Hello

Hey fellow food lovers! My name is Catherine Manterola, I am 23, I just graduated College and the only thing I know is I'm hungry! I worked in a kitchen for a little while and I realized that although I do love to cook I love to eat more. So in order to eat good food I go out, I travel and I cook. What I would like to do with this blog is talk about my adventures in the kitchen as well as out in the world. So let get started...

I was at the grocery store the other day and I love to see what's on sale, I get a lot of inspiration that way. Well what I found was really exciting! Cornish Game Hens! I have never had them and I am a bit weird about eating poltury off the bone but seeing 2 individually sized birds packaged together for $4.99 lb HOW COULD I REFUSE?!?!
I have always had this thought that it would be really great to have a pre-thanksgiving dinner party with friends and serve either duck or hens v turkey, so I decided I would cook them like I do my Thanksgiving turkey. First they went into a brine of water, salt (the 2 key componants to a brine), sugar, garlic, bay leaves, and juniper berries. I left them for about 6 hrs, then took them out and whiped them down with a paper towl. Then, super easy, put them on a rack in a raosting pan (I added a bit of water to the pan so the drippings would not burn and send nasty steam up to my hends) rubbed them down with butter, olive oil, herbes de provence and thyme. 375 for 1 hr, then about 5 min under the broiler to crisp the skin.
I served them whole with mashed potatos and lima beans. THEY WERE AWESOME! I didn't even mind the bones...