fresh rosemary, for garnish

Directions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).

Rub hens with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Lightly season hens with salt and pepper. Place 1 lemon wedge and 1 sprig rosemary in cavity of each hen. Arrange in a large, heavy roasting pan, and arrange garlic cloves around hens. Roast in preheated oven for 25 minutes.

Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a mixing bowl, whisk together wine, chicken broth, and remaining 2 tablespoons of oil; pour over hens. Continue roasting about 25 minutes longer, or until hens are golden brown and juices run clear. Baste with pan juices every 10 minutes.

Transfer hens to a platter, pouring any cavity juices into the roasting pan. Tent hens with aluminum foil to keep warm. Transfer pan juices and garlic cloves to a medium saucepan and boil until liquids reduce to a sauce consistency, about 6 minutes. Cut hens in half lengthwise and arrange on plates. Spoon sauce and garlic around hens. Garnish with rosemary sprigs, and serve. 

CHEF JASON'S NOTES: Our hens were a little larger than the standard Cornish Hens as they took closer to 2 hours to fully cook. Jason says cook these birds until the juices run clear!

MY REVIEW: These were so pretty to look at and tasted great. We had made 1 per person but there was so much meat on each bird that we all struggled to eat just half of one! Next time we will cook only 2 for 4 people. 

Thanks for the pictures Kate!

Gluten-Free Black Bean Brownies

We hosted a Christmas dinner at our home last night and I am still stuffed! Jason's sister, who is a talented photographer, came over early to help with preparation and made us some almond roca. Perhaps, if you're lucky, she'll post the recipe here - it's a rich and delicious Christmas treat! All through preparation she was snapping pictures and I will post them along with some new recipes once she has a chance to organize them. We tried something new this year and I think it was a success.

In the meantime, here are some brownies I made for an after dinner treat. These don't taste weird and gluten free at all. They also don't taste like black beans so don't worry! They're thick and fudgey and I'm pretty sure they're good for you since there's beans in there, right? I got this recipe from the Gluten-Free baking class I took last month and it originally came from Wholes Food Market:

Gluten Free Black Bean Brownies
1 (15 ounce) can no salt added black beans, drained & rinsed
3 large eggs
1/3cup melted butter, more for baking dish (I used parchment paper instead of greasing the pan and it worked)
1/4cup cocoa powder
1/8tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
1/2cup + 2tbsp cane sugar (I used white sugar)
1/2cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/3cup finely chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350F.

Butter an 8" baking pan (or line with parchment paper). Place the black beans, eggs, melted butter, cocoa powder, salt, vanilla & sugar in the bowl of a food processor and blend until smooth (I put them in a regular bowl and used my immersion blender. In class, we used a blender. Either works!) Remove the blade and carefully stir in chocolate chips and walnuts. Transfer mixture to prepared pan. Bake the brownies for 30-35 minutes or until just set in the center. Cool before cutting into squares.

Here's something else I wanted to post. This picture is not spectacular but the meal was! A few nights ago I made gluten-free wraps with some new tortillas I found at the Italian Market. First I spread some home-made hummus on the surface. Next came a rice mixture with some chopped spinach I had defrosted in the microwave. I topped this with a chicken breast I had cooked with olive oil and basil - 1 chicken breast was more than enough for 2 wraps. With great difficulty (gluten free wraps break like glass) I wrapped them up in tinfoil and put them in the oven for about 10 minutes at 350.  I think the oven step helps them stick together in the end. Voila! A super filling wrap that even Honey was jealous of.