A Taste of New Orleans and Good Home Cookin'

Winter brings out cravings of warm food that hearkens back to when momma used to make roasted birds (a la turkey, chicken, hen, duck, goose, and everything edible in between...). Well, I lie. We only got turkey on Thanksgiving and Christmas, but even though my mother never made these things in the time inbetween, it certainly doesn't mean that I can't. I actually intended on roasting a whole chicken, but the grocery store was lacking and all that remained on the barren shelves were cute lil Cornish hens. So into the cart they went, with one being a perfect size for one hungry LeeAnn. As much good home cooking goes, Herb Encrusted Cornish Hen is the proof that you don't need a fancy recipe to make good food.


Heat oven to about 380. To prep the hen, wash the hen in cold water and pat dry. Rub it lovingly with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Then take equal parts rosemary, sage, and thyme and crush together roughly by hand. No Simon and Garfunkel jokes, please. If you can get sage and rosemary that has been dried from fresh plants and not purchased in the store, it makes a world of difference. I have a cousin who works at a co-op who gives me herbs from their garden and the flavor was magic. Be liberal with the herbs, there is no such thing as too much herbs. Rub the bird all over with the spice rub.

Now, the secret. Place the hen breast down in the pan. This prevents it from drying out while roasting, especially since the bugger is so small it can do so quite quickly. I put very roughly chopped red potatoes, onions, celery, and baby carrots all around, drizzled a little olive oil over and seasoned with leftover spice rub and salt and pepper. Then I put little slices of butter atop the hen and the bed o' potatoes n' things. One hour later, you get a roasted bit of happiness. Let it rest 20 minutes and dig in!

This is a placeholder for the magical Jambalaya that fed an army of parkour and salsa kids, which I modified from a recipe of Epicurous' website.

1 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, chopped
4 medium cloves garlic, minced
1 large green bell pepper, cored, seeded and chopped
3 celery stalks, diced
3 tbsp fresh Italian parsley, minced
3 fresh hot italian turkey sausage links (Whole Foods)
6 chicken thighs
1 1/2 lbs large shrimp, peeled, deveined with tails on
2 large bay leafs
3 tsp cayenne pepper
1 can (28 oz) diced tomatoes
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
1 1/2 cups brown rice, uncooked
2 cups chicken broth
2 tsp oregano